Wordless Wednesday No. 38

 

 

 

 

 

photos courtesy of Melissa S.

Finding the Real Amongst the Fake

Recently we have been reading a ton of stuff about food and just exactly what is in it and frankly we find most of it downright SCARY.  We didn’t really understand the full extent of the issue and the more we read the more we have realized we have to make a change ourselves, and try to not put crap and other fake food products into our bodies. Now we definitely are not over here thinking we are the picture of perfection when it comes to eating. We definitely eat things we shouldn’t (ahem, goldfish for example) and we know we shouldn’t but we have recently decided we would make a HUGE effort to reduce the crap in our life and really get more educated about what we are eating. You are what you eat right? We don’t want to be fake!

This is really unfortunately harder than it seems because everything it is HOLY CONFUSING or we have been tricked or even worse, had information withheld from us! We are not scientists and we don’t really understand the truth behind things like soy protein isolate, BHA, Potassium Benzoate… We have no clue what they really are or at least we didn’t before. We also found out that the FDA does some awesome trickery and says that some things are GRAS (generally recognized as safe) GENERALLY?!? Really, does that mean sometimes it’s not? Who is going to tell us this?

We kind of enter a little freak out mode sometimes when it comes to thinking about all of it. It seems overwhelming. How in the world will we ever remember all the things we should know and avoid? We have used the trick that many say “Look for as few ingredients as possible and make sure you can pronounce all the words.” We think that that works most of the time but then enter Genetically Modified Foods, which P.S. they don’t tell you about the majority of the time.  GMO’s can be hidden in even the simplest of words making it easy to fail that “short as possible, readable words trick.” Overwhelming right?? We think so.

Enter our saving grace. We recently found the app FOODUCATE, which is downloadable for free on your smart phone. It is very easy to use and super convenient at the grocery store. On one of our recent road trip weekends we scanned EVERYTHING with a label in the car just so see how it worked and we loved it! You can find either one of us often on a trip to the grocery store scanning away! You can also visit Fooducate online and sign up there!

Here is what it looks like:

Once you are in the store you just press scan and hold your phone over the barcode label. It searches its data base and immediately gives your food a score. HINT: Make sure when you set up your account that you ask it to tell you if a product has GMO’s.

You will get a screen like this with what is in your food that you should avoid.

Once you see that you can decide if it is good or bad for you and if it is bad it will even give you alternatives to try. And as you can see from the picture above there’s a “fun facts” part where they actually give  you random tidbits about food.

BONUS! Remember how we told you it’s all confusing and we can’t keep track of how everything is made or produced or what it actually means. Fooducate lives up to its name and actually educates you as to exactly why to avoid that food.

We thought that we would pass this along because it is one of the easiest ways we have seen to help keep us informed and hopefully healthy.

What are some of your favorite food or exercise apps?? We would love to hear about them. And P.S. we are not being paid by Fooducate we just seriously LOVE it!!

Wordless Wednesday No. 37

Tasty Tuesday: AMAZE-balls a.k.a. Clean Eating Meatballs

These things are seriously AMAZING. I don’t know about you but every time I have ever tried to make meatballs on the stove I have ruined them. I typically burn the outside and the inside is raw, or they fall apart or are just gross. PLUS, you really can’t make that many at the same time. It had never occurred to be to bake them. This recipe is a super easy baked meatball recipe that literally might change my eating life! OK, that’s dramatic but…. I figured this would be horrible and it turned out to be the easiest thing ever. Little mess, no half burnt/half raw balls of meat and it makes a ton. I ate these things for a week.

What you need:

2.5 lbs of lean ground turkey, beef or chicken (just use what you like, although the calorie count below would change)

1 (16oz) package frozen spinach (or whatever else you would want you could probably use kale too)

1 cup of onion (I used red)

¾ cup bread crumbs ( I used gluten free)

2 eggs

1 garlic clove

Sea salt and pepper – I used about a tsp. of each

2 tbsp. Worcestershire, or soy sauce, or A1, or BBQ (I used Worcestershire but all will work)

½ tsp. each of thyme, oregano, crushed red pepper

1/3 cup Chicken broth

Olive oil

How to:

1.       Preheat the oven to 400.

2.       Heat olive oil in the pan and add all spices and the onion. Sautee until the onions are tender

3.       Add Worcestershire sauce, chicken broth, and spinach. Cook down until there is very little liquid left in the pan

4.       Meanwhile, mix meat, bread crumbs and egg in a bowl

5.       Add the spinach mixture to meat mixture and mix together

6.       Using a ¼ c measuring cup section out the meat to ball and place on a greased pan. They don’t expand much so they can be pretty close. I had 20 on a pan. Ball out until mixture is gone

7.       Place in the oven for 20 minutes

8.       Voila! I served mine over quinoa and added marinara

My fitness pal nutrition facts (calories are per ball, based on 38 total made)

Calories: 48.7

Fat: 1.2g

Carbs: 1.1g

Protein 8.1g

For a printable version of this recipe please click HERE.

The Texas Half

So once upon a time we signed up for the four seasons challenge and we kicked that off by running the Big D Half in April of last year, then slowly completed the Hottest Half in August and then we decided to skip the Tyler Rose Half in October since wedding stuff with Beth was wrapping up and we were busy!  Well, that’s only three halfs and that last sentence says FOUR seasons challenge.  The last race happened to be just two weeks after completely The Louisiana Marathon.

Which worked out perfectly because we were sad that the Louisiana Marathon meant that we would no longer have a matching number of halfs that we have run.  Yes, we are nerds like that, but you are reading this so you apparently still like us despite that.  Teal being the awesome friend and running buddy that she is still wanted to come and be there for the race.

Since so much time has gone by I don’t have a play by play of this to that mile for you (you’re welcome for that).  It was a chilly morning and the race was small enough that I was able to sit in the car with Teal for awhile to keep warm.  But when I did make my way to the start line I found a fellow DFW frunner, Caron! We both love getting to see her at races and talk with her!

 

I had time for a quick potty break and then headed back to the start line to wait for about five minutes.  Then we were off and almost immediately ditched my zip up hoodie I had been wearing to stay warm which I found in the same place I ditched it after the race. Yay, small races! The first 3 miles were an out and back so that you hit the 3 mile mark right when you were running by the starting line again.  It was fun getting to see the leaders of the race early on and admire them for their speediness!  I also hadn’t really run in this area particular area of Irving so I was checking it all out, and trying to decide if I was running too fast or at a pace I could maintain throughout.

Like I said it was a small race so at right around the halfway point I saw Teal! My Runkeeper was at one point ahead on mileage and then got behind.  Around here a fellow racer asked me where I was mileage-wise and I think I said around mile 6 and then 30 seconds later there’s the 7 mile marker!  Ok, it might not have really been a full mile off, but when I saw the 7 that’s what it felt like. Ha

During this race I got to run by my husband’s office building though no one was in there…..it was still fun because it made me think of him.  In the last half of the race some of the miles were done on the Campion Trail which is where Teal and I did a couple of training runs while we were getting ourselves ready for Louisiana Marathon.  It was here I saw a fellow Private Training Zone member who asked me, “What are you doing?!” “Running a race!” Haha.  Always great seeing a familiar face!

The last two things that stand out to me about this race was as I was making my way over the bridge back towards the Irving Convention Center to the finish line the course here had blocked off one lane for runners so that cars had two lanes to themselves.  This suburban was heading in the direction towards me and another car pulled up beside the suburban, rolled the window down and yelled “WHY ARE YOU DRIVING SO SLOW?!”  Pretty sure I immediately rolled my eyes.  Can we all just take a minute to shake our heads at the yeller?

……

Thanks for sharing in that moment with me!  I also applaud the slow suburban driver as they were simply being a cautious driver! As I got myself over the bridge and under the highway I saw Teal again! Teeeeeeeal!! She was telling me, Push! And you got this!  But I didn’t feel like I had that much give left.  Maybe that’s due to my lack of running between Louisiana and this race? Ha, but what I had I left out on the rest of the course.  Then there was the finish line!  Not only did a bring home a shiny medal from my 16th half marathon, but I also brought home a shiny new PR at 1:55:02!  I finished 13th overall in my age group.  So crazy that my half marathon PR stood at 1:56:39 since I ran my very first one in December of 2010 then December of 2012 I beat it at Dallas Marathon and come back to beat that in February 2013.  Running can be a crazy thing!

Tied at 16th again!

Tasty Tuesday: Clean Eating Balsamic Chicken & Green Beans

We have had quite a few people asking us about the clean eating turkey meatloaf recipe we posted back in October and we have totally misplaced it!  Yes, the title of this post has nothing to do with turkey and/or meatloaf, but we are bringing you another recipe that is Advocare Cleanse approved!

So if you are cleansing right now! Try this for dinner in the next few nights?!  If you are not cleansing and just what a tasty and healthy meal then you try this for dinner!

This recipe we found from Clean Eating Magazine which we both love!

Ingredients:

1 lb of fresh green beans, trimmed and rinsed

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, divided

16 oz button mushrooms, sliced

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 lemon, zested and juiced

1 yellow onion, cut into 1/4 inch thick rings

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced 1/2 inch thick

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp sea salt

1. Prep all of your veggies and meat so they are ready to go.

2. Fill a pot halfway up with water and bring the water to boil.  Add the green beans, reduce heat and steam until they are crisp (approximately 5 minutes).  Set aside.

3. In a large non-stick skillet, heat 1 tsp of olive oil on medium heat.  Add mushrooms to saute for approximately 10 minutes, stir occasionally.  When the mushrooms are almost done stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice and garlic and saute for three minutes.

Remove the mushrooms from the heat and transfer to a large bowl.  Combine the green beans and the mushrooms in the bowl and toss well.  Cover the bowl to keep the veggies warm.

4. In a large non-stick skillet, heat the remaining teaspoon of olive oil on medium heat.  Add the onion rings and saute for approximately 5 minutes. Add chicken, thyme, vinegar and salt, and cook, stirring often, for 8 minutes or until the thickest part of chicken is cooked through.  Remove from heat, serve with green beans and any remaining juice from the skillet can be poured over your chicken and/or veggies.

 

And voila! Dinner is served.  Sorry, we were too hungry to remember to capture a photo of the final product, but it was also husband approved!

Expect to spend about 35 minutes preparing the food and 35 minutes cooking.

For a printable version of the recipe please go HERE.

The Life & Times of LiAR

Howdy, y’all!  We have a lot of stuff we have yet to share with you on our little bloggy blog and need to get on top of that!  But since it’s Friday (HAPPY FRIDAY!!) we figured we would give you a more picture and less words post.  If you follow us on instagram though chances are you’ve seen some of these pictures before.

We’ve still been running!

more running just this time in Houston!

Reading all kinds of iiinteresting things about food and learning more about what we put into our bodies!

 

Sunday Fundays!

 

Bulletproof coffee!

Spring Break!

 

Getting ready for the annual St. Paddy’s Day parade on Greenville Avenue here in Dallas! You can find us on this float!

We hope everyone has a safe and fun St. Paddy’s Day weekend! Good luck to all of you racing!