WIAW #7

Happy WIAW everyone! One of my favorite days of the week , probably next to Friday hehe :)




Since its pumpkin season right now (well, at least it is if you ask me!), first I want to talk about one of my recent ah-may-zing pumpkin creations:

Stacked pumpkin french toast

I made this for lunch over the weekend...good does not even describe it. When making the french toast I added sugar free pumpkin spice coffee mate, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a dash of ginger to the egg mixture. I cooked it like normal (in a bit of coconut oil). Between layers (and on the top slice) and spread Trader Joe's pumpkin butter and PB2 (which I made using the pumpkin spice coffee mate). And then topped it off with a bit of sugar free syrup. Some easy and delicious pumpkin goodness <3

On to today's eats!

Lunch

This morning I just threw together a bunch of stuff for a quick stir fry: ground turkey, broccoli slaw, spinach, feta, and artichoke antipasta spread from Trader Joe's. I put all that on top of some spaghetti squash and topped it off with some hot sauce at work. You can still see the steam in the picture haha :)

Red Velvet Cafe's oatmeal raisin cookie sandwich

Here in Vegas Red Velvet Cafe makes absolutely phenomenal (mostly vegan) desserts. They also have good food, but the desserts is where it's really at. All of their cakes and cookies are supposedly under 200 calories. I don't know how she does it, but it's incredible. My mom surprised me with one of these at work...it was so good I almost forgot to take a picture ^_^

I got off work early and decided to do some food prep. I got super hungry in the middle of it so I decided to share a few of the things I made with my love.

Zucchini fritter topped with lite mozarella and sriracha

Recipe from Meg

Apple peanut butter protein muffin

Recipe from Vevian

Both were very yummy!

For dinner I made something super simple and inspired by my mommy <3 

My love and I have coined it "Mama V's chicken and rice"

And for dessert we decided to take a trip to Golden Spoon...we got one of those "buy one get one" texts and couldn't resist :)

Pumpkin pie & graham cracker swirl, Pecans and Praline, and Vanilla Malt. All topped off with a bit of graham cracker crumbs.

So happy with this decision haha, I love me some pumpkin flavored anything ;)

I hope you all had an awesome Wednesday!

With love,

Tuffy

WIAW #6

Happy Wednesday! I'm happy to be joining in on WIAW again :D

First off, I just want to talk about how much I've been loving pumpkin lately...and then I'll get to what I ate!

               

On Monday I made a pumpkin pie fro yo parfait, and let me tell you it was phenomenal! I kept seeing amazing looking overnight oat parfaits on Instagram and decided to combine this idea with fro yo. This was layers of: pumpkin spice overnight oats, pumpkin fro yo, apples sauteed with cinnamon and a teeny bit of sugar free syrup, and vanilla protein fro yo. So so so so delicious! <3 

Also, I've been so obssessed with sugar free pumpkin  spice coffee mate and Trader Joe's pumpkin spice coffee. It's so delicious, I highly recommend it to anyone who loves pumpkin and coffe :)

And now onto my eats:

Open faced egg sandwich

I just learned how to poach an egg, and I don't know why I never tried this before. This was a slice of whole grain bread, laughing cow cheese, an egg white, 2 slices of center cut bacon, a poached egg, and hot sauce. I scarfed this down before my exam yesterday...so good. I also had some cantaloupe on the way to class but didn't get a picture...although I'm pretty sure you guys know what cantaloupe looks like ;)

Homemade healthy calzone

Artichoke and Parmesan kale chips

For dinner I made my healthy calzone (Joseph's whole wheat pita, no sugar added pizza sauce, Trader Joe's spicy jalapeno chicken sausage, fat free ricotta, and a bit of lite mozzarella) and some delicious kale chips.

"Dessert"

I love cereal and I love having big bowls of cereal as my "dessert" at night :) Trader Joe's O's, Trader Joe's fiber cereal, diced up apples, and some peanut flour. Recently I've been adding peanut flour to my cereal (it was my love's idea!) and it's such a good combination. It just gives your cereal a slight peanut butter taste, and who doesn't love peanut butter?!

Well, that's it for this WIAW. I hope you all had an amazing Wednesday <3

With love,

Tuffy

[TUFF]y Reviews

Whew, it's been a while. It's hard to keep up with a blog on top of school and work. But I love it, so I'm going to keep trying to find ways to work it in :)

One of the idea's I had when I started this was to review products. Since I'm always getting and trying new things I thought it would be a cool thing to do. In fact, I have a list of things I want to review. The problem is finding the time. Well today I want to start and I'm calling it [TUFF]y Reviews as a wordplay on "tough reviews", done by none other than Tuffy ;) I know. I'm a dork. It's okay, I've accepted this about myself at this point in life! Ha :p

So for my first ever [TUFF]y Reviews I want to review the Bestowed box from last month. I know, I know. I'm a month late. I actually just got this month's box yesterday, but I will get to that one later.

I found out about Bestowed boxes from the lovely, amazing, inspiring, beautiful Gina (aka The Fitnessista). I love her blog! Anyways, I saw her mention getting this box full of goodies in the mail one day. I was sitting with my boyfriend at the time and as soon as I saw it I was telling him about how cool that was. He immediately told me that I should do it and that it seemed like the perfect thing for someone like me. That was all I needed to be convinced to try it out. So you might be wondering what exactly Bestowed is. Bestowed is a service that you pay $15 a month for, and on the 15th of every month they send you a box full of new products to try (ok, so you actually only get 5-6 items, but still! It's awesome.). I know there are tons of companies out there that do this, but Bestowed happened to be the first one I had ever heard of. And I just thought it was the most amazing idea ever. I look forward to my little box every month, always wondering what they will give me next. I get to try products that I've never heard of, or maybe have just never bought before. And at least I get a little sample of it to know whether or not I actually want to go buy it. Anyways, I'm done ranting about what Bestowed is, so now I'll tell you about what they sent me last month.

The whole box

I failed at taking pictures of everything, so I'll just start with what I did take a picture of.

Hail Merry almonds

Hail Merry almonds: These were really  good!! They were vanilla maple flavored and the taste was super yummy. I normally stay away from any sort of coated nut for a few reasons. 1. They tend to have extra stuff added to them and have lots of unneeded sugar. 2. I have a really hard time controlling myself with them. Usually coated nuts are so delicious that I can't stop myself and before I know it half the bag is gone. These guys were different though. I wish I took a picture of the back, because now I can't remember the exact details. But I do remember that the calories were around 170 or so and there wasn't a lot of sugar or other added stuff. They didn't have a "heavy" taste to them, which I feel like a lot of coated nuts get just because there's all sorts of sugar and other things added to the coating to make them taste amazing. If I find these in a store I'd totally be down for buying some of these. They are a great little snack that is in a controlled portion.

Plentils

Plentils:  These were amazing! I'd never had lentil chips before (although I have seen them around), and these did not disappoint. First of all, the stats are awesome. 100 calories, no trans/sat fats, no sugars, reasonable sodium. Second, they tasted soooo good. I love garlic. and parmesan. These were the perfect combination. They were light and not greasy at all. My boyfriend said they tasted like a healthy version of funions. I'm not sure where to buy these, but if I ever find them they are definitely coming home with me. 

Kashi chocolate square

Kashi soft-baked chocolate square: Normally I love Kashi products. This...not so much. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, it just wasn't amazing. It was a cool idea because it was made using black beans, which I've never seen in a packaged product before. But it just didn't impress me that much. The stats aren't overly impressive. Honestly, it didn't really taste different than the Fiber One 90 calorie brownies and they are probably pricier. It's not something I would buy on my own.

Sunbutter: This was just your average sunflower seed butter. But it was my first time having it. I really liked it, it was like a combination of almond butter and sunflower seeds. I don't really buy nut butters much (I usually stick to PB2), but if I wanted something a little different this is definitely something I would go for.

Somersault Snack Co. Crunch Somersaults: I really didn't know what to think of these when I saw them in the box. To be honest I didn't even know what they were. After opening up the package and trying a few, it no longer mattered what they were because they were just so delicious. It was like a combination of granola and nuts and...I don't really know. But they were so good! And their made out of sunflower seeds! I can't remember much about the stats other than they were about 140 calories. If I ever see these I will buy them for sure!

Kind Oats & Honey Clusters: I really liked this granola, the stats looked pretty good from what I can remember, and it didn't taste like it was loaded with sugar or honey or something. It was fairly light tasting but was still a yummy granola. I don't buy granola often, it's another one of those things I have a hard time controlling myself around, but if I were to buy granola this would definitely be at the top of my list.

Well, that's it. That's all that was in my box last month. Overall, I was really happy with everything I got. I just got my new box yesterday and I'm super excited to start using all the stuff in it, and I can't wait to share everything!

With love,

Tuffy

WIAW # 5

Happy WIAW everyone :)
First I want to address the theme of this WIAW. Lately I've been inspired by, loving, and craving all things pumpkin. There are so many drool-worthy pumpkin-containing foods being posted on Instagram, it's nuts! I love it. This week I've been loving my pumpkin iced coffees, with pumpkin coffee from Trader Joe's and sugar free pumpkin spice coffee mate. So good! Also, I've made pumpkin blondies, pumpkin protein pancakes, and my oh-so-amazing pumpkin pie fro yo (in previous posts). And I've got a can of pumpkin in my cabinets just waiting for me to do something with it this weekend :)
Anyways, on to my eats today!
Lunch today was:

Baked chicken tenders, roasted veggies, quinoa, and sriracha

Cottage cheese, cookies & cream casein, chocolate PB2, and mashed up banana

Snacks consisted of:

My last quest bar :( Loving these! I almost forgot to take a pic!

Dehydrated cinnamon fuji apples

I love these dehydrated apples from Costco. I don't buy them much anymore because they're kind of pricey, but my mom found a box on the bottom of a cart in the Costco parking lot and thought I would like them. Boy, does she know me well or what! I was pretty excited about that.

For dinner I made pineapple, chicken, and steak cauliflower "fried rice". Yummmy :D

Grated cauliflower

The finished product. Of course, had to add some spice with chili garlic sauce.

And lastly, dessert!

Peanut butter and "jelly" fro yo. Yum yum yummm

Before I added the "jelly" I dipped a strawberry in the PB fro yo...so delicious. For the "jelly" I just mashed together strawberries and blueberries. For the PB fro yo I added 2 TBSP peanut flour to Fage Greek yogurt. I really love homemade fro yo!

Well, I suppose that's it for now....need to get some sleep :)

With love,

Tuffy

MIMM #3

Hey, look at that -- it's actually Monday! This may be the first time I'm successfully posting this on Monday.

Anyways, today "marvelous" is all about the little things for me. Since I worked all weekend and had a super busy day today (worked nonstop until 2, left for class, ate in the car, got home at 5ish), it's the small but marvelous things I look for.

Well, a few weeks ago I made a goal to go 2 weeks of healthy eating and making good choices without any slip-ups or treats/cheats (my love actually decided to join me on this as well). The 2 week mark was last Thursday, and not only did I make it, but I went 2 extra days. I'm really proud of myself, as I don't think I've gone more than a week without any slip-ups in a really long time. So the fact that I went 2 weeks is just awesome! On Saturday my love and I had a planned treat meal (NOT cheat...I will expand on this idea later!) and it was marvelous, lemme tell you.

Treat meal!

This consisted of (clockwise from top left): bacon wrapped dates (SO good!); macadamia crusted chicken (inspired by a meal I've had at Kona Grill), bacon wrapped steak, and Hungry Girl's butternut-cauliflower-potato bake (actually pretty healthy); Yogurtland!! Mine was a mix of white chocolate macadamia nut, french vanilla, cheesecake, and pineapple guava topped with white chocolate macadamia nut crumble, cookie doe, mochi, and yogurt chips; wine that really wasn't that good, and my love and I!

Not only did I wait 2 weeks to have this amazing treat meal, but it also did not trigger me to eat everything else I could find (which is usually the case). The next day I went right back to eating healthy. Something else that I'm proud of :)

Sunday was rather non-eventful. Just work, visiting my dad briefly, and going to the gym. I cam home and did some food prep. My love was super full from eating with his family, so I was on my own for dinner. I took this opportunity to make a yummy breakfast for dinner (I love doing this! reminds me of being a kid lol).

Breakfast dinner

This dinner consisted of leftover squash bake topped with a whole egg; roasted veggies and egg white scramble, whole grain toast, and half of a cinnamon roll oatmeal cake (from Chocolate Covered Katie).

Like I said earlier, today was super busy at work. Mostly because I had to leave by 2 to go to class, so I had to squeeze everything in before then. Tomorrow is just going to be nuts though! By the time I left work I was starving, and this little guy was very comforting:

My protein PB&J

Something else that reminds me of being a little kid. Just a little more grown up. Some protein powder added to PB2 to give it a little bit more protein. The "J" is just fresh strawberries mashed together. So much better and fresher tasting than the stuff out of the jar. 

And now I'm painting my nails, which is most definitely marvelous since it's been a few weeks!

I hope you all had marvelous Monday's as well <3

With love,

Tuffy

Recipe: Gyros

Well, I almost did a post three days in a row...I started writing this last night but then I got too sleepy, and since I haven't been getting a ton of sleep recently I figured I should go to bed early. Granted, I still only got (barely) 7 hours, but its better than the 5-6 I've been getting for the past week or so. Anyways! Now that I'm done ranting about nothing, today I have a new recipe, and I hope it brings some joy to dinner for someone out there other than me!

Does anyone else out there have that one Gyro place that you just love to go to, even though you know damn well that it's not the healthiest option? I most definitely do. I actually had never eaten a gyro until about a year ago, but I immediately loved it. A few months ago my love and I found a really good gyro place down the street from us. Tender meat, tasty tzatziki, and amazing hummus and spicy feta fries on the side.

Well eating at this place inspired me to make a healthier version of a gyro for us to eat. I was actually at the gym getting my stair master on and watching food network when I had the realization that I needed to figure out a way to make healthy gyros. I did some recipe searching because I had absolutely no idea what kind of flavors went into making a gyro. The seasoning tended to be pretty consistent, so I just went from there. It actually wasn't very hard to recreate this into a healthier meal. I used very thinly sliced chicken for the meat, fat free Greek yogurt for the tzatziki, and Joseph's pitas for the bread. This is my second time making it now, and I have to say that I'm very happy with it.

Here's a preview of what our dinner looked like:

Greek gyro dinner

Serves 2

Recipe adapted from: Lizzy217 @ All Recipes

• 2 whole wheat pitas (I used Joseph's)
• 6-8 oz boneless skinless chicken breast (I used 3 large tenders)
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp fat free, reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1 tsp oil of choice (I used the oil in our jar if marinated artichoke hearts)
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp dried marjoram 
• 1/8 tsp dried thyme
• 1/8 tsp dried basil
• 1/8 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced yellow onion
• 1/2 cup fresh spinach
• 2 TBSP Fat free feta cheese crumbles (or more if you'd like)

1. In order to slice the chicken super thinly (like gyro meat), I've found it's easiest to work with slightly defrosted frozen chicken. You want the chicken to be defrosted enough to cut easy, but still frozen enough that cutting very thin sliced is easy. For the amount of chicken we used, we defrosted it for about 2 minutes in the microwave on the defrost setting.
2. Once slightly defrosted cut into super thin slices length wise. It should look like this:
   
3. To a bowl add: sliced chicken, sliced onion, balsamic vinegar, chicken broth, and all spices. This is what your bowl should look like:
   
4. Allow to marinade for at least 30 minutes. (I let it marinade while I was at the gym, so about 1.5 hrs.)
5. After letting it marinade, add to a skillet on high heat. It should only take 5 minutes or so to cook since the chicken is sliced so thin. As soon as the chicken is no longer pink make sure to turn off the heat so as to not over cook. The chicken should come out super tender!
6. Warm up pita bread in microwave for 30 seconds.
7. To assemble: add 1/4 cup fresh spinach to each pita bread. Lay out your chicken on top of spinach. Add feta cheese crumbles and tzatziki sauce. For the tzatziki sauce I used Jenn's recipe from Peas and Crayons (I didn't change a thing...except I didn't have dill so I added dried basil instead...it was delicious!)

Tzatziki sauce

The assembled gyro

On the side I added my home made chili garlic hummus with carrots and cucumber, plus a Greek style salad. 

Also, here is the calculated nutrition info for this recipe as I have listed the ingredients I used :)

Enjoy loves <3


With love,


Tuffy

WIAW #4

Well hello there :) Seems odd doing a post 2 days in a row, not that I wouldn't love to more often, it's just sometimes hard to find the time. But I love WIAW so I must make time. There've been a few weeks that I take pictures of my food so I could do one of these babies, but by the end of the day I just couldn't find the time (but I have been pretty busy and studying like a mad woman lately). I'm still loving this theme, and even though I've been a little stressed lately due to homework and studying I have still made healthy choices. This is a pretty big thing for me, because I tend to seek comfort in food -_-. Also, 2 weeks ago tomorrow I made the goal to go 2 weeks with making healthy food choices with no "cheating" (blech, I hate that word =/). And I did it! I'm really so proud of myself :)
Before I start, I got my new polar FT4 today!!! OMG I'm so excited. Seriously, it's not even funny. I can't way to play with it and use it :D I feel like a kid in a candy shop hehe. 
Anyways, onto the food. 
This morning started by me making lunch for my love and I. For my love I made a huge chicken sandwich. Seriously, I had trouble fitting it in the baggie. In it was: homemade chili garlic hummus, spinach, 2 chicken tenders, peppers, avocado, and sriracha. Looked delicious! (was confirmed later by him)

And here's my stack of food I brought to work with me (including my snack):

Allll for me :)

Here's my lunch closer up:

Quinoa, roasted veggies, and vegetarian refried beans (topped off with Trader Joe's hot sauce!)

I absolutely love this. Cottage cheese with 1/2 scoop chocolate whey, 1 tbsp PB2, and half a banana. Oh. My. Gosh. 

My snack was the fruit (in the picture above), plus a quest bar:

PB&J Quest bar

This was my first time ever having one of these babies, and I was beyond excited. I had been hearing so much about these, so my expectations were pretty high. My plan was to eat this on the way home. Yeah, that didn't happen. I was initially slightly disappointed, because the bar was so hard that I practically had to gnaw on it to get a bite. So I set it down and resolved to warm it up in the microwave for a few seconds when I got home. I figured since I kept seeing people say they liked theirs warmed up it couldn't hurt anything. Once warmed up, this bar was actually quite good. Also, upon getting home and feeling the two other flavors I bought I resolved that it was just this PB&J flavor that was so hard to eat. The other bars I got feel softer, plus I feel like when I grabbed this bar in the store it looked like one of the less popular flavors. 
Tonight for dinner I made something for my love and his best friend. We were all pretty happy afterwards :)

Bacon-wrapped honey BBQ chicken, butternut squash, broccoli + green bean saute.

Yummmmy. And lastly, I'm currently working on eating this piece of beauty:

PB2 fro yo topped with Fiber 1 brownie and chocolate PB2

Mmmm. This whole concept is definitely my new favorite way to eat yogurt! And I know that the fiber 1 brownies aren't the very best thing to eat since they are probably fairly processed. But, we have a lot of these that need to be used up and I needed something to top my yogurt.

I hope you all enjoyed your food today <3

With love,

Tuffy