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August 27, 2014

Bliss: 28 Day Challenge Favorites!

Welcome to Bliss! Can you believe it’s the end of August?! I’m a little baffled with how fast this year has gone! We’re right around the corner from Fall and the changing of the seasons are always my favorite – whether it’s summer to fall or winter to spring! Fall & Spring provide the absolutely perfect temperatures here in the South!

New Here? Bliss is a monthly link-up where we share our favorite things from the month. I’m excited to co-host this link-up with one of my best blogging friends, Meg! I just the made the final decision to head up North for Meg’s wedding next month and I’m so excited about seeing her again (We met at the Disney Wine & Dine race). Back on track… you can be as creative as you want, your favorite things can range from products to events to people to other bloggers! Share your links below, check out what other bloggers are favoring this month and maybe you’ll find your own new favorite thing!

I’ve been doing the Health Starts Here Challenge with Whole Foods Market Jackson this past month. I’ve had a lot of questions about the challenge, both from bloggers and people I see in my daily life. I wanted to share my favorite things from the challenge because these are things I’m going to continue incorporating into my daily diet. I’ve seen such a huge improvement and I hope to maintain a diet similar to what I’ve been doing for the past 28 days. If you have any questions about my 28 day challenge, feel free to e-mail me at nobolognablog@gmail.com.

SNACKS

365 Brand Woven Wheats & Peanut Butter

Larabars – Peanut Butter Cookie, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Cherry Pie, Banana Nut were among the ones I tried

Fresh fruit & vegetables

BREAKFAST

Ezekial Bread – english muffins & sliced bread. I topped mine with almond or peanut butter & sliced fruit with honey

Uncle Sam Cereal is your typical granola cereal and is good at filling me up quick in the morning

365 Hash browns were plainly shredded potatoes. They were delicious (when I didn’t burn them!)

Engine 2 Rip’s Big Bowl – the fruit in this cereal was really sweet so it kept it from tasting bland

MEALS/COOKING

Frozen Vegetables – they made my life 100 times easier during this challenge! Among the staples I keep now: chopped onions & stir fry mixes

Whole Foods 4 for 4 deal. I’ve mentioned this before, but it was perfect for me and lasted about 3 different meals.

Almond Milk – this was my substitute for creamer and what I used for any type of baking I did.

Rice & Veggies – my go-to meal because it was easy, cheap, and made enough for leftovers!

RECIPES I TRIED

Quick & Easy Veggie Chili

Whole Wheat Cornbread Muffins

Coconut Lime Macaroons

Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes

Banana Cocoa Snack Cakes

28 DAY CHALLENGE BLOG POSTS

Can’t wait to see what your favorites were for the month of August and let me know if you try any of these products! Link up below!

August 26, 2014

Health Starts Here: Week 4 Re-cap {Adobo}

Good Morning friends!

I don’t have much time before I need to get ready and head off to work. This week has already been super busy & tight for me, but I love this little break to come and blog!

Our week 4 session doesn’t cover much material because we had a cooking demonstration from a local Restaurant owner/chef, Chef Luis Bruno who owns Adobo in Jackson, MS. He was such a sport when Mary Lindsey told him what our stipulations were for the challenge and he accommodated everything to fit within our restrictions! He was hilarious and fun to spend the evening with! I can’t wait to try Adobo for myself and if you’re in the Jackson, MS area, you should too!

A little about the Chef: Chef Luis is Puerto Rican, but has been in the Jackson area for 20 years now. He grew up in the Bronx and his life was far from easy. He dealt with a lot of health issues throughout life including fluctuating weight, club feet, diabetes, and multiple family deaths. He decided to attend culinary school in Florida and gained even more weight there. He ended up in Mississippi at the Governor’s Mansion, but eventually opened up his own restaurant. He did the liquid diet through the Baptist Hospital where he lost a lot of weight and began cooking healthier. His restaurant now uses very little oil to cook and does not fry a single thing on the menu. If he adds cheese or other flavorings, it’s in moderation and it acts as another substitute (ex: He adds feta cheese to his Roasted Corn Salsa, he didn’t in our demonstration, but he says the cheese was his salt. It was not the main part of the dish, but it added that little seasoning flare).

On the Menu:

Black Bean Burgers

Asparagus Salad with Roasted Red Peppers & Capers

Spicy Basil Guacamole

Roasted Corn Salsa

Chef Luis did an excellent job and delivered dishes that were easy to make and flavorful! He also has a cookbook with all of these recipes in there! If you’re ever in the Jackson area, be sure to check out Adobo! Thank you Chef Luis for a wonderful evening with the Health Starts Here Challenge!

My week 4 went really well. I was strict throughout the week and did a lot of prep before hand with chili & veggie rice. I also stuck to it on the weekend and my parents decided to eat lunch with me on Saturday at Whole Foods. That was the first time all month that I’d eaten out with my parents because I opted not to go the other times when they went out to eat. Again, I cannot express how much I enjoyed this challenge! I’ll be re-capping our graduation as well as some topics we discussed that I believe will help me maintain a diet similar to the one I was challenged to for the past 28 days! Can’t wait to share my overall thoughts more in depth!

Have a wonderful Tuesday y’all! I’ll be back shortly to share about Graduation night!

August 21, 2014

Sushi Class at Whole Foods Market

Happy Thursday!

Quick Reminder: Bliss link-up is next Wednesday, August 27th where I share my favorite items from my 28 day Health Starts Here Challenge!

This morning, I honestly thought it was Wednesday a handful of times! It’s always nice to realize that you’re closer to Friday than you expected. I cannot rave enough about this 28 day challenge with Whole Foods and the benefits I’m reaping from the experience! I continue to have good days at work. They may not be the most exciting, something bad may happen throughout the day, but I’m focused & sharp, I fix problems when they occur and I’ve been loving work this past month! What an awesome feeling!

Tonight, I started DINNER right when I got home! I was pretty hungry and didn’t take enough to eat today. I’d had chili 3 days in a row and I have one more serving left over so I’m saving that for lunch or dinner tomorrow. I decided to make a cheaper version of “vegetable hibachi”. I started my rice and cooked it in vegetable broth. I’m not going to do a full recipe post on this because I’d like to make a few tweaks first, but I should have made the rice with water or vegetable stock. I then sautéed some frozen veggies without any oil. I let the pan heat up , then tossed the veggies in. The water from the veggies helped them cook at first, but when they started sticking to the pan, I tossed in some soy sauce and then de-glazed with vegetable broth. The final product turned out pretty darn good, but I’ll be making some adjustments next time and I’ll get y’all a legit recipe!

SUSHI MAKING CLASS AT WHOLE FOODS

This post is long overdue! Back in February or March (see, it’s been so long!), Collette and I attended a Sushi Making Class at our local Whole Foods Market in Jackson, MS. The class was free to attend and they had all the materials ready for us. We were extremely impressed with their organization, their efficiency, and the way they handled our over-stuffed class room.

This post is going to be photo-heavy, but I want to touch on the health benefits of sushi real fast. We used whole grain rice and red quinoa for our rice mixture which made the sushi a lot healthier plus the rice contains a good amount of fiber. Sushi can be so versatile and you can incorporate whatever ingredients you want. One of the rolls we made was vegetarian and had avocado and cucumber. The other roll had avocado and imitation crab meat. We used Nori, a type of seaweed, and from what I understand it is packed with nutrients! It can improve heart health and it has some essential vitamins & nutrients. You do have to watch out for certain types of sushi though. The crunchy rolls and the fried rolls lose a lot of their health benefits when made that way! If you truly want sushi to be a healthy option for your lunch or dinner, then opt for the brown rice & quinoa, pick a veggie-packed option, and skip out on frying!

Like I mentioned, I went with Collette, Nick’s sister. It was such a blessing having her in town January – August! We had the opportunity to get to know each better & spend quality time doing fun things like Sushi Class! I’ll miss having her around, but I’m so happy she found the perfect job in the perfect city and is living out her dreams!

Ingredients: Sushi mat wrapped in Saran Wrap, Ball of Rice (brown rice & red quinoa shown), filling ingredients (avocado, cucumber, imitation crab meat shown), Nori seaweed (shown below)

We were able to keep the Sushi mat, the sushi we made (obviously! – and remember.. this class was FREE!), and a sushi-making handbook. I have everything I need to make sushi at home now!

Mary Lindsey, our healthy eating specialist, also provided a small snack of edamame and water! It was a nice touch to the class and held off the hunger pains until we finished making the sushi.

Introducing our Sushi Masters!

1 // Place your seaweed on the mat, and your ball of rice on top of it

2 // Gently press out your rice with your fingertips until the rice covers the entire seaweed sheet

3 // Flip your rice & seaweed over for fillers

4 // Place your fillers near the edge of the sushi, but not right along the edge.

5 // Use your mat to firmly roll your sushi. [Not pictured: Apply pressure to the sushi with the mat to make sure it’s all meshed (technical term) together]

Then we had our sushi chef cut our rolls and package them perfectly to-go!

It was a super fun girls night & I’m looking forward to the next class I take at Whole Foods! Now I’m off to the gym because holy cow… I haven’t seen it very much lately! I’ll also be attempting some Macaroons that are Health Starts Here approved, so I’ll let you know how they turn out.

Questions for today:

Have you taken a class at your local Whole Foods Market before?
What do you like in your sushi? Do you prefer healthy or fried?

I really love the fried stuff, but I do try to choose healthy when I can! I save the crunchy rolls for a splurge night!

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