Another light pasta

Hello! Today was a good day! My belly is starting to feel a bit better and I felt like I accomplished a lot. After the usual work, I took Frank for a walk, got some laundry done, made some calls to setup appointments for the house, practiced Body Attack, made dinner and then ran out the door to teach Body Step. By the time I got home, I couldn't wait to eat the creation I had made earlier!

I followed pretty much the same recipe I used here, except I steamed my veggies. I also added chicken and some chickpeas for protein.

Since our tv stuff isn't hooked up yet, I am about to go watch last nights episode of Lost online- I cannot wait! Whats your plan for tonight ;)

Edited to add: Please checkout Foods That Fit, Abbie has an awesome idea about a blogger cookbook!

Protein and Brussels

Phew! Where did today go guys? Did your day fly by as fast as mine? Work was SO busy! My tummy was giving me problems all day so I really only nibbled. I came home and did a half hour of Body Attack before my tummy went back on strike. The rest of the night was spent catching up and cooking!

Thank you all again for your awesome comments yesterday. What would I do without you guys? I figured I'd post one last set of home pics- updated kitchen pics! A lot of you noted that your kitchen is your favorite place in your house and it is definitely mine as well! Here are the almost complete pics of my kitchen (again ignore the little mess):

Down the side hall is another tiny set of cabinets and our pantry:

For dinner tonight, I prepped some chopped brussels and I ate some of the remaining chicken from my dinner out last night(My tummy aches only allowed me to get about half of this down :():

Josh received a VERY special birthday delivery from his brother Justin- Omaha steaks! I made him a couple of steaks to go along with his brussels! Jus- he was so excited, he started to eat before he had even sat down! He (/we) are SUPER excited to try the key lime cheesecake you sent as well!!!!! Thank you, Thank you!

Have a good night!

New Home

HI! I am back! Hope your week is off to a good start. Thank you all for the sweet, sweet comments on my last post-they were so nice to come back to! Moving went very smooth. Unfortunately, my tummy issues came back and I ended up sick in bed/head in toilet all day Monday. I think I am getting closer to 100% now! AND today we officially sold our house up in MD! Fabulous! To celebrate, we went out to eat at our favorite little Mexican restaurant, Los Arcos. I got chicken with beans and a side salad but the picture came out blurry so....

Instead, I decided to post pictures of our cute little window seat and family room. Please excuse the clutter, as we're still finishing unpacking/organizing!

The room has tons of awesome windows(Josh and I are huge fans of good lighting):

Any how, more to come! Cannot wait to start cooking in my new kitchen. What is your favorite part of your house/apartment/room/etc?

Cinnamon Sweet Bread

Thank you all for the well wishes on our move :) We are super excited! I cannot believe this is our last night in our tiny rental!

Today has been busy and seemed to go by in a flash! After work, I did a quick Body Attack practice and then Josh and I had to run some errands. I also found time to make some cinnamon sweet bread!

You may remember a while back I won some amazing looking cinnamon chips from the awesome blog Tri to Cook. I saved the chips, knowing I wanted to use them to make a special treat for a real cinnamon lover, Josh's dad. Since Josh's parents are being absolutely incredible and driving in from Nashville to help us move, I knew this was the perfect time to give the chips a go. I used a recipe from Hershey's with a few mods. Its a little on the naughty side, so I may try to make it again with additional subs....regardless its delicious.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour (next time I plan to use half whole wheat half all purpose)
1 cup sugar (I used a little less...maybe 3/4)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup smart balance
1/3 cup egg whites (or two eggs)
1 cup HERSHEY'S Cinnamon Chips, HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray a loaf pan with Pam.

2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, applesauce, smart balance and egg whites in large bowl. Beat on medium speed of mixer until well blended(I used a whisk). Stir in cinnamon chips.

3. Pour into loaf pan and bake for approximately 1 hour (check it as cooking time varies by oven) or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

4. Let loaf cool completely before cutting (no matter how good it smells ;)).

YUM!

Well, I will miss you all terribly this weekend! I know I'm going to go through major blog withdrawal!

Not homemade ;)

Sorry I didn't post yesterday! The day was just out of control busy but I'm backkk! After work today, I practiced Body Attack, gave the Frankster a bath, did laundry/ironed and then ran to the food store. My original intentions at Publix were to buy the few things we needed for din din and the rest of the week...but then....I decided to mostly just buy premade dinner haha. I got Josh some buffalo chicken and then steamed up some broccoli and made myself a big salad:

Josh's din din:

And mine (I also had a big hunk of bread and maybe two oat bran chocolate chip cookies ;):

1 more day of work for me this week! Then we have our closing down here and its moving time! I'm not sure how easy it will be for me to post this weekend (I don't know when we'll get Internet) so I apologize if I go MIA again!

Do you have any weekend plans yet?

Winners! Zucchini Canoes

Hi All! Hope your Monday went well. Thank you all for your super sweet comments on my post yesterday! My parents are hilarious ;) And we are thrilled about the house news! Ok, onto the post, lots to cover and little time...

First off- the winners (chosen by a random number generator) of the Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce are....

Anna and Lisa

Whoooo hooooo! Send me your addresses at itzyskitchen at gmail dot com!

My day went well....work was busy! I came home and practiced Body Attack for an hour and sweated up a storm! I feel like my push ups are already getting better! Then I did some work around the house and made up a din din from Lori's awesome blog Fake Food Free. Lori called this awesome creation Stuffed Zucchini but I have changed it to Zucchini Canoes (hope that is ok Lori ;). Here is the original recipe from Lori's blog, adapted from Giada(I halved this):

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 small onion, grated
¼ c parsley, chopped (I used dried and guessed on the proper amount)
1 egg (I used egg whites only)
3 tbsp ketchup
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt (I left this out)
¼ tsp pepper
1/3 c grated Parmesan
¼ c dried bread crumbs
1 lb ground turkey
3 to 4 zucchini, halved and hallowed out
1 ½ c marinara sauce

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Drizzle oil in oven proof baking dish. Whisk together – onion, parsley, egg, ketchup, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix with ground turkey, bread crumbs and cheese. Stuff the zucchini with the meat mixture, arrange in dish. Cover with marinara (you could also top it with cheese) and bake for 45 minutes.



I served the Canoe's with some TJ's Harvest Grain's Blend (you must try this, it is soooo good):

Did you guys have any special Valentine's day treats this weekend? Josh got me some gummy cinamon hearts- YUM!

Valentine's Day/Meat and Veggies

Hi Everyone! Hope you had a great weekend! Our weekend was pretty relaxing and a lot of fun. Last night we met my parents for dinner. Here are a few people pics from the event (sorry no food pics!). My parents crack me up:

And Josh and I:

Today I slept in! It was wonderful. Once I was up, I went for a 3 mile run and then worked on my push ups! I then ran a bundle of errands. For dinner tonight, Josh and I had very different meals. For him, I made a steak and brussels:

While I had a giant salad consisting of romaine, broccoli, broccoli slaw, almonds, cheese (part skim moz), brussels, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and olive oil:

I am also in the process of making some oat bran cookies for Josh's lunches this week.

This week is going to be nuts, so you may be seeing a lot of quick meals. I have sort of be holding off sharing details on the craziness going on over here and I think I am finally ready to chat about it ;). KNOCK ON WOOD- Josh and I are closing on our house in SC on Friday and settling on the sale of our house in MD next week. HOPEFULLY everything will go well and things will go smoothly! Whats your week looking like?? Stressful? Busy? Easy?

Don't forget to enter the contest to win some wonderful Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce. You don't have to have a blog to enter! I'd love to hear from all the readers out there!!!!

A Valentine's Day Giveaway!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Hope your day is going well! Sorry for the missed post last night! I taught two body attack tracks for the first time and it went really well! By the time I got home, Josh had sort of made himself a make shift dinner so I did the same :)

This morning I taught Body Step and have mostly been relaxing since then! The Frankster is sick, so I've been taking care of him too.

Ok, on to the goods! Perhaps you've seen this product around blog world??? The WONDERFUL people at Country Bob's think that the food blog world has an important impact on products and want to know what we think of their all purpose sauce!

To win your own sample, you can do 1 of two things (or both ;))-

1) Respond to this post letting me know how you think you would use this sauce OR a question you have for the people at Country Bob's about the sauce
or/and
2) Put a link on your blog back to this post telling your awesome readers about this giveaway (shoot me a note or leave me a comment letting me know you did this)

You have until 11:59 pm Sunday night!

Happy Birthday Josh and WFs Treats!!

Happy Thursday! Anyone else have a longgggggggg week? Phew! Luckily, all my travel etc added up and I only need to work 2 hours tomorrow :) Hooray!

After work today, I headed to WFs to pick up some treaties for Josh because today is his birthday! Not to be too mushy, but I don't know what I would do without him! I love celebrating his birthday because he is such a MAJOR part of my life :). I also took Body Pump.

For dinner tonight, we had Whole Foods three cheese pizza. It was very yum with tons of garlic and tons of cheese (maybe a little too much cheese):

On the side, we had some apple and pear:

I also picked up a mini key lime pie (Josh's favorite):

I had a little bite of the pie- very good and rich! Josh also opened all of his presents and cards. It has been a great night! We are also going out to dinner this weekend to celebrate his big day ;)

Weekend plans? You guys doing the whole Valentine's day thing?

Long day, Pot Stickers and Veggies

Hi everyone! It has been one longgg day! Thank you for all the well wishes on my cold! I fought through it this am and got in a Body Attack workout. Afterwards, I sat in meetings most of the day and then flew home to Charleston. I rushed in the door starving and made a quick dinner of pot stickers, veggies, pineapple, and a little stir fry sauce:

Sorry I am a little behind on commenting! Hope you are all doing well!! Anyone watching top chef tonight? Lost?

Itzy on the Road: DC Area

Hi guys! How are you? I'm doing pretty welll....very tired and sick :( I sort of knew after being near two sick people all weekend at training that a cold was on its way! It struck late last night- I am pushing through it.

I left this am and flew up to DC for work. I really wanted to do a DC dinner with all the awesome bloggers, but it was a last minute trip and I didn't have time to organize :( Def next time guys- whose in???

I had a longggg day at work and was planning initially on just grabbing something quick in the hotel but ended up going out to a really lovely dinner with my awesome friend Ally. We went to the Dogfish Head Alehouse in Falls Church, VA. It was so wonderful to catch up with Ally and the food was great. I ordered the Alehouse salad and the Mediterranean hummus platter:

Yum! Quick shout out to Amy over at Coffee Talk and her awesome contraptionize video! Such a creative idea! Check it out!

Are you guys watching American Idol or are you over it?? I totally still watch it :)

Black Bean Soup & Baking

Hi guys!!! Sorry to be MIA for a day but I needed time to catch up on all of your wonderful blogs! First things first, I have a few people I'd like to give a shout out to! First off- Hi to all new readers out there! Second- I want to say congrats and hello to Kim who also just finished her BodyAttack training! Third- Hello to Michelle! Check out her awesome blog Lucky Taste Buds. Fourth- if you haven't done so yet, check out Meghann's fund raiser

Yesterday was a CRAZY day! We got some awesome workouts in at training and I really challenged my body (I have never done that many push ups ever!). Great news- I passed the training!! I was super excited! After training, I drove the four and a half hours back to Charleston, ate, and passed out!

Today was a catch up day! Work was busy and then the remainder of the afternoon was spent doing laundry and running errands! I also fit in a Body Pump class. Tonight, I made some din din and packed (I have to travel for work tomorrow). What kept me going? A skim pumpkin spice misto:

For dinner I made Josh two quesadillas:

And we both had my black bean soup (I could eat this every single night!!):

Randomness: My publix finally started carrying CHOBANI!!!!!! I bought a bundle of small ones and one giant vanilla. I won't have to run to WF's every week now!

I also did some baking tonight. I made Tina's bars (which you can see behind the Chobani to the right). I also made Sarah's Granola (a staple in our house).

Ya'll have a good Monday?? Hows the week looking?

Itzy on the Road: Jacksonville Part II

Hey guys! Thank you for your sweet responses to my post yesterday! You all made me smile :) Today was a long but great day! I arrived at Attack training before 8 and we had started our first complete class by 8:30. The rest of the morning was filled with education sessions. After a very quick lunch (20 minutes!), we returned for two hours of more physical technique training (going through every motion multiple times perfecting our form). After another short education training, we did some physical fitness testing including a beep test (have you runners out there tried this?), pushup, situp, and a flexibility tests. The beep test was tough! You basically run back and forth as the beeps get faster and fast until you can't keep up with the beeps any more.

When I got back to the hotel, I was starving! I had this soup:

Tons of hummus and pita chips:

And an apple. I then got to back to work! We have our first test in the morning and I am teaching the interval track. Hope you guys are having a great weekend :)

Itzy on the Road- Jacksonville, FL

Hey guys! Quick little note post here. I made it to Jacksonville safely! It was a very peaceful and beautiful drive (I love the south!).

I arrived at my hotel and....well, it was a dump. There were pieces of old food on the floor, the bathroom floor was completely sticky, the tub was yellow. It was cheap...I should have known! I was going to deal with it until I folded down the covers and saw blood on one of the pillows!!!! I called the front desk and said I was out of there and was not paying. The guy at the desk didn't even put up a fight (must happen often).

I am now happily at a clean, safe hotel! Body attack training starts early tomorrow morning - I better get to sleep! Hopefully a more exciting post tomorrow

Scallops ...and More Green ;)

Hey guys! I know I ask this every week but...Are you excited for Friday? I am! I can't wait for Body Attack training!

Today was busy, busy trying to get things settled before leaving for the weekend. I went food shopping for the week, cleaned the apartment, laundry/ironing, packing, cooking! For din din tonight, I cooked up some scallops and broccoli for Josh. I mixed up some spices and flour and coated the scallops and cooked them up in a frying pan.

I am not much of a scallop fan so I made myself some more green ;). Romaine, craisins, broccoli slaw, broccoli, chickpeas, feta, olive oil, balsamic vinegar:

I packed up the foods I'm bringing with me this weekend. The hotel I'm staying in has a fridge and micro, so I'm going to try to eat a lot in the hotel (since I'm going to be pooped). To start: soups and a sweet potato:

Rice cakes and applesauce:

Bars!

I will also be bringing peanut butter, veggies, hummus, chickpeas, maybe oatmeal! Any other suggestions??

To keep the Joshers filled while I'm gone, I made him a big ole pasta bake tonight. Simple and easy. Browned up meat and garlic, add sauce. Cook pasta. Mix top with cheese, bake at 350 for 20 minutes!!

Whats your favorite go to meal??

Lots of Green!

Hi hi! Only two more days until the weekend! Thank you all for sharing your favorite veggies with me :) One thing is for sure, us bloggers love our veggies!! Most people found it hard to pick just one! My favorites include brussel sprouts, corn, snap peas and stinky broccoli (yahhh Heather).

My work day seemed to fly by in a flash. After work, I had my last follow up Doctors appointment for my tummy issues. All went well! I came home and took Frank for his walk and debated back and forth about the gym. I reminded myself how much more energy I would have if I worked out and headed out to Body Pump. It was a great class! For dinner, I made something quick :). A Morningstar black bean patty and a piece of chicken cooked and dipped in hot sauce on Arnold's thins and served with brussels for Josh:

A black bean patty, brussels, romaine, walnuts, broccoli slaw, and a little cheese for me:

After din din, I had some dried cranberry and some carob chips- yum yum!

Now, Lost time! What are you favorite TV shows?

Green Dog Wine's Turkey Quinoa Stew

First off- thank you all for your awesome feedback on yesterdays post. I'm glad I'm not the only who can't use a round brush :)

Today was a longggg one! I had a 5 hour meeting that started at 11:30 and ran wayyy through lunch. I didn't realize it was going to be so long and didn't eat much of anything before hand! I was a starvin marvin by the time it was over and hogged down a flat out wrap with peanut butter before running to teach Body Step. The lack of food left my brain fogged up and I didn't teach very well. Sigh- you win some, you lose some ;)

Given this, I was soooo excited for dinner. When I saw Allison's recipe for Turkey Quinoa Stew, I knew I had to make it! I made a few changes and was just thrilled with the result. It was really thick and yummy. AWESOME recipe Allison!!

Ingredients:
Olive Oil
1/2 package lean ground turkey (approx 0.5 lbs, or use fake meat crumbles or leave it out and add more beans!)
1/2 onion chopped
1 packet taco seasoning (or any fun spices you have on hand)
1 can pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
frozen corn and peas
1 15-oz can chicken or veggie broth
1 15-oz can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or whatever spices you want!)
1 cup quinoa or quinoa mix

Directions:
In a large pot, add olive oil, onion, and turkey. Cook until turkey is no longer pink. Add beans, veggies, and taco seasoning. Make sure you coat all the vegetables really well. Once all the meat and veggies are coated, add remaining ingredients. Bring the whole pot to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I used this mix:

Seriously delish and protein packed. YUM!

Hey guys- whats your favorite veggie?

300 Posts and 10 things

Hi guys. Hope your Monday treated you well. Mine was pretty good. I worked from home and then we had our second to last house walk through (closing time is approaching quickly)!! My parents were nice enough to come down to help us on the walk through. Afterwards, Josh and I ran to Fridays for dinner (my wonderful Aunt had sent us a gift certificate). I got a big ole salad but didn't take a pic.

Today marks my 300th post! In honor of this occasion, I will share 10 random things about myself with you :) (Esi recently tagged me to do this meme).

1. I LOVE apples- I usually eat at least one (or two) a day!

2. My parents, especially my mom, usually call me by my middle name (Lynn) vs. Erica

3. I don't like wine or champagne. I was a very classy bride at my wedding drinking miller lite straight from the bottle ;)

4. Josh and I shared the same major at Penn State and met in class (how nerdy ;)

5. Josh proposed to me with a bulldog (and a ring) in a giant ring box.

6. I cannot control myself around dried pineapple or dried mango ;)

7. I am incapable of styling my hair. If it turns out looking really good one day its just random luck ;) I don't get those round brushes at all !

8. I use to have tons of freckles when I was younger and I hated them. Now that they've faded, I wish they would come back.

9. I really want to have 1 kid (yes, just 1!)

10. I hope to have more free time in the future to dedicate to teaching group fitness classes. My ideal would be certified to teach 2 cardio and 1 weights (Body Pump!!) class.

Yayy. I usually don't tag anyone, but I'm feeling saucy. Erin of Care to Eat, Lesley of Living Life, Krista of Krista's Kravings and Elise of Hungry Hungry Hippie- you're on if your up for it :)