As you all know, I got the chance to go home this past week to celebrate Christmas with my family.  To say my family is awesome is an understatement.  But what makes us even cooler is that when my sister got married, I got a whole new set of awesome family members.  Not only do I get along well with my brother-in-law, but his whole family is incredible.  We've all even had the chance to go on vacation together?! Throw back to Spain 2011. 

My brother-in-law's mother, grandmother (yaya) and one of his brothers were in town this past week when I was.  His mother and grandmother are from Spain and one of their traditional dishes is called paella.  Paella is a rice dish often prepared with chicken or seafood.  Look at this yummy stuff!

Lucky for me we decided to make it while I was there and I got all the details for you guys!  Just to note: we did make a few changes to a traditional recipe just to fit our needs a bit better. 

What you need: 
2 tablespoons olive oil 
1 ½ medium tomatoes, grated to extract the juice (no peels)
3 large garlic cloves, minced 
3 cups green beans, cut into quarters
48oz chicken broth
4 skinned, boned chicken thighs and one chicken breast cut into pieces 
3 cups uncooked Arroz Bomba rice (the true Spaniards say 2 handfuls for each person you’re serving)
1 teaspoon saffron threads (we used a saffron packet instead because we didn’t have saffron)
2 sprigs of Rosemary


How to do it: 
1. To prepare paella, make a sofrito (stir fry) using the olive oil, tomato juice and garlic in a large paella pan.  Once mixture is heated, remove from heat and pour out into a small bowl.

2. In a separate pot, bring the green beans to a boil in the chicken broth.  Cook for 5 minutes. 

3. Place large paella pan back on heat.  Add chicken and heat until cooked through. 

4. Add sofrito mixture (tomato juice, garlic and oil) back into paella pan with chicken.  Mix. 

5. Add rice to large paella pan and combine. 

6. Pour broth with green beans over chicken and rice mixture until it is covering the rice. 

7. Add the saffron. 

8. Bring to medium-high heat until rice is cooked, ~20 minutes. 

9. In the last 5 minutes, place rosemary on top of rice. 

10. Remove from heat and remove rosemary.  Cover and let sit for 10 minutes. 

11. If rice seems unevenly cooked, place in an oven set at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. 

12. Serve and enjoy!

This is a fun and delicious dish to end the year on a high!  Hope everyone has a great last day of 2014!

Welcome back and hope you all had as great of a holiday week as I did.  I got the chance to go home and spend some much needed time with family and friends. 

During the week, I did get an email from the healthclub where I do some nutrition counseling and swim lessons.  They asked me to discuss the nutrition component of one of their programs...on the news!  I jumped at the chance and came back to Greenville a day early to get to share all about nutrition on WYFF News. 

Here is the full link below.  Enjoy!

http://www.wyff4.com/the-sportsclub-prep-eases-individuals-into-an-active-lifestyle/30429682

Twas the night of Christmas Eve Eve and...mom was making dinner.  One of the best parts about being home is my mom's cooking and she definitely hit a home run with this dish.  We were in the mood for something different for dinner and she had just the right idea: fish tacos using tuna steaks and cabbage slaw. 

She cooked the tuna steaks on the stove using a bit of olive oil and seasoning with some lime juice. The tuna can be cooked to your liking (i'm a well done kinda girl).  My mom also makes her own corn tortillas, but you can purchase those as you wish.  The slaw is really the best part of this dish.  To make the slaw (ps this makes a lot!): 

Things you need: 
1 head cabbage (green)
Sprigs of cilantro (as desired)
1/4 cup Olive oil
1/4 cup Red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic minced
1 Tbsp lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste

How to do it: 
1. Cut cabbage into chunks and place in food processor.  Add cilantro leaves to food processor. Chop in processor until cabbage is in bite size pieces. 
2. Transfer to a bowl.  Add minced garlic, lime juice, olive oil and red wine vinegar to cabbage. Mix well. 
3. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Now the best part of this is putting it all together!  Start with your corn tortilla.  Spread some slaw on the bottom and add tuna on top.  We made guacamole and salsa to add on top of our tacos as well.  

And there you have a delicious, easy meal.  And slaw for days!

Merry Christmas Eve!

So now I can officially tell you all why I really had 12 containers worth of oats and the project I was working on.  Boys are hard to figure out gifts for.  Especially my boy since I want to get him something that he wants, which takes away a lot of the surprise.  I had seen Beer Advent Calendar on Pinterest and thought it would be an awesome gift since the boy is quite a beer connoisseur.  Essentially, the gift is in the shape of a Christmas tree and has a different kind of beer in each container for the days leading up to Christmas. 

The Pinterest maker used cardboard tubing, which probably would've held up much better, but didn't quite fit the size that I needed it to be.  Therefore, I opted for oatmeal containers.  I wrapped the oatmeal containers and attached with duct tape in strategic places to form the shape of a Christmas Tree.   I put a different holiday beer and a gift in each container and numbered them 1-12.  I did this for the 12 Days leading up to Christmas (I can spill the beans since the boy has figured it out after 7 days haha).  

Since I put gifts in each container, they were a bit too heavy to sit upright.  I was kinda bummed about this because you don't get the full image of the stand up tree, but it was worth it to add in the little gifts.  

Overall, it has not only been fun for the boy, but has been fun for me to watch him get to open a gift everyday.  So if you're looking for a fun idea for the beer lover in your life, this is the perfect one!

Happy Monday and Happy Holiday Week!

This week my friend and I gave a try to a new business in town called Cakes By U.  I kept passing the new store on my way to work and when the Groupon came out I jumped on it!

Cakes By U is a whole cake decorating experience.  Similar to wine and paint classes, this class provides you with all the fixings and the instructions/demonstration (and a lot of help) that you need to decorate your own cake. 

 The staff is extremely nice and helpful and created a fun experience for everyone who was there.  My friend Lauren and I chose the Christmas Gift cake that is supposed to look like this per the website (http://www.cakesbyu.com/). 

The whole class lasted about 2 hours and it was so neat to see all the variations to the design where people were able to get creative. 

Overall, the experience was a lot of fun and I would definitely go back to do it again.  They also hold cookie and cupcake decorating parties as well.  PLUS, you get to eat the instructor's cake at the end so you don't have to cut into your's!  If you're in the Greenville area, I would definitely recommend giving Cakes By U a try!

This week has already started off busy busy!  Things are so much more crammed in during the holidays.  Thankfully, after a busy day at the office, I had a fun date night to look forward to.  The boy and I planned to celebrate our Christmas a little earlier since we wouldn't be together for the real one. 

We decided to make a nice evening of it and tried out Nantucket, a Rick Erwin's restaurant in Downtown Greenville.  Neither of us had been before so it made it even more fun.  I, of course, forgot to take pictures, but we went all out with a calamari appetizer, yellowfin tuna and swordfish as our appetizers and a Reese's chocolate cake for dessert.  

Once our bellies were more than full we left the restaurant and headed to our next activity.  The boy had never been ice skating so we ventured out so he could give it a go.  I was actually impressed at how fast he caught on and before you know it we didn't even have to hold onto the railing.  

We were still in energetic moods after ice skating so we decided to make a visit to Roper Mountain Lights.  This is a driving Christmas Lights trail that the Science Center puts on each year.  Neither of us had done it before so another first!  Funny enough, and completely unplanned, we saw our friends there and were able to hang out for a bit.  I love impromptu run-ins. 

I think we may need to start having more date nights/hang outs on Monday night because it sure made me look forward to the week.

And just like that it's already HUMP DAY!  Happy Wednesday...we're halfway there!

Let the oat adventures begin!  With my abundance of oats due to needing the containers for a project, I began another undertaking:  figuring out what to do with all these oats!  This weekend marked the first oat recipe: granola. 

I remember making granola with my mom when I was younger.  Homemade granola always tastes better to me so I decided to give it a try.  I did both granola and granola bars (the boy's request).  With all of that I still only made a dent in one of my twelve containers, but it was a great use of it.  

To make the granola bars I used the following: 

3 cups oats
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup cranberries
1 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 Tbsp oil (coconut or canola)

First, I spread the oats out on a pan and toasted for ~15 minutes at 325 degrees.  This step isn't necessary, but I like the toasted taste.  

After they're done toasting I added them to a bowl with the almonds, cranberries and coconut flakes. 

The peanut butter and honey was placed in a bowl and heated briefly to liquify more.  This mixture was then poured over the oat combination.  Thorough mixing occurred.  The oil was added last to create a more cohesive product.  

The mixture was placed in a pan lined with parchment paper and pressed down with a spoon/spatula.  The pan was put in the freezer for ~15 minutes to set.  Cut and enjoy! 

I plan to use these bars as snacks this week.  We'll see how they hold up! 

Happy Monday!

For a reason that I will disclose in a later post, I have a ridiculous amount of oats currently in my possession.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am all about oats and oatmeal, especially in the winter time.  It’s such a nice, warm change from normal breakfast.  However, when I say I have a lot of oatmeal I mean a lot.  Twelve containers worth to be exact.  Without getting into why I have this amount, I now need to decide how to use it in ways other than just eating oatmeal.

Now the great part about having oats on hand is that they pack a lot of nutrition.  These little guys come from a cereal grain. While oats do carry mainly carbohydrates, they contain a form of carbohydrate known as soluble fiber. 

Soluble fiber is different than its counterpart, insoluble fiber, because it dissolves in water.  This means that it forms a gel-like substance when it comes into contact with water and slows the emptying of the stomach.  Slower digestion means you feel full for longer and blood sugar levels are more stable!

Another perk of this soluble fiber is that it interferes with the absorption of cholesterol from food.  This helps to lower overall LDL cholesterol (not the good kind). 

So now that we know that oats can be an awesome addition to the diet.  We have to figure out what to do with them.  Comment below and give me your best recipes for oats!


WebMD

Very often I get clients who are gung-ho about going on a high protein diet to help with weight loss.  Recently, we’ve even determined that high protein intake doesn’t harm the kidneys or other organs.  So it makes sense to hand over that 10oz steak and go to town.

Wrong.  Even though protein does not harm any organs or the body, it still does not mean that we need to significantly increase our consumption.  A study done at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston actually discovered that only the first 30 grams of protein (~3-4oz) lead to production of muscle.  The excess protein we consume gets broken down into glucose and likely stored as fat if our body doesn’t need it at that time.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to decrease the overall protein we consume, but we do need to be aware of how we are intaking it throughout the day.

A daily intake of the following would spread out protein intake and allow for best synthesis of muscle, while decreasing extra fat storage.

Breakfast: Omelet and fruit

             1egg (6g protein)

            2 egg whites (12g)

            1oz cheese (7g)

            mixed veggies

            = 25g protein

Lunch: Turkey wrap with hummus and veggies

            3oz turkey (21g protein)

            4Tbsp Hummus (5g)

            = 26g protein

Dinner: Salmon filet, broccoli, baked potato

            4oz salmon filet (28g protein)

            = 28g protein

Total: 79g protein

79g protein is an ample amount of protein to fuel a typical diet.  Additional protein could be added as snacks if desired.

*Side note-1oz of protein is ~7g of protein.  3oz is about the size of the palm of your hand or a deck of cards.  This should help for your calculations if you don’t have a nutrition facts label.

Hopefully this gets you all thinking about your meals.  Think of your typical protein intake during the day and look for ways to spread it out to ensure that you are getting the best absorption and use of nutrients!

Symons, T., Sheffield-Moore, M., Wolfe, R., Paddon-Jones, D. (2009). Moderating the portion size of a protein-rich meal improves anabolic efficiency in young and elderly. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 109 (9): 1582-1586.

This weekend began a very big venture in DIY.  We started to stain the bathroom cabinets.  This had been the plan for a little while and we thank you all for the advice as we have also decided to stain the mirror frame to match.  

I had been reading up on a couple of blogs regarding the staining process and tried to follow them closely.  The blog Monica Wants It (http://www.monicawantsit.com/2012/02/staining-oak-cabinets-espresso-color.html) was the main source of information for this undertaking.  

I'll just give you an update and a couple of tips of the job so far and will later go back to write a post about the whole experience once we're done (and when it hopefully turns out well!).  

First off, I found the coveted General Finishes Java Gel Stain.  You can order it from Amazon or if you're in the Greenville area Uncle Jake's or Woodcrafts carries it (I would call first though just to check as this type of stain has taken off!).  Even though it says gel stain, I still figured it would be liquid and overestimated how much we would need.  It is seriously gel and you need way way less than you think.  We are about to embark on coat 3 and we've barely dented the 1/2 pint. 

I pretty much solely used the sock method for application, but may switch to a combination of the sock and the foam brush for coat 3 just to make sure I have all the crevices. You're welcome for this extremely attractive picture. 

So here is where we started. 

After 1 coat. 

After 2. 

And today will be 3.  We might do 4 coats depending on how it looks after 3.  Remember to pay special attention to the drying time listed.  

With all that work, we decided to have a low key Sunday evening and figured a little seasonal fun was in store.  We found a post online about the best Christmas Light houses in the Upstate and wanted to give it a shot.  

It was awesome!  We didn't see all of the houses on our list so far, but it was so much fun to see people get so into Christmas.  I'd just hate to see their power bill! 

Most of the houses had lights synced to music for a true light show.  

Some even had talking trees that put on a show. 

But my favorite one hands-down was a full house, Christmas lights, walking trail.  You got out of the car, they gave you free popcorn and you followed a trail around the yard to see all the lights.  As two adults we were amazed so I definitely recommend it to everyone!

It was a great way to end the weekend and get into the holiday spirit.  Now onto coat 3 tonight!

Happy Monday!