Come follow me @phitnessphoodie for fitness tips and pictures of exercises along with some tasty recipes!!
You follow me, I'll follow you!!!
Sunday, December 16, 2012
I don't have time for a long blog post but wanted everyone to know that Phitness Phoodie now has an Instagram!!
Come follow me @phitnessphoodie for fitness tips and pictures of exercises along with some tasty recipes!!
You follow me, I'll follow you!!!
Come follow me @phitnessphoodie for fitness tips and pictures of exercises along with some tasty recipes!!
You follow me, I'll follow you!!!
Friday, December 14, 2012
Brunch (or anytime) Potatoes
I want to share this potato recipe I made up with you. Most people think potatoes are unhealthy because they're starchy, but the truth is they're not. You need starches and carbs in your diet, they are your body's number 1 source of fuel.
(Read more in this article by Mike Geary, The Truth About Abs - http://www.truthaboutabs.com/glycemic-index-carbohydrates.html)
No, that doesn't mean you can go out and load up on pasta and pizza and things like that. You need to be smart about it. There's a difference between good and bad carbs. Now don't think that also means you can't ever eat pasta or pizza. They say everything in moderation for a reason. Every 5-6 days or so, it's good to "cheat" because it confuses your body and that's what weight loss is all about. And face it, pasta makes you happy, and life is still about being happy.
First I should start off with my cooking background....as in I have none. It's not that I never knew how to cook, I just never did. When I was in high school and college it was only my mom and I in the house, and between school and us each having 2 jobs, we didn't exactly sit down for home cooked meals every night. My cooking background is a little more advanced than Kraft Mac and Cheese, but it wasn't much. I could saute some stuff, bake some chicken, make mashed potatoes from a box, you know the deal. However, I knew nothing about flavoring and seasoning and other fancy cooking terms like that.
Then I met my fiance Mike. He used to be a chef making fancy dishes like sauteed scallops, stuffed chicken breasts and beef wellington. He started to teach me how to cook, and I am happy to say I almost don't need him anymore. Thanks to him, cooking has become one of my biggest loves. Spending time in my kitchen cooking and prepping (with a glass of wine in my hand, of course) is one of my favorite things. The thing is, he didn't just teach me to cook, he taught me flavors and food pairings so that I can be creative and make up my own recipes.
So this a recipe I made up randomly when I was making brunch one morning and wanted something more than just scrambled eggs and bacon. (No, bacon is not bad for you! But that's for another post!) I had a few potatoes in the fridge so I though I'm going to do a sort of saute-potato-home fry thing. Now bear with me, because I am not a baker. I am a self appointed chef. I do not measure when cooking. I eye ball everything, or just go by what I like. So this recipe is not going to tell you exactly how many potatoes you need, how much onion you need and so on. Everything is estimates and I will give my best estimate on the amount that I usually use when making this.
Ingredients:
Potatoes - any kind will do. My favorite are Yukon Gold because you don't even need to peel them if you don't want too. But Red Bliss, Russett, etc., work perfectly well.
When I'm making enough for 2 people, I usually use about 5-6 small to medium Yukon Gold Potatoes. (Also take into consideration that 1 of the 2 servings is a big man sized portion.)
Onion - again, any kind will do. I am a huge fan of spanish onions. They caramelize well, they're a little sweet and they also sweat out very nicely. Depending on how much you like onions, I would say a 1/2 to 1 whole onion, diced. I LOVE onions, I put them in pretty much everything, so I use close to a whole onion for 2 servings.
Garlic - use your own discretion here. Everyone knows that when you eat garlic, it comes out of your pores. However, saying I am a garlic lover is an understatement. For me, it doesn't matter too much because my fiance loves it just as much, and as you may know, 2 garlic's cancel each other out. So for this (and probably all my recipes) I use way more garlic than you will probably like. I use about 3-4 cloves for this.
Olive Oil - a few turns of the pan, just to saute the onions and garlic.
Nutritional yeast - this is totally optional, but I recommend it. For those of you who don't know what it is, it sounds a lot worse than it is. Nutritional yeast is an ingredient vegans use in a number of dishes to give things a cheese-y or egg-y flavor, and many other flavors depending what you put it in. You can buy it in the bulk section of your health store (I know Wegmans sells it also.) It just brings a little extra healthy to this dish.
Salt and Pepper to taste.
Recipe:
Cut the potatoes in equal size quarters and boil until they're just almost done. Pour into colander to strain.
When the potatoes are done, heat a saute pan on the stove with the oil. Throw in the onions, salt and pepper to sweat the onions out. I cook the onions for about 5 to 10 minutes or so before throwing in the garlic. You don't want to caramelize them, but you want to get enough of the natural sugars. When the onions are translucent, add the garlic. A trick I've learned from Rachael Ray (you'll hear more on my obsession with her later) is to grate the garlic in, then you don't bite down on any huge chunks of garlic. But go ahead and chop it if you'd rather. Continue to saute until the garlic is fragrant, but not burnt.
Add just a little more oil and throw the potatoes in. Depending on your preference, you can break them up a little more or just keep them the sizes they are. Add a little more salt and pepper to taste and saute for about 10-15 minutes. Add a sprinkle of the nutritional yeast. As much or as little as you'd like. If you haven't tried it before, sprinkle just a little, mix it it up and taste, add more if you'd like.
Plate and serve and enjoy!
(Read more in this article by Mike Geary, The Truth About Abs - http://www.truthaboutabs.com/glycemic-index-carbohydrates.html)
No, that doesn't mean you can go out and load up on pasta and pizza and things like that. You need to be smart about it. There's a difference between good and bad carbs. Now don't think that also means you can't ever eat pasta or pizza. They say everything in moderation for a reason. Every 5-6 days or so, it's good to "cheat" because it confuses your body and that's what weight loss is all about. And face it, pasta makes you happy, and life is still about being happy.
First I should start off with my cooking background....as in I have none. It's not that I never knew how to cook, I just never did. When I was in high school and college it was only my mom and I in the house, and between school and us each having 2 jobs, we didn't exactly sit down for home cooked meals every night. My cooking background is a little more advanced than Kraft Mac and Cheese, but it wasn't much. I could saute some stuff, bake some chicken, make mashed potatoes from a box, you know the deal. However, I knew nothing about flavoring and seasoning and other fancy cooking terms like that.
Then I met my fiance Mike. He used to be a chef making fancy dishes like sauteed scallops, stuffed chicken breasts and beef wellington. He started to teach me how to cook, and I am happy to say I almost don't need him anymore. Thanks to him, cooking has become one of my biggest loves. Spending time in my kitchen cooking and prepping (with a glass of wine in my hand, of course) is one of my favorite things. The thing is, he didn't just teach me to cook, he taught me flavors and food pairings so that I can be creative and make up my own recipes.
So this a recipe I made up randomly when I was making brunch one morning and wanted something more than just scrambled eggs and bacon. (No, bacon is not bad for you! But that's for another post!) I had a few potatoes in the fridge so I though I'm going to do a sort of saute-potato-home fry thing. Now bear with me, because I am not a baker. I am a self appointed chef. I do not measure when cooking. I eye ball everything, or just go by what I like. So this recipe is not going to tell you exactly how many potatoes you need, how much onion you need and so on. Everything is estimates and I will give my best estimate on the amount that I usually use when making this.
Ingredients:
Potatoes - any kind will do. My favorite are Yukon Gold because you don't even need to peel them if you don't want too. But Red Bliss, Russett, etc., work perfectly well.
When I'm making enough for 2 people, I usually use about 5-6 small to medium Yukon Gold Potatoes. (Also take into consideration that 1 of the 2 servings is a big man sized portion.)
Onion - again, any kind will do. I am a huge fan of spanish onions. They caramelize well, they're a little sweet and they also sweat out very nicely. Depending on how much you like onions, I would say a 1/2 to 1 whole onion, diced. I LOVE onions, I put them in pretty much everything, so I use close to a whole onion for 2 servings.
Garlic - use your own discretion here. Everyone knows that when you eat garlic, it comes out of your pores. However, saying I am a garlic lover is an understatement. For me, it doesn't matter too much because my fiance loves it just as much, and as you may know, 2 garlic's cancel each other out. So for this (and probably all my recipes) I use way more garlic than you will probably like. I use about 3-4 cloves for this.
Olive Oil - a few turns of the pan, just to saute the onions and garlic.
Nutritional yeast - this is totally optional, but I recommend it. For those of you who don't know what it is, it sounds a lot worse than it is. Nutritional yeast is an ingredient vegans use in a number of dishes to give things a cheese-y or egg-y flavor, and many other flavors depending what you put it in. You can buy it in the bulk section of your health store (I know Wegmans sells it also.) It just brings a little extra healthy to this dish.
Salt and Pepper to taste.
Recipe:
Cut the potatoes in equal size quarters and boil until they're just almost done. Pour into colander to strain.
When the potatoes are done, heat a saute pan on the stove with the oil. Throw in the onions, salt and pepper to sweat the onions out. I cook the onions for about 5 to 10 minutes or so before throwing in the garlic. You don't want to caramelize them, but you want to get enough of the natural sugars. When the onions are translucent, add the garlic. A trick I've learned from Rachael Ray (you'll hear more on my obsession with her later) is to grate the garlic in, then you don't bite down on any huge chunks of garlic. But go ahead and chop it if you'd rather. Continue to saute until the garlic is fragrant, but not burnt.
Add just a little more oil and throw the potatoes in. Depending on your preference, you can break them up a little more or just keep them the sizes they are. Add a little more salt and pepper to taste and saute for about 10-15 minutes. Add a sprinkle of the nutritional yeast. As much or as little as you'd like. If you haven't tried it before, sprinkle just a little, mix it it up and taste, add more if you'd like.
Plate and serve and enjoy!
Thursday, December 13, 2012
The 100 Day Burpee Challenge!
OK, so let's explain my odd desire to do this challenge. As much as I love working out, I HATE burpees. They are my least favorite exercise. Doing one isn't too bad, but when you get up to doing 10-20 in a row, they just irk me.
So anyway, I read about about the burpee challenge a few months ago and toyed with the idea of attempting it, but I guess my hatred for burpees outwon my love of exercise (and a good challenge.) Well, for some unknown reason, maybe because I'm currently laid off and looking for something to do with my time, I decided to take on the burpee challenge.
My thinking behind blogging it being that am more likely to stick with the challenge if there are people following me while I do it- ::Ahem:: read my blog and share it with your friends ::Ahem:: (shamless plug I know) - and also to help motivate others into doing the challenge, or just getting into, or back into exercise in general.
The 100 day Burpee Challenge is easy, in essence. On day 1 you do 1 burpee. On day 2 you do 2 burpees. On day 3 you do 3 burpees, and so on, so that on day 100 you're doing 100 burpees. So what happens if you miss a day, you ask? Well, it's OK, because you get to make up the burpees on the next day! (Just try not to miss day 80, because then you have to do 160 the next day.) And don't worry, you don't have to do 80 burpees in a row, if you don't want too. Split them into groups of 10 if that's easier. Add them into your daily workout if you like....I don't know, make a drinking game out of it with your friends. (OK, not really a good idea, but be creative is what I'm saying.)
At the end, you will have done a total of 5,050 burpees. That number may be enough to discourage some from the challenge, but I think you should look at it in a glass half full way; if you can do 5,050 burpees, you can do ANYTHING!
Well today is day 1 for me. Let me say just how easy day 1 is! 1 burpee and you're done! I am not looking forward to day 85.... This challenge takes a lot of motivation and discipline. Which is also why I'm looking to you for help to keep me going!
That being said, I invite you to do the challenge with me! Exercise is always better with friends cheering you on. So if you cheer me on, I will do the same! I invite you to share your insights, questions, concerns, remarks, creative ideas to make this, I don't know, fun - if that's possible - and join in my crazy 100 day burpee challenge!
If you're not sure how to do a burpee, check it out here!
My first post: a Hello!
Well hello! Chances are if you're reading this, you're a food and fitness lover like myself, or you know me and I have forced my blog down your throat. (Thanks for checking it out BTW!) I am new to blogging so bear with me for a little while I get used to this sharing of myself on the internet. My goal here is to pretty much share my exercise and fitness tips with the food lover, (don't worry, I'll share plenty of recipes too!) so that you can still eat extremely yummy food, while keeping your body and weight at healthy levels. So I hope you will check back and follow me here to read my thoughts and ideas, and I welcome your thoughts and ideas as well. If you have any exercise or recipe requests please let me know and I will search for or create one for you. And if you also have some that you enjoy please feel free to share them with me too!
I look forward to what will hopefully be a long and educational and yummy relationship with all who read this!
P.S. Even if you're not a fitness lover or a food lover (let's be real though, who doesn't love food?) I hope you still stay with me, because I have a lot of free time and a lot of random thoughts I will be happy to share with you.
I look forward to what will hopefully be a long and educational and yummy relationship with all who read this!
P.S. Even if you're not a fitness lover or a food lover (let's be real though, who doesn't love food?) I hope you still stay with me, because I have a lot of free time and a lot of random thoughts I will be happy to share with you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)