Driving with the windows down...

is the BEST thing ever! Days like this I don’t mind my commute, I know can you believe those words actually came out of my mouth!?  It was a bit windy today but I had all my windows down and my sunroof open.  I tried to take a picture of the sky looking through my sunroof but that didn't work, (obviously while at a stop light). 

The weather was fabulous, and we wanted to take Ella for a walk before we did our workout but we had some car problems (I will tell you about them tomorrow).  We did our first day of our modified P90x, I had Core Synergistics, and Erik and Chest & Back, we both felt sick and out of shape, but we were happy to start back up.  I know that we will be back in the swing of things with the next few workouts.
Tonight’s dinner was homemade tacos!

(Ground beef, cheese, black beans, tomatoes, lettuce, Costo’s Organic Salsa) YUM.  I had two and the leftovers I will make a taco salad for tomorrow’s lunch! 

Well it’s time for us to watch “The Event”. Have a nice night!

Waffles, Gardening, Football, and Pad Thai.. all in one day!

Let’s start from the beginning, this morning we woke up and had some leftover waffles, (I like to make lots of waffles one weekend and freeze the leftovers). Erik’s family showed me the most delicious way to eat them (Syrup, Lingonberries, yogurt) YUM. After breakfast we decided to do a little yard work. I should have taken a before picture, during and after picture of this project but all you get the after picture.

We made some flowerbeds in the back corner of our yard, mainly to kill some of the spreading Ivy. This coming weekend, if it doesn't rain, we will make a trip to home depot or Lowes and get some flowers to plant back there, oh and mulch.. we need mulch. I still can’t decide if I want to make a vegetable garden again this year... I will think about that one for a while. Gardening lead to football practice, which was fun, I scored a sweet touchdown! I can't wait to actually start playing games.

Dinner tonight was called “Lean Tofu Pad Thai”, I made substituted chicken for the Tofu. It was a really light version of Pad Thai that didn’t leave you feeling stuffed. Not only that but it was really pretty to cook:

Lean Tofu Pad Thai

Source: Clean Eating

INGREDIENTS:

8 oz brown rice noodles

4 tbsp unsalted tomato paste

4 tbsp apple cider vinegar

3 tbsp honey

2 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper

Olive oil cooking spray

1 egg white, whisked

2 cups green cabbage, chopped

1 cup bean sprouts

2 green onions, julienned or thinly sliced lengthwise

1 large carrot, peeled and julienned or cut into thin matchstick pieces

12 oz firm tofu, cubed

1/4 cup cilantro, minced

2 tbsp unsalted peanuts, crushed

Lime wedges and additional cilantro, for garnish (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cook brown rice noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together tomato paste, vinegar, honey, fish sauce, lime juice and cayenne. Set aside.

3. Heat a large cast-iron or nonstick pan or wok over medium-high for 1 minute. Mist with cooking spray. Add egg white and sauté until cooked, about 2 minutes. Remove egg white from heat and dice into small pieces.

4. In the same pan, misted again with cooking spray, sauté cabbage, bean sprouts, onions and carrot over medium-high for 2 minutes. Add tofu and cook for another 2 minutes. Add cooked egg white and cilantro, sautéing for another 2 minutes. Then stir in tomato paste mixture. Add cooked noodles. Stir until completely combined and thoroughly heated, about 3 to 4 more minutes.

5. Remove from heat and toss with peanuts before serving. Garnish with lime wedges and additional cilantro, if desired.

Nutrients per 1-cup serving: Calories: 220, Total Fat: 4 g, Sat. Fat: 0 g, Carbs: 38 g,Fiber: 4 g, Sugars: 11 g, Protein: 11 g, Sodium: 510 mg, Cholesterol: 0 mg

It was so yummy I think I am going to take the leftovers to work tomorrow for lunch! I’m off to bed! I hope everyone had a good day!

Lazy Saturday, but surprisingly long post

Erik and I slept in a bit today! It felt so good. I live for the weekends, is that sad? Sleeping in, watching tv, and relaxing: I love it! I have to say in addition to sleeping in today was a great food day. For breakfast we made our traditional Saturday morning egg sandwiches. After breakfast we cleaned the house a bit, then we got Ella ready for the dog park. And by that I mean we put on her leash and packed some water, haha. We were going to meet our friends Sundeep and Nalini at the dog park with Nalini’s dog Lucy, but as soon as we were ready to go it started pouring down rain! We got in the car and decided to head towards the dog park regardless of the rain, hoping it would either pass quickly or not be raining where we were going. We were wrong, it starting pouring down rain so hard we had to turn around (it was even “snowing?” at some point in our journey). It was a mess. After we got back home we were both starving so I made my second Clean Eating recipe: “A Better Monte Cristo Sandwich”, compare the one I made (#1) to the picture in the book (#2):

I think I did pretty well! It was a really good sandwich, the crispiness of the pear really added some texture to the sandwich. I used regular turkey from the deli section of the store for this sandwich, and I just spread the egg mixture on the bread instead of dipping the bread in the eggs. Here is the recipe:

A Better Monte Cristo Sandwich (Serves 4)

Source: The Best of Clean Eating

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb turkey breast scaloppini (thinly sliced turkey), cut into 4-oz pieces

2 tsp olive oil, divided

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

1/2 cup egg whites

2 tbsp skim milk

Ground cayenne pepper, to taste

3 tbsp Dijon mustard

8 slices whole-grain bread

1 cup baby spinach leaves

1 pear, thinly sliced

4 1-oz slices low-fat Swiss cheese

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a small bowl, season turkey with 1 tsp oil, oregano, salt and black pepper.

Heat a nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add turkey and sauté until light golden at edges and fully cooked throughout, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. In a shallow dish, whisk together egg whites and milk. Season with salt, black pepper and cayenne. Set aside.

3. Spread about 1 tsp (adjust to taste) Dijon mustard on 1 side of each bread slice and place, Dijon-side-up, onto a flat work surface. Layer equal parts spinach, pear and turkey onto 4 slices of bread. Top each stack with 1 slice cheese and another slice of bread, Dijon-side-down, pressing gently.

4. In a medium nonstick sauté pan, heat remaining tsp oil over medium heat.

Using a spatula, carefully dip 1 side of a sandwich into egg mixture (egg mixture should go about halfway up the bread slice when immersed). With your hand on the top of the sandwich and spatula underneath, carefully flip to immerse the other side in egg, then gently transfer to hot pan. Sauté sandwich, turning once, until golden brown and crisp, about 5 minutes total. Remove from pan. Repeat with remaining sandwiches. Cut sandwiches in half and serve immediately.

Nutrients per sandwich: Calories: 420, Total Fat: 7 g, Sat. Fat: 2 g, Omega-3s: 160 mg, Omega-6s: 1,270 mg, Carbs: 34 g, Fiber: 6 g, Sugars: 9 g, Protein: 53 g, Sodium: 750 mg, Cholesterol: 105 mg

After we ate it seemed like the crazy rain storm blew away and the sun came out, so we took Ella for a long walk, I think she was pretty happy about it. We literally got back and sat on the couch for about 4 hours watching our recorded shows aka Biggest Loser marathon! Before we knew it, it was time for dinner!

Tonight I made Chicken Pomodoro with Angle Hair Pasta, it was so absolutely fabulous! The homemade pasta sauce was incredibly light, and the crumbles of feta cheese completed the meal. Compare the one I made (#1) to the picture in the book (#2):

I didn’t use whole wheat pasta because I couldn’t find any at the new Giant I went to, refer back to Friday’s blog, ugh. Here is the recipe:

Chicken Pomodoro with Angel Hair Pasta

INGREDIENTS

12 oz whole wheat angle hair pasta

3 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

cooking spray

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (4oz each) pounded thin

1 medium yellow onion, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 lb fresh Roma tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped

1 tsp Italian seasoning

2 Tbsp dried basil

salt and pepper

2 oz low fat feta cheese, crumbled

4 Tbsp Italian flat leaf parsley, minced

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside but keep warm.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place steamer basket in pot and steam carrots in basket for 8 minutes or until tender. Remove carrots from steamer and set aside.

3. Set a large nonstick or cast iron skillet over high heat for 1 minute. Mist with cooking spray and add chicken. Saute for about 3-4 minutes per side until browned and cooked through. Remove chicken from heat and let rest 1 minute. Then cut into 1/2 inch chunks.

4. Heat same skillet over high heat for 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium, spray with cooking spray, and add onion and garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes or until onion is translucent. Add tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

5. In a food processor fitted with a standard blade, roughly puree carrots and onion-tomato mixture or pulse for about 2-3 minutes. Pour sauce into a medium-size pot and heat over medium heat. Stir in Italian seasoning and basil and season with salt and pepper. Add chicken and cook for another 2 minutes before removing from heat.

6. Divide pasta among 4 bowls or plates. Pour 1 cup chicken-tomato sauce over each portion of pasta. Sprinkle each with about 2 tsp feta and garnish with 1 Tbsp parsley.

Enjoy! We are off to Carpool to meet up with some friends! I hope everyone had a nice day!

Friday’s are “Limitless”

I always seem to get so much done on my Friday’s off, it’s really amazing. After throwing some laundry in, I popped in my P90X “Plometrics” DVD, if you haven’t done Plyometrics I highly recommend it. I did realize that I am horribly out of shape, I guess taking a month off of working out was not a good idea. Oh well, we are getting back into P90x as I talked about on Tuesday, so I will be back in shape in no time.

After my workout, I ran some errands aka went to Giant to get FOOD for the week! Oh man I don’t think I have ever been so excited to go grocery shopping. I am a bit angry and Giant though, who knew they didn’t have Eggplant!? Maybe it was just the Giant I went to (it wasn’t my regular Giant store, bad idea). I should know better than to try and shop in a new grocery store when I have a million things to buy. Anyway I came back and took Ella for a walk and we saw this pretty tree:

Although winter seems to want to stick around, the trees have a different idea. Look even the flower bulbs I planted 3 weeks ago are coming up!

YAY! I still have a bag and a half of flower bulbs to plant, but haven’t been able to because it’s been raining everyday for seems like the last month, ugh. Oh well, I will get to them sooner or later. After our walk, I made myself some lunch:

Yummy chicken salad sandwich, veggies chips from Trader Joes, and an apple. I used the canned chicken from Costco a little mayo, and some cheese. Super yummy. After lunch I doodled around the inter-webs until it was time to make DINNER! Oh man I love cooking, it makes me so happy. Tonight I started making recipes from my Clean Eating magazine, I made “Pasta Roll-ups”.

Pasta Roll-Ups

Ingredients

1 tsp Extra virgin olive oil

1 Small Onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 lb extra-lean Ground Turkey

¾ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

1 (28-oz) jar tomatoes in juice

1 tsp sea salt

8 sheets dried high-protein or whole wheat lasagna noodles

1 (10 oz) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 (15-oz) container low-fat ricotta cheese

1 egg

¾ cup shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese

Instructions

In a large skillet, heat EVOO over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened, about five minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute. Turn heat to medium-high and add ground turkey, breaking it up with a spatula. Cook until meat shows no sign of pink. Stir in cinnamon and nutmeg, then add tomatoes, their juice and salt. Reduce heat to medium-low, stir, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes, occasionally stirring and breaking up tomatoes with wooden spoon.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to boil. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, rinse and allow to cool in a colander.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Squeeze all moisture possible from thawed spinach and place in a large bowl. Add ricotta cheese, egg and a quarter-cup mozzarella cheese. Stir until combined.

Spread one cup of cooked tomato sauce into bottom of a 9 x 10-inch casserole dish. Lay a cooked lasagna noodle flat in front of you. Use your fingers to spread 1/8 of ricotta mixture across the noodle and roll it up. Place rolled pasta, seam side down. Repeat with remaining noodles. Spread remaining tomato sauce over roll-ups, then top with remaining half-cup mozzarella.

Bake, covered with foil, for 20 minutes. Remove foil and broil for five minutes or until roll-ups are browned and bubbly.

Nutrients per Serving: Calories: 234, Total Fat: 3g, Sat. Fat. 0g, Carbs: 27 g, Fiber: 5g, Sugars:7g, Protein: 28g, Sodium: 508 mg, Cholesterol: 76mg

This is what it looked like in the book,

After I mixed all the ingredients and rolled up the pasta this is what it looked like before I put them in the oven:

They looked pretty yummy, 25 minutes later:

After dinner we headed over to Bonefish Grill to have some drinks with Sean, Brandy and Hyojon, before our movie. We went and saw Limitless, and I fell asleep because the graphics were making me nauseous. But from what I did see, there wasn't really anything special about the movie.

Okie folks I'm off to bed!

My family left today :(

My family left to go back to Iran today *sadface*. I wish they could be here all the time, but I know they have their own lives to get back to. It will be awesome when my cousin comes to live with my mom and sister. We had so much fun!

I also decided I am going to donate my car, it really makes my heart hurt but keeping my car in our driveway really isn’t doing anyone any good. I am going to donate it to www.carsforustroops.org, they will come to my house and pick up my car, and give me IRS tax papers. I Kelly Blue Book-ed my car and in the condition it is currently in, it is only worth around $900! Haha, my poor baby car.

Tonight after our Go-To Meal, we watched “The Wire”. Man we love this show, Sunny and Diana turned us onto it and we can’t get enough of it:

Ella was watching me type my blog tonight:

Minutes later she was curled up next to Erik on the couch, snoring, haha.

Yesterday while I was doodling around the interwebs, I went onto my friend Caroline’s blog and she had a box for Foodie Blogroll, so I looked into it and I applied to be featured on the Foodie Blogroll, and I was approved! You can see the box on the right hand side of my page! I’m pretty excited, I hope it will bring some more traffic to my blog. From that blogroll I received a comment to put my blog on Petitchef, they said they stumbled on my blog and my recipes looked good, and wanted their users to be able to enjoy them too, so I signed up!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good night! Oh I leave you with this, look at how cute they are!

Still trying to “Build a better” me

Round 3 results are in for our work challenge:

In all of Bechtel:

Steps: 41 out of 605 --> Up 7 spots

Exercise minutes: 116 out of 669 --> up 7 spots

Weight Loss: 218 out of 491 --> down 27 spots (not good)

In BSII (our group):

Steps: 8 out of 113 --> Up 1 spot

Exercise minutes: 28 out of 131 --> no change

Weight Loss: 66 out of 101 --> down 13 spots (not good)

I am really hoping to step up the competition for the last three weeks so that we can have a good shot at being #1 in Steps on BSII.

Today’s Cho-nola was Strawberry-banana flavored:

I promise I won’t repeat flavors on my blog, I will only tell you about the new flavors or new ways to use Chobani Yogurt. I plan on using the plain Chobani yogurt as a salad dressing, my blog friend Colleen uses Chobani and mixes it with jam or jelly to make a dressing for her salads sometimes, so I thought I would give it a try next week.

Here it is, my Best of Clean Eating cookbook:

I cannot wait to start making the meals in this book, they look absolutely amazing. I will be starting either this weekend or early next week. I haven’t been planning meals for the weekends because we are usually out doing things and we just grab something to eat. I think this is a horrible habit because #1 we spend unnecessary money and #2 fast food is obviously horrible for you, so I think starting this weekend I will plan meals for everyday of the week. Look for a new recipe on Friday, and if the meals are good I will put them a link to the recipes in my “Do it Again Meals” tab above.

Tonight we went to Mike’s American Grill for dinner, since it was the last night my family will be here from Iran (they leave Thursday night) *sadface*. I got the Fillet Mignon with Redskin Mashed Potatoes.. mm mm mm heaven! My day 30 picture is of my lovely family, I am going to miss my aunt, uncle and cousin,(my uncle is not in this picture though) : Well folks that is all for tonight! Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow!

I love free money

Look what I found in the mail pile this morning:

I used it to buy this:its a seat cushion for my bike, and it was free! I also got rubber cleat replacements for my cleats, because I have metal cleats in them right now and last practice I stepped on Hyojon’s foot. Yea, I don’t think that felt too good. I have a love/hate relationship with Sports Authority, because I want a lot of things in that store but I really don’t need them. For example, today I saw some awesomely lime green long socks, and I wanted to get them for our football games (I will probably end up getting them, but I wanted to wait to see what color our shirts are). And I have a sick obsession with workout clothes, I don’t know why, but I love them. Anyway, I try and stay away from Sports Authority because it is way to tempting for me to buy stuff in there.

Speaking of workout clothes, Erik and I will be starting our P90x workouts again on Monday the 4th, but it will be a modified version of P90x because we won’t want to be inside on the weekends and Yoga is too long, here is our plan for the first 4 weeks (I feel like if I put it in writing I will stick to it):

Dorsa’s Workout Schedule:

Monday- Core Synergistics

Tuesday- Plyometrics

Wednesday- Shoulders & Arm + Ab Ripper

Thursday- Kenpo X

Friday- Legs & Back + Ab Ripper

Weekends- Bike ride, Football, Softball, etc.

Erik’s Workout Schedule

Monday- Back & Biceps + Ab Ripper

Tuesday- Plyometrics

Wednesday- Shoulders & Arm + Ab Ripper

Thursday- Kenpo X

Friday- Legs & Back + Ab Ripper

Weekends- Bike ride, Football, Softball, etc.

Also starting Monday I will be making dinner’s from the “Best of Clean Eating” book I bought. I am pretty excited, we have 7 weeks until our wedding season begins, so we have to get into shape!

Daily Chobani Update

Today I had a Raspberry Chobani, and it was also delish, certainly not as good as the pomegranate or mango, but it ranks high on my list, probably fourth, behind peach.

Tonight for dinner we went over to my mom's house for some more yummy persian food, Eggplant, chicken, tomatoes and rice:

I still don't know what I want to do about my baby car... I cried all the way home tonight just thinking about donating the car and not having it in the driveway. It was a gift from my parents when I turned 16, and it means a lot to me. Maybe we will just take the cd player out and keep it, ugh I don't know. I better get to sleep before the waterworks start again. Night!

My baby car is dead....

The check engine light has been on for over a year now, and I’ve taken it in to get it checked out and was told that in order to make the check engine light go away I had to replace the engine itself, no thanks.

Yesterday I had a really hard time starting my car, and this morning while I was driving to work it had a hard time accelerating. I was scared that by the afternoon it wouldn’t work at all and I would get stuck at work! :( On my way home from work it started shaking violently every time I tried to accelerate. I said to myself if I can make it all the way home, I was done driving my baby car. I think we are going to donate it to the salvation army... does anyone know if they will take a car with the check engine light on? Kirstie says they will take it and either use the parts, scrap the metal, or fix it up and sell it. All I know is that my inspection is due in April and I need to renew my registration, so I think its a good thing it died before I spent the money to do all of that.

Daily Chobani Update

Today I tried the pineapple: Amazing! There were little chunks of pineapple on the bottom, Yum!

Dinner tonight was a yummy sandwich, which was hand-made by my uncle:

And my pictures of the day are adorable, my baby sister passed out on the couch in the basement and Ella laying limply on her bed:

Haha, I love it! Well folks that’s all for today! Hope everyone had a great day!

I woke up to this...

Can you believe it “snowed”?! ugh, my poor little flowers, although it did melt before 9am, haha. Oh well, I am hoping spring comes back soon, I am so totally over the winter weather.

We went over to my mom’s house for brunch with my family! I made some waffles, and Erik made some eggs. My aunt, uncle and cousin had never had waffles before, and I think they liked them. We have been trying to think of different foods to make for my family to try that they have never had. After brunch we ran, not literally, back home so that I could start making dinner. We invited Erik’s family and my family over for dinner, so that his family could have a chance to meet mine. Tonight I am making Cilantro Chicken with Tomato Avocado Salsa. This recipe is a long time favorite of ours, and by long time I mean since last year, but really it is amazing. I had to do some prep work, because we heading over to the mall, and I didn’t want to feel rushed when I get home from the mall.

Well we are off, I hope everyone has a great day!

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What do you do when you have too many eggs?

You make omelets!!!

Well technically this is only the picture of the veggies we sautéed for our omelets, but you get the general idea. Erik and I woke up this morning and looked in our fridge, which honestly has nothing in it, and realized we had way too many eggs which were going to expire soon, so we decided to make omelets. They were HUGE, yummy and kept me full until dinner, kinda, we snacked a little during the day.

After our yummy breakfast we met up with Sunny and Diana and went for a nice long bike ride. Towards the end of the ride we lost Sunny and Diana and ended up searching for them, after about 30 minutes we decided to head home, hoping that they would be there and they were! We hung around a bit before Sunny and Diana left to go to the airport to pick up Diana’s parents (Bob and Dad, as we like to call them).

Afterwards, Erik and I left to go to Peter’s house, Erik’s co-worker. Him and his wife just bought a new house and they were having a housewarming party. Their house was super cute, and we are really glad we went. Another one of Erik’s co-workers John, had given Peter an amazing pulled pork recipe, so I asked him for it, and I can’t wait to make it for one of our summer parties, I promise it will NOT disappoint. We had a great time hanging out with everyone at the party, but we had to leave early because we were going to a family friend’s house for dinner and we were late. I didn’t take pictures of dinner because it would have been really weird, considering they are not very close family friends. It was great to hang out with my family again, and my cousin Farid finally opened up a bit and starting talking to Erik about cars in English! I can’t wait until the summer when he comes back here to stay for the school year!

Anyway, I am beat, I am off to bed! I hope everyone had a great day!

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