First I have to mention that someone in the office brought in pizza for a lunch meeting, it’s all I can smell right now….OMG do I miss real pizza crust. Ok, enough of that, it just had to be said. I closed my office door but that wonderfully awful smell is finding a way to get in here!
Anyway, moving right along, I finally figured out last night that I can work out after work now that we are doing smoothies for dinner. If I don’t have to cook I have lots of free time when I get home, yay! I got on the treadmill, the first time in a while after being sick, etc. (you have already heard about it). It felt SO good! I didn’t move too fast but I cranked the incline up to 3 for 30 minutes, a little over a mile. It’s kind of sad that I used to do two in 30 minutes, but I will get there again. After that I did some arm work with my exercise band. Yay, it felt great. It really is a good stress reliever, and those endorphins always make you feel good when you are done. I didn’t realize how much I was missing it.
I have a strange sounding combination of foods for you today. It sounds really strange but both are good, just try them! The first one was my smoothie creation last night. I always try to work veggies into them because they are good for me J Here’s my Berry-Spinach creation from last night:
Berry-Spinach Smoothie
Ingredients:
½ C nonfat plain Greek yogurt (I use Chobani)
1 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 C frozen unsweetened berry mix
1 T raw agave syrup
1 T chia seeds
1.5 C fresh spinach
Directions:
1. Put the berries in the bottom of the blender, add the yogurt, almond milk, agave syrup and top with spinach
2. Start the blender on low, give it a chance to get into those frozen berries, then gradually increase the power until the spinach has been pulled down and blended into the mixture
3. Turn off and taste, add sweetener if you want more (I don’t like it too sweet) and dump in the chia seeds, blend for about 30 seconds longer
4. Pour into a large glass (and I do mean large, this makes a big smoothie), enjoy!
The second recipe is what I’m sitting here eating for lunch while I’m typing. I came across the idea on Pinterest, I didn’t follow the recipe, I just kind of winged it based on the idea. The recipe below is my version, and, if you love guacamole (the real, homemade kind) then you are going to love this one. By the way, this makes a lot, for me it was two lunches.
Chicken Salad made with Guacamole
Ingredients:
1 avocado
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 T lime juice (I use a little more but I like that flavor)
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 cooked, chopped chicken breasts (about 6 oz. total) – I used a rotisserie chicken
½ C quartered grape tomatoes
2 scallions, chopped
Directions:
1. Cut the avocado in half, dispose of the seed and scoop out into a bowl
2. Squeeze a lime over the avocado, add the garlic powder and a little salt and pepper
3. Mash the mixture with a fork until desired consistency (I like mine slightly lumpy) – this is the point where you should taste it for salt levels
4. Add in the chicken, tomatoes and scallions and mix well
5. Serve with crackers, your own baked tortilla chips or even on some GF bread
BTW, if you are eating GF and love crackers like I do make sure you try Mary’s Gone Crackers, they are GF and vegan and so darned delicious sometimes I just eat them without anything else. They are great when I need something crunchy. Kroger in my town carries them, actually they have several flavors. I always reach for the original but the others are yummy too. There is a store locator on their website, check them out if you can find them near you.
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