Good Things Come in Fours

One of the great things about having a blog that chronicles my meals and often details healthy recipes is that my friends and family are constantly talking to me about yummy meals they’ve prepared. 

I am always taking mental notes about all the ideas they give me and I owe tonight’s dinner to my friend Leah, who told me about this easy recipe this weekend. 

Dinner a la Leah

It’s no secret that I love fish, but I tend to gravitate to more flavorful fish like salmon and trout.

I often steer clear of tilapia because I find it a little bland. However, I nabbed two tilapia filets at the grocery store last night because they were the cheapest white fish available behind the seafood counter and Leah’s recipe called for a white fish.

To prepare the fish, I lined a cookie sheet with foil and sprayed it with cooking spray before placing the tilapia filets on top. I then sprayed the filets with cooking spray and sprinkled them lightly with garlic salt. After broiling the fish until it was fully cooked (less than 10 minutes), I topped the filets with a mixture of Parmesan cheese and basil and placed them back in the oven to broil until the cheese became slightly brown and crisp.

Parmesan Basil Tilapia

 The result was a very flavorful and cheesy fish filet!

Flavorful Fish

Another Yummy Bite

I enjoyed the Parmesan basil tilapia with a side of roasted Brussels sprouts for some added nutrients.

Gotta love and easy and delicious dinner!

Of Possible Interest

• 5 Healthy French Fry Alternatives (FitSugar.com)
• Healthy Family-Friendly Dinners Under $10 (Health.com)
• Decoding Food Labels (dailySpark.com)

Four Your Enjoyment

I saw this cute little post on the new blog ChicagoCuisineCritique.blogspot.com and thought it would be a fun one to duplicate on PBF! I always love learning more about you guys, so feel free to participate on your own blog or share four things about yourself in the comments section of this post.

Four Jobs I’ve Had

• Lifeguard
• Public Relations and Marketing Assistant
• Marketing Manager
• Writer/Editor

Four Places I’ve Lived

• Harrisburg, PA
• Palatine, IL
• St. Petersburg, FL
• Orlando, FL

Four TV Shows I Love

• Friends
• So You Think You Can Dance
• Cash Cab
• Man v. Food

Four Places I’ve Traveled To

• France
• Costa Rica
• Hawaii
• California

Four Blogs I Visit

(Note: I visit a lot more than four blogs daily but thought you might enjoy these blogs that are not from the healthy-living blog community.)

• J’s Everyday Fashion (This girl has serious style)
• Style Me Pretty (FANTASTIC wedding blog)
• The Didactic Pirate (A hysterical college English teacher’s  random musings)
• The Daily Puppy (Not a blog, but it features an adorable picture of a new puppy every day)

Four of My Favorite Foods

• Ice cream
• Peanut butter
• Shellfish (clams, mussels)
• Pasta with marinara sauce

Four Places I’d Rather Be

• Romantic vacation with Ryan
• At home with my family
• At the beach with friends
• Back in Chicago with my girlfriends

Now it’s your turn to tell me four things about you:

• What are your four favorite foods?
• What four TV shows do you love?
  

Preventing Late Night Snacking

Hallelujah for healthy food!

At Long Last: A Healthy Lunch

Though I thoroughly enjoyed more than one ten yummy indulgences this past weekend, my  body is happy to be back to being fueled by nutritious food rather than the inordinate amounts of cheese  found on a slice of deep dish pizza.(Seriously, how good is deep dish pizza? Love that stuff.)

Today’s lunch included a mixed veggie salad comprised of:

• Sliced grape tomatoes
• 3/4 c. Seapoint Farms shelled edamame
• 1/2 c. sweet corn
• 3/4 slice green pepper
• 3 tbsp. roasted red pepper hummus

Colorful + Nutritious

"Hummus, Hummus, I Got the Hummus!" -Phoebe Buffay

On the side I enjoyed a large plum and a stick of Sargento Colby-Jack cheese.

Plumtastic!

Oh vitamins and healthy food, how I’ve missed you! 😀

Now on to some not-so-healthy food discussion…

Preventing the Late Night Snack Attack

We’ve all done it. We’ve all felt sleepy and knew it was time for bed, but instead meandered into the kitchen only to indulge in a late night snack attack.

My late night snacking was at an all-time high this past weekend. When we arrived home after a night of partying it up bachelorette party-style, my friends and I all found ourselves knee-deep in tortilla chips, salsa, Baked Lays and French onion dip.

Before the Attack of the Tortilla Chips

The next morning, we all asked ourselves the same question: Why?

Why did we feel the need to gorge on copious amounts of chips and dip like we’d never get a chance to eat them again?

I’m going to go ahead and chalk the chips and dip feast from this weekend up to the post-drinking munchies that many of us remember from college (Hello, Taco Bell at 2 a.m.!), but in our day-to-day lives, many of us still struggle with late night snacking.

I used to be a huge late-night snacker. I would almost always eat a pretty hefty snack before bed. Eventually I realized I was doing this out of boredom and habit, not out of hunger.

I began to implement several different tactics to help combat my evening snack attacks which really helped me steer clear of the kitchen right before bed:

• Drink a Hot Beverage: This one really helped me a lot! I often wanted to eat something while watching TV or hanging out with Ryan after dinner and found that sipping a cup of light hot chocolate or hot tea really helped keep my hands busy and took a while to consume, allowing for my snacky feelings to subside.

• Plan to Snack: When I realized a lot of my late-night snacks were sweet, I began to plan to consume a sweet healthy late-night snack, like a cup of honey Greek yogurt, low-fat pudding, a square of dark chocolate, or a Dove Ice Cream Miniature to satisfy my sweet tooth in a less-indulgent way.

• Evaluate Your Hunger: Have healthy snacks on hand just in case you are actually hungry before bed. Here are some ideas for healthy bed-time snacks:

1. Apple with peanut butter
2. Whole wheat crackers with cheese
3. Cup of chocolate milk
4. Greek yogurt with a sprinkling of nuts
5. Small bowl of oatmeal
6. Handful of healthy trail mix (peanuts, chocolate chips, raisins, whole grain cereal)

• Entertain Yourself: Once I realized that I wasn’t actually hungry 95 percent of the time I was reaching for a late-night snack, I came up with a game plan to keep myself entertained and out of the kitchen. I created a list of activities that I literally posted on my fridge of things to do when I wanted to snack, but wasn’t really hungry:

1. Read a book or magazine
2. Paint my nails
3. Play with or pet my dog
4. Cuddle up with Ryan
5. Go for a walk with Ryan and Sadie
6. Do a 10-minute “quick clean” of the apartment
7. Update my iPod

Question of the Afternoon

• Do you snack late at night?
• What are your tricks for staying out of the kitchen after dinner?
• What are your favorite healthy late night snacks?

Back to the (Healthy) Grind

Clearly my bachelorette party weekend was full of fun… but it was also full of cocktails, deep dish pizza, ice cream, chips and dip, peanut butter bars and more.

I had one of the most amazing weekends of my life (thank you so much to my wonderful friends!), but it definitely does feel good to be back in Orlando, submersed in my normal healthy habits and surrounded by lots of love from Ryan and Sadie. I missed my little family! 🙂

Workout

I flew out of bed this morning excited to head to the gym and do a workout of my choice! For the first time in almost two months, my Tuesday morning did not have to start off with a 5-mile run. I loved feeling the freedom from following my half marathon training planning plan. I completed a sweaty cardio workout by spending 20 minutes on the arc trainer, followed by 30 minutes on the elliptical.

Breakfast

Breakfast was also a healthy meal, comprised of chocolate yogurt mousse and fresh summer berries.

Greek Yogurt + Chocolate Pudding Mix

Summer Berries

I made the chocolate yogurt mousse by combining Greek yogurt with chocolate pudding mix, which made the yogurt take on a sweet flavor and a thick and indulgent texture.

Spoonful of Healthy Tastiness

Thick + Chocolatey

Great Start to the Day!

This breakfast was delicious and I think it would also make a fantastic healthy dessert (possibly served with a slice of angel food cake? 😉 ).

It feels good to start the day on a healthy note after such an indulgent (and wonderful) weekend!

Also, I missed you guys!!! I’m happy to be back and back to a normal bloggin’ schedule. 🙂

Question of the Morning

Do you maintain a healthy lifestyle on vacation, or do you take the time away from daily life to indulge?