Tag: Costco

Food and Fitness

Blondie2 Comments

I have been eating “somewhat” healthier for the last few years as I don’t eat gluten anymore due to being diagnosed with Celiac Disease. But I was reading some articles and I signed up to receive Jenna’s 30 Days to a better you on the Today Show. I am not looking to necessarily lose weight but more for toning and building stronger muscles and joints with having Sjogren’s. So I am going two weeks with no carbs, so lean protein, lots of veggies and fruit. I also have limited my dairy intake, I only have been having one or two pieces of string cheese a day for snacks, along with nuts or a piece of fruit. I have really enjoyed being creative with no carbs. I did have a french fry of Carl’s on Saturday night but that was it, I have been doing pretty well otherwise. My lunch at work consists of a lettuce wrap with turkey, provolone cheese, tomato and a little mayo. At night I have been eating about a 100 calorie bowl of popcorn for a snack.

Here are a few pictures of the suppers we have had with no carbs.

NoCarbsSupper_1

No Carbs Supper 1st night.

Protein is lemon pepper cod from Costco, sautéed mushrooms, snap peas and yellow peppers in olive oil, salt and pepper.

NoCarbsSupper_2

No Carbs Supper 2nd night.

Protein is beer can chicken rub seasoning on the boneless chicken thigh, left over sautéed veggies and corn.

NoCarbsSupper_3

No Carbs Supper 3rd night.

Protein is boneless chicken thigh with a random seasoning mix I had in the drawer, we didn’t care for it as much, not enough flavor. I made roasted mushrooms and brussels sprouts, both were good. I will make both side dishes again.

Recipes:

Garlic Parmesan Roasted Brussels Sprouts 

super easy to make and was quick.

Baked Mushrooms with Rosemary and Parmesan

These were tasty and we liked the lemon zest on the mushrooms.

On to fitness, I have been working out on a regular basis every other night sometimes every night. I have been doing Kettle Bell workouts, I really like them as they keep me engaged and moving and it is not the same thing that I am doing. When I signed up to receive tips from the Today Show’s Jenna, she had what she called “pocket exercises” I would mix them into my kettle bell workouts. Click the link above to see what her workouts are.

Carl had asked for a nice pair of running for an early birthday present, I also decided I should get a new pair as well. He got Brooks-Revenna, I got Asics- Gel Cumulus 16. We both really liked our shoes and can’t wait to get running. I am not a long distance runner at all but I will do sprints and shorter distances, any is better than none.

Tonight for supper, we are having seasoned chicken breasts, with butternut squash and sautéed veggies.

Happy Sunday.

-Blondie!

Sweet and Spicy Dr. Pepper Pork and a Little Sweet

Blondie2 Comments

I was cooking a storm in the kitchen last Sunday. Well, more like putting some goodies in the crockpot and walking away to do something else. 🙂

Last week, I was really in the mood for a crockpot dinner. I love crockpot dinners and they are easy when I am gone all day. I stumbled on this blog The Recipe Critic and really liked it; I made two recipes from it and will check out others.

I made the Slow Cooker Sweet and Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork. As I was reading the recipe at the bottom it had a note section and the note was that it was a recipe from from The Pioneer Woman. WHAT?! Amazing,  I love her food, it isn’t always the healthiest or made without gluten but I improvise.

It was a great recipe and we both liked it. We made my Cilantro Lime Rice recipe which is on the My Favorites page. Then we did all the fixings of lettuce, salsa, cheese, sour cream all over tortilla chips as we have our big bag from Costco to finish. It had a little spice to it but the sweet was a good compliment.

Carl’s Rating for the pulled pork 8 out of 10.

After having a great supper, I thought we maybe needed a dessert. I don’t eat much dessert as it’s all full of gluten; however I do crave a sweet now and then! I found a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bars on The Recipe Critic blog and thought they sounded good. I used coconut flour instead of regular flour. I didn’t care for the bars but Carl said he liked them and like the coconut flavor.

Carl’s Rating for the bars 8 out of 10.

On Thursday after work I stopped at the Cooperative to see what goodies they had. I was looking for a gluten free graham cracker crust or at least gluten free graham crackers so I could make the crust myself. I found a yummy recipe for a blueberry cheesecake. When the holidays come around I test different dessert recipes.  It’s so I can bring them to the family gatherings, otherwise I can’t eat any of the desserts there, not a big deal but sometimes a piece of something sweet would be nice. While I was wandering around the Coop, I decided that buying fresh scallops was a good idea. 🙂 YUM! I have never made them and thought I could take the challenge.

So tonight, I am making a pasta with a garlic olive oil red pepper flake sauce with seared scallops. I will report back with supper and the pie! Yummy, I think I am drooling just thinking about it.

Now that I have spent $619.00 on tires for Mona, we are going to find a pumpkin patch/apple orchard. We are behind scheduled on getting our pumpkins.

Happy Saturday!

-Blondie!

Fun In The Kitchen…

BlondieLeave a comment

This was our typical weekend of running errands. I seriously feel we are always running errands. I must say with a Costco membership, we don’t run nearly as much. We have it down to a science that we can get through about 2 weeks with our fresh fruits and veggies for juicing. Which is helpful with budgeting and space for food- we don’t want to be wasteful.

On Thursday night, I decided I wanted to move my spices from the cupboard where they were messy and I couldn’t see what I all had, to one of my kitchen drawers. We cook a lot more and I have more spices that this seemed like a good idea. I spent Thursday night and some on Friday, searching on the internet and calling places to look for a “spice drawer” insert. I found beautiful wood ones that ranged from $30.00 to over $100.00, I was not looking to spend that much. I then found an plastic insert at Home Depot that I could cut down to fit in my drawer specifically. I really like my drawer and wish I would have done this sooner.

Spice Drawer

Spice_Drawer

On Friday after work we ran to the Coop because I have been doing research on Hemp Protein. I am going to try this protein with my juices and future smoothies when I make those. lol I also bought a sample pack of Hemp Hearts which is similar to flax seed or chia seeds. Manitoba Harvest is the brand they had at the Coop. I wanted to get the Hemp oil, they were sold out of that. I got the Hemp Pro 50 and Hemp Hearts, I will let you know more of what I think when I try them this week. My mom has been helping me research more holistic ways to assist with my aches and pains and immune system. We have been looking at the oils, so at the Coop I got the wintergreen organic oil. I will update you on that once I try that.

Hemp_Pro_50  Hemp_Hearts

On Saturday morning, we had to go to Target to get a new toaster, my 4 slice toaster kicked the bucket this week, I was bummed as we liked the toaster. (side note- Arie woke us up at 5:47am)While at target we had a couple other odds and ends to get. We have friends coming this weekend Fri, Sat and Sun and we are doing chicken and steak kabobs with sweet corn and some other veggie. I need to get MORE spices for the steak marinade. While at Target, I have been looking for a bigger citrus juicer, I have one small handled one but want a bigger one because it does not fit my Costco lemons very well, it makes a mess and the seeds go every where. So I found a nice citrus juicer at Target and I love it! 🙂 Great find!

Citrus Juicer

Citrus_Juice_1   Citrus_Juicer_2

On Friday, I ran to the grocery store by work to browse, I needed to get out of the office. I grabbed a few spices and then I saw this Beer Can Chicken Rub that was already made and thought it would taste great. So on Saturday night, Carl and I made chicken thighs with the rub, steamed baby red potatoes and  asparagus that was soaked in olive oil, fresh lemon juice (from my new citrus juicer) and salt and pepper on the grill. The chicken turned out fantastic with the rub, I tried finding it online for y’all but I can’t. 😦 It does have Dean Jacobs on the top of the tin. So when I googled that, I got excited because this company has a whole website of fun goodies for cooking! I think I might purchase some of the olive oils like the basil and rosemary infused ones. Yum!  I re-googled the rub again and at least found a picture, even though it is amazon- Dean Jacobs Beer Can Chicken Rub.

Beer Can Chicken Rub

Beer_Can_Chicken_Rub This stuff is fantastic!

Our delicious supper

BCC_Supper

I just wanted to share some of our fun kitchen finds this past week/end. I will have a few more fun blog posts coming up as I have a few things up my sleeve. I am looking into what is going to be be my fall/winter hobby! I’ve got it and it’s going to be a real honey! 🙂 Another side note- Arie had me up Sunday morning at 4:11am and then again at 6:13am, needless to say, I was up and ready to go for the day!

Happy Sunday!

-Blondie!

Costco is Wonderful

Blondie4 Comments

As you all have probably read, Carl and I decided to get a Costco membership to help with our juicing expense as that is not cheap with all the fruits and veggies you have to buy, for this expensive healthy eating habit. But I do sure love it.

Anyway, we went Friday after the 4th to Costco and besides getting our fruits, veggies and household items we found a few other items that we wanted to try. We have tried them and they are a good healthier alternative and pretty tasty, imagine that. 🙂

Costco_Chicken_Find_1

We really enjoyed both of these products.

On the right is chicken breakfast sausages that we had for saturday and sunday breakfast, they are pretty filling that I really only could eat 1 barely 2. They are Sausages by AMYLU-Breakfast Time Chicken Sausages.  Two reasons why we picked these- 1. they are Gluten Free 2. they are chicken with helps us with not eating as much red meat. I believe I have the apple, smoked gouda sausages in the freezer so can’t wait to try them.

On the left is Florentine Chicken Burgers from Coleman Natural Foods. They are already fully cooked so all you need to do is heat them. Carl put them on the grill for just a few short minutes. Needless to say, one of my new favorite foods, they were really good flavorful and again they are white meat versus red meat The packaging did not specifically say they are gluten free; however, I did not see anything in the ingredients that contained gluten, still read the label to be safe. These are fantastic and totally recommend them.

Also, with supper tonight, I made sautéed sugar snap peas. In a pan I put a little olive oil, my peas, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and a hint of lemon juice and sautéed them about 3-5 mins. They were pretty tasty and liked the sweet with the crushed red pepper. 🙂

Happy Monday Night! 🙂

Blondie!

Costco Shopping 101.

Blondie2 Comments

On Friday we both took a vacation day, in which we had our separate errands to run. Carl wanted to rent a rug doctor to clean our dining room and living room carpets. There is a lot of foot traffic and it gets dirty when you have a big dog like Arie! 🙂 While Carl cleaned the carpets.  I had a meeting with a co-worker to finish up our presentation we have to give later this month.

When I got home we started our adventure to Costco Wholesale. A few tips I want to share if you decide on Costco or any wholesale store membership.

  1. Walk the store prior to loading up the cart and buying, its helpful to have a general idea of where things are.
  2. ALWAYS make a list or you will be in trouble when you get to the check out line. 🙂
  3. It might be better with 2 carts if you have two people shopping. We discovered half way through shopping, 2 carts is way better than 1 cart.
  4. Bring freezer bags (love my Ikea one) grocery bags, or boxes for when you get to the vehicle to unload your items.
  5. Oh and be sure you have enough room in your vehicle and when you get home to store your goodies.

We got a Costco membership to cut costs and budget when it comes to juicing, that can add up and get expensive. However, this trip we added a few more items that we wanted in bulk like cleaning supplies, toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, etc… We got a bunch of chicken both bone in and boneless along with a few healthier items, like chicken burgers and chicken breakfast sausages. I will share what we liked, I did try to check the labels as well for the trustee Gluten Free label. 🙂

We had a successful trip to Costco. I had gotten home and looked at our receipts to see what was spent on produce and fruit so then we can budget how long the items will last us for and roughly how much we will be paying every time to we go to get our items.

I took this picture of our packed to the brim freezer. The side door is pack jammed as well. 🙂

Costco_Visit_1

Happy Costco shopping! 🙂