Snowed In

Happy February everyone! Chicago is currently covered under a fresh blanket of snow, as the 2011 Snowpocalypse has finally showed itself. The Windy City is supposed to get 18 inches of snow overnight and it's not supposed to stop snowing until Thursday. Wowsa! I think Punxsutawney Phil will predict that there's much more winter on the horizon come Groundhog's Day tomorrow.

Anyhow, here we are at another week! Ryan is in Berlin on business and man is quiet around our place. I've taken this time to myself to catch up on a few odds and ends. Last weekend, I did my fair share of cooking, too. I whipped up some grapefruit-orange juice, chili with ground turkey and some apple-cinnamon bars, some of which are included in today's post.

The last two days I've had my usual egg on plain seven-grain toast and an iced skim latte. But this time, I tried Eating Well's cranberry muesli. I have to say I was a little unsure about it at first -- I wasn't entirely sold on the slightly bitter taste. But this morning, I knew it was a keeper. Look at that color, too! What's not to love?

By the way, I have to apologize for this week's photos. Ryan took our nice camera to Berlin, naturally. Anyways, the cranberry muesli was super easy to make. No oven time, just some spare 5 minutes to mix the ingredients and voilà!

So back to this insane snow. Things didn't start to pick up until mid-afternoon today. Steph, my dad, and my mother-in-law all inquired if I had enough food on hand, haha. Anyhow, here's a snapshot of the action. Be sure to imagine lots of crazy blowing snow. The wind is still howling as I type this post.

Lunchtime featured an oldie but goodie: Chef Meg's tomato soup from SparkPeople. We had some in the freezer, and with Ryan being gone, I resorted to having some leftovers. I paired mine up with some dill crab salad on a napa cabbage leaf.

For dessert, I snuck in an apple-cinnamon fruit bar, one of Eating Well's many yummy and easy recipes. My camera wasn't exactly cooperating, so I had to borrow from a photo from EW.

Since it's winter, soups and chili are regularly on my mind. Tonight, I had some of my slow-cooker chili. My recipe is pretty traditional, but I use ground turkey, low sodium black beans and kidney beans, and a red pepper. On the side, I had a mixed greens salad with heirloom tomatoes, cucumber and slivered almonds topped with light balsamic vinaigrette from Kraft.

Prior to calling it a day, I pushed through 30 minutes on the elliptical machine and did 10 sets of 10 weights. WOO! I also skyped with my dear friend Raina, who has been sharing her fitness goals here. She turned a fabulous 33 years old yesterday -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL!

Ok, it's just about time to hang out with Conan and enjoy some vanilla Chobani with fresh raspberries.

Thanks so much for reading! xx

Coming Out of the Fog

Hiya dear blog friends! Well, here I am, back after a few weeks away. I promise you, I had every intention of blogging at least every other day. But as soon as I got back into it, the mother of all sinus infections took over my life. I am telling you, dudes, it was ridic! I felt pretty much out of it for two weeks, which means I did absolutely no working out. All I wanted to do was curl up under a blanket and sleep. And that I did, but toward the end, I was restless. But I did keep up with my healthy eating and here are some highlights.

Freshly-squeeze grapefruit-orange juice with turkey bacon and one egg:

Chef Meg's Tomato Soup (Spark People) with country bread and a mixed greens salad:

Sausage, Tomato, and Arugula Fettuccine (Cooking Light):

Spiced Cod with Broccoli-Quinoa Pilaf (Real Simple)

Shrimp Panzenella (Eating Well):

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili (Eating Well):

But here we are, it's another week and I'm finally getting my butt back into gear. so let's get to the present, shall well? Since getting sick, I've religiously made my own juice every week. I typically stay away from store bought juice due to the high sugar. But lately, I've only had a craving for citrus, so I've stuck with my grapefruit-orange recipe. I LOVE IT! Any juice fans out there? If so, what are your favorites?

Anyhow, for breakfast today, I had a small glass of grapefruit-orange juice and my usual iced skim latte. For the main entree, I cooked up Banana, Wheat Germ, and Oats, as featured in the January/February 2010 issue of Cooking Light. Lately, too, all I want for breakfast is something made with oats. I have always been a huge oatmeal fan, but I am super into finding new oatmeal-like recipes. This one was super easy. Top with bananas, a teaspoon of butter (I used ghee) and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Pretty yummy, although I might switch up the banana.

For lunch, Ryan and I resorted to one of our favorite cookbooks, Ellie Krieger's So Easy for her Tortellini-Spinach Soup. Love love love this one. Her recipe includes carrots, onion, celery and diced tomatoes and it's pretty hearty and filling. On the side, we had a mixed greens salad with cranberries, cherry tomatoes, walnuts, and fresh parmesan with a small dabble of Kraft's light balsamic vinaigrette.

I stuck to my regular water intake for the entire day and had zero cravings for snacks. The only thing I reached for was a dark chocolate calcium disc from Adora. This is huge, as I've been in a super-snack mood lately. When I was sick, I have to say I gave in to some of those cravings on occasion. But today was a success!

This post obviously includes a ton of magazine recipes and tonight's dinner also went that route with Real Simple's Grilled Lemon Chicken With Cabbage-Corn Slaw. Awesomely tasty! Chicken kind of bores me sometimes, but this particular recipe was zip-friendly.

Woo! I am really pleased with today's results. I even topped my evening off with 35 minutes on the elliptical and 10 minutes of weights. Woo! It felt great pushing through some of that ... I needed that feeling, especially after my lame sinus infection. Woo! (again!) A FAB start to my week and a FAB return to my weight-loss journey... thanks so much for all your kind words and for always reading Fighting the Pudge. May you have a fantastic evening! Time for Conan! xx

Happiness is Homemade

Here we are at Wednesday and only 24 hours until my Dad is here in the Windy City. Deadlines are here with some freelance bio projects and interviews to be conducted. Things are busy, but good busy! YAY!

I was craving some Siggi's yogurt so come breakfast I paired some plain creamy goodness with little bit of honey, some strawberries and an iced coffee. I also had a quarter-cup part-skim shredded mozzarella on a multi-grain Arnold sandwich thin. Fabulous! I'm finding out that the more protein I'm able to have earlier in the day keeps me from snacking during the afternoon. So far, so good.

My homemade tomato soup recipe and I finally got together today for lunch. Wow, this one is a good one, and spicy too! As I've mentioned here before, I monitor my meals via SparkPeople and I've really grown to enjoy this community. It has tons of recipes and many helpful exercise suggestions. Anyhow, I've had my eye on Chef Meg's Tomato Soup for a while now.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow or white onion, chopped (I had half of a red onion and half of a white one, so I used both)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 pounds tomatoes, de-seeded, chopped
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 t thyme, dried
4 oz. bread, crust removed (about 4 small slices -- I used Arnold's 100% Whole-Wheat)
12 oz chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
black pepper to taste

Directions
Heat oil in a stock pot or tall saucepan. Add onion and garlic and saute for 5 minutes. Next, mix in tomatoes. Add pepper, sugar, thyme and bread and cook for 3 minutes.

With an immersion blender or food processor, blend the mixture. Slowly add stock to mixture and combine. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add vinegar during last two minutes.

With the combination of thyme, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, and balsamic vinegar, this version has quite a kick. Also, some suggest topping it with a half-cup croutons or some blue cheese. It makes a hearty 8 servings ... so here's my lunch for the next couple of days.

Ryan also tried it and LOVED it. What? My husband? Like tomato soup? Never thought I'd see the day. HA! For lunch, I paired mine up with some nectarine slices and a spinach and vegetable sandwich with Athenos garlic hummus.

In preparation of my Dad's visit, I also squeezed in some blueberry muffins (I'm making chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookies on Thursday!). I've never made muffins from scratch, but Bethenny Frankel's Skinnygirl Dish has an easy enough recipe with oat flour and other natural ingredients. Check out this beauty.

Dinner, once again, saw more leftovers of the Spinach and Mushroom Quiche with summer squash and zucchini. Ok, I tried the mushrooms. I tried to be a good sport, but I don't think they're for me. I think everyone has one food they just don't care for, right? Well, I think the mushroom might be mine. But never say never. Maybe I'll come back to mushrooms later on.

Is there a particular food or ingredient that you just can't do? Have you ever come back to it later and decide that you actually enjoy it?