Weekly Eats

More Monday motivation!  I have a ton of summer-ish meals to share with you this week.  Enjoy!

Last Week’s Eats

Breakfasts

A couple that stand out from the norm…

Green smoothies.  I bought a TON of kale, so I’ve experimented with a few different green smoothie recipes.  A few of you guys sent me over your favorite green smoothie recipes last week, and I can’t wait to try them.  Especially the ones with more protein.  Thank you!

(don’t worry, at a red light)

Pancakes on Friday!  After my Studio Empower workout, I came home craving pancakes.  I made a bunch of these whole wheat chia seed pancakes.  Craving curbed.

Lunches

At the beginning of the week, we gobbled up leftover multi-grain pasta salad that Tim made for our picnic in Rockport.  Besides the pasta, this dish included grilled corn, grilled zucchini, a grilled yellow pepper, a grilled orange pepper, some tomatoes, red onion, olive oil, basil, s&p, balsamic, and Parmesan cheese.  Perfect summer salad if you ask me!

At the end of the week, we enjoyed kale salads with grilled chicken, sliced strawberries, almonds, and feta.  Also another solid summer salad.

Dinners

Last Sunday we ate more leftovers from the picnic.  This time we polished off the sandwiches!  Grilled chicken, brie, and apple with a honey mustard balsamic reduction sauce.  Fancy shmancy.

Monday night was a grill night.  We made teriyaki shrimp and pineapple skewers, with a side of whole grains.  Grilled pineapple is so tasty!  Also on the skewers were red onion and yellow/orange peppers.  We had these for leftovers on Tuesday as well.

Next up were the tacos.  We made a mix of ground chicken, garlic, yellow onion, and green peppers.  Topped it off with some plain Chobani yogurt acting as sour cream, mozzarella cheese, and sliced avocado.  These were good, but spicy!  I could actually handle it?!

We wrapped up the week with our tried and true zucchini boats.  Love, love, love these.  I had these for dinner on Thursday and Friday.

Saturday we didn’t feel like cooking, so we grabbed dinner nearby at The Stockyard.  We got an awesome grilled flatbread appetizer (that I didn’t take a picture of), but my steak tip salad was disappointing.  I could have put together a better salad myself.  Oh well, can’t like them all!

Treats

Last week I also managed to sneak in a bit of baking.

On Wednesday I tried the brownie recipe that Lindsay posted on her blog recently.  You guys.  You HAVE to try these.  No butter.  No added sugar.  No oil.  No flour.  And I honestly couldn’t tell the difference.  Neither could Tim or my co-workers whom I tricked the next day.  Sweet potatoes for the win!

The other treat I made were some flourless peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, which I brought along with me to The Paint Bar with the gym girls on Friday night.  I forget where I got this recipe, but I thought these came out lovely as well (if I do say so myself).  This time, oats for the win!

Was a pretty successful food week, if you ask me!

This Week’s Eats

Here’s the meal plan this week:

Lunches

No designated days:

• Very colorful quinoa salad
• Kale salad with barley and berries
• Grilled chicken sandwiches with pesto

Dinners

• Sunday:  Chicken pesto burgers with corn on the cob and side arugula salads
• Monday:  Leftover chicken pesto burgers with leftover zucchini boats on the side
• Tuesday:  Cilantro lime shrimp lettuce wraps
• Wednesday:  Eggplant parm
• Thursday:  Leftover eggplant parm
• Friday:  Roasted peppercorn pasta salad
• Saturday:  TBD or out!

Here’s a pic of the meal prep I did on Sunday night:

Nothing better than feeling ready and in control of my week.

I’m looking for some new food ideas, especially for lunch!  What are your favorite things to pack for lunch at work?

Weekly Workouts {quality versus quantity}

Monday motivation time!

Last Week’s Workouts

Last week I only did four days of workouts instead of my usual five or six.  I’m okay with it because I was able to get walks in on a couple of the other days, and every one of my four workouts left me feeling sore this week.  So I’m thinking quality over quantity, right?  I would rather have four stellar workout days than five or six meh ones.

Here’s the rundown:

Sunday
Active rest — walked around Rockport!

Monday
During the workday I went for a 30 minute walk with Sarah.  After work I was craving some cardio time, but I just did not feel like being on a machine at the gym.  After a little chat with Monique (because I know she’ll urge me to do something instead of telling me it’s ok to skip out), I ended up doing 25 minutes of random kickboxing (non-CBC style) in my dining room, followed by a 20 minute cardio and core circuit I quickly threw together.

For the circuit I did each cardio blast for 45 seconds, followed by the core strength exercise for 60 seconds.  By the time I finished both parts of the workout in my sweltering dining room, I looked like this.

No joke, this is seriously how Tim found me when he got home from work.

BLAST FROM THE PAST:  Does anyone remember my “go to” kickboxing routine from my Thursday am class years ago?  I know at least Ashley will.  That’s what I did on Monday.  I need to bring that back.

Tuesday
Taught outdoor bootcamp with a 5-4-3-2-1 style class (did more instructing than doing), then taught Interval Training with a supersets workout (did equal instructing as doing).  For each superset I had the first move be a compound exercise, and the second an exercise that challenged stability in some way (ie pushup with leg up, cross knee plank, etc).

Wednesday
Active rest – 1.5 mile walk at lunch with Sheila and Patrice

Thursday
Taught my 6am class with another superset workout.  Used the same format as Tuesday, just switched up the moves.  I also did a 30 minute walking meeting with Julia.

Friday
Went to a 6am class at The Studio Empower with Jen.  Holy leg burn!

Saturday
Saturday is the reason I only did 4 instead of 5 workout days last week.  I woke up knowing that I wanted to work out, and mentally I needed to.  But I didn’t feel like going to the gym, and my foot was flaring a bit which negated a run.  I decided I was craving yoga and was set on going to a Prana 2 Music class.  I drove all the way there only to have not one, but two meters eat all my quarters.  Then I had to scramble for change so I wouldn’t get a ticket while in class.  At this point I was running late (which is a huge anxiety/stress trigger for me – not the best way to start a yoga class), and I saw the instructor at the door waving all the late folks down and saying she was about to lock the door and start class.  The others were all in front of me and did start running, as did I, but the difference is that I tripped and fell on the cement.  And had my water bottle spill ALL OVER ME.  Literally the entire thing all over me and I was soaked.  So I started crying, turned around, and drove home like a big loser.  Then I felt like I really needed the workout for mental reasons, but it just didn’t happen.

By the way, that Prana instructor just turned around and locked the door.  Not good for business.  Also, I should stop tripping since it’s happened twice in the past month!?  So graceful.

Next Week’s Workouts

Not going to dwell, this week is a new week!  Here’s my plan:

• Sunday:  Outdoor run + abs
• Monday:  Maybe I’ll actually go to yoga?!
• Tuesday:  Teaching outdoor bootcamp again + teaching Interval at 7:30pm
• Wednesday:  Active rest
• Thursday:  Teaching 6am Interval
• Friday:  Going to try to get to Studio Empower for 6am class again, otherwise something in the afternoon
• Saturday:  Morning workout TBD

FYI if you are interested in trying something new this month, Tuesdays in June are “Try It Tuesdays” at any of the 13 Greater Boston YMCA locations.  Members are allowed and encouraged to bring friends as FREE guests on Tuesdays.  If the friend joins the Y they can pay a $0 joining fee, and if they remain a member for 90 days the referring member gets a free month of membership.  If you are a local reader interested in trying my Tuesday night class, come on by!

Has anyone had a day that you really needed a workout for your own sanity, but it just wasn’t going to happen?  Do you shoot for quality or quantity?

Get after it this week, you guys!