Katrina Runs

Clean eating is the ONLY way to gain and keep tight control over blood sugar. But eating clean is for EVERYONE, not just diabetics.

What exactly is clean eating? According to Tosca Reno, author of  The Eat Clean Diet, and one of my favorite definitive experts on eating clean, the following principals will jumpstart anyone on a road to better eating….a lifestyle of better eating.

• Eat whole foods. Stop buying and eating the stuff that is in the pretty packages on the shelf, that processed food that is filled with refined sugar, added sodium, unhealthy fats, white flour, as well as additives and preservatives. Yes, I know it makes the “food” (dead food in my opinion) taste good, but you’d be surprised how good real food tastes once you kick the processed stuff.

• Eat smaller meals throughout the day every 2-3 hours. Space out your meals and eat smaller amounts at each sitting. This will keep your blood-sugar levels even and keep your metabolism up. The book includes 2 weeks worth of sample meals so that you learn how to put your meals together the way that Tosca eats.

• Exercise portion control. Eating clean isn’t enough, you also need to use portion control because if you overeat on whole foods, you either won’t lose or you will maintain your weight.

• Drink plenty of water. Tosca recommends 8 full glasses each day.  However you measure it, be sure to get in that water.

• Drop the sodas. Sodas are filled with either refined sugars or artificial sweeteners. Either way they don’t help you lose weight or maintain good teeth. They can also get in the way of you drinking your fill of water, which you do need to keep your body in tip-top working order!

• Exercise regularly. Not only cardio, the type of exercise that keeps you in your target heart rate for at least 30 minutes, but also strength building exercises. Lift HEAVY!!

• Stop Dieting and Make it Your Lifestyle. I mentioned this above so this is just a reminder that short-term dieting isn’t going to help you keep that weight off. When you make clean eating your way of life and incorporate regular exercise, you won’t have to worry about the weight coming back.

Smoothies with whole foods

Pack a cooler or bag for the day with clean foods so you won’t be a vending machine slave!

Fruits and veggies in their natural form!

Tags: health-clean-eating

I’ve never noticed how I do some things the same way EVERY TIME. One of those is dicing potatoes. I’ve been cutting potatoes since I could hold a chef’s knife. And I probably cut them like this first time I ever did it. It seemed to work and that’s just how I do it! I’ve seen other people cut/dice a thousand different ways. When I get in the kitchen and get lost in what’s on my mind, I go on auto-pilot. So, for those who aren’t sure what “dicing potatoes” means, here is my way.

1. Cut potato in 1/2” slices.

2. Take half of the slices, stack them up. Make one slice lengthwise

3. Make 2 or 3 cuts across the stack.

4. Diced potatoes!

Place potatoes, carrots, onions in crock pot. Season with salt pepper and other seasonings of choice.

Sear roast (optional) in skillet with 2 T of oil. Place on top of vegetables.

Pour in enough beef stock or water to almost cover vegetables. The roast will give a lot of it’s own juices.

Cook on low 6-9 hours.

Tags: beef, crockpot

I knew I wouldn’t let too many weekends pass before I went back to this place. This time, I went a little later than normal and it was obvious that I missed out! No blueberries were left. I was really sad about that.

Anyway, I did see some really good looking produce that I wish I could have brought home. But, I had to prioritize. I tried to get things that I use to try new recipes and foods that I know taste so much better when grown locally and picked hours or a couple of days before selling.

ANd yes, I’m a photo geek. I just enjoyed the bright colors for pictures.

I brought home a few things.

• peaches from Chilton County, Alabama—said to rival the great Georgia peach
• tomatoes from a few miles away
• baby eggplant
• red pepper
• butternut squash—so much better local grown.
• honey-not pictured
• apple pie—not pictured because it was devoured before I got a camera close to it.

No trip to Birmingham is complete without a hop over to Whole Foods.

Granola, unsweetened cranberries, can soup, fresh parm, quinoa

yogurt, Amazing Grass, bee pollen, bowl of chicken tortilla soup and chicken salad plate. I had those for lunch. I could have eaten my weight in chicken salad and grapes. I love their homeade soups too. I can’t wait for fall when they have cider and soup!

Tags: amazing grass, Farmer's market, Whole Foods Market

My absolute favorite quote of all time is from the poem “Self Pity” by D. H. Lawrence—yes, I had it as a favorite long before G. I. Jane made it a little more famous.

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.

A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough

without ever having felt sorry for itself.

I’ve relied on this poem for many years and it always amazes me how just thinking about it can push me to find a little more of whatever I need to find..perseverance, courage, strength, energy, etc. I’m relying on it now. As previously posted, I don’t handle stress well at all. 5 weeks ago, I was on a high—literally—in Colorado and now I’m begging for Nexium through IV and taking Ambien so I can sleep at night.  Wow, I’m quite the poster child for healthy living, huh?

I’m tired of just “surviving” at school and counting the hours. That’s not like me at all. One thing I’ve learned, but need a reminder often, is that if I don’t take care of myself physically AND mentally,  I’m miserable. Simply miserable. When I’m not running a fever, I’m running or working out, but it’s just in that survival auto-pilot mode. As the country song states, “I’m much too young to feel this damn old”.

Tomorrow is another chance to turn things around.

But tonight was a great night.

FISH TACOS!!!!!!!!!

I had these in the Vail/Dillon area of Colorado this past July. They were AWESOME!!

Tonight, I had to try to re-create them. I added a mango pepper salsa because I just like that stuff.

• Fish fillet of your choice-baked, fried, or broiled. I “dry fried” mine for crunch.
• Chipotle corn-can of Green Giant chipotle corn, drained and rinsed
• Asian slaw—bagged slaw with Newman’s Own Asian Ginger dressing. Could use dressing of white wine vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, a few drops of sesame oil. I use the bottle dressing for marinating chicken so I had it on hand.
• Mango salsa

Salsa

• 1 mango-cubed
• 1/4th a red bell pepper chopped
• 1 jalapeño chopped
• 1/4 red onion chopped
• 3 garlic cloves chopped
• juice of 2 limes
• cilantro
• 1 T olive oil
• salt, pepper

Time for sleep.

It’s so easy to let life get lost in in…life. Makes no sense, but hear me out. For me, my year is divided into two parts—school and a summer vacation. Some years, I start counting down the days at 175. Other years, I am having so much fun, before I know it, it’s May. That was last year. Great year for me, professionally, but so very challenging personally. I was ready for summer, but I didn’t wish my year away.

This year is off to it’s usual stressful start. No matter how much I promised to plan ahead, stick to schedules, and get enough rest, it didn’t work out that way. For two weeks, I’ve watched the hours drag by, begging for 3:15. I don’t like living that way. I’ve been so busy with school, that I’ve let my life OUTSIDE of school just hide under the bed with Frankie’s fur bunnies. Yep, too busy to even clean my house. I’ve been dealing with sinus  trouble—yearly back to school sinus infection just hanging on. And stress headaches are never fun. I do this EVERY year in August. Nobody told me being a teacher would be so stressful….but while I’m too busy feeling sorry for myself, why am I not looking in the mirror and within myself to find out why I allow this to take over? Time to put on my big girl britches and get back to living, not just surviving.

Tonight, I decided to really enjoy cooking and pictures and peaceful time in the kitchen with the promise that a hot bath and Kindle on the other side of dinner. My air conditioner died this weekend—some kind of capacitor thing. It was finally fixed Monday morning and I was ready to cook again.

Shrimp Alfredo.

I sautéed mushrooms, onions, and 2 pieces of low sodium bacon.

For the alfredo, I used evaporated milk, 2 teaspoons of butter, and fresh grated parmesan.  This lower fat version is my favorite way to slash calories.

This was good, but I wasn’t done. I had fresh blueberries. Oh, what to do with fresh blueberries? Make a topping for no bake cheesecake! It’s been awhile since I’ve had some time with Lola, my mixer. I enjoyed our time together. She makes me smile.

While I was in the kitchen, I threw together my bowls n’ bags for lunch and snacks.

I had a few berries leftover. This is my favorite way to eat yogurt (unless I’m eating Siggis). The only added sugar is in the honey.

• Fage Greek plain yogurt
• fresh berries
• honey
• granola added right before eating

The whole thing:

• Chicken with jalepeno lime brown rice
• apple with almond butter
• yogurt/granola
• strawberries
• bag o’ grapes (not pictured)

Tomorrow will be a good day.

Tags: Lola

I’m very proud to say that thanks to all my viewers, your votes gathered added up to 45% of the $25,000, the HIGHEST percentage by far!!! We raised over $11,250 dollars for Share Our Strength, which raises awareness and funds for childhood hunger and school nutrition programs. It’s been a long six weeks of begging, reminding, and reminding again, but I couldn’t have done it without you, the readers.

First, let me share my great farmer’s market finds.

Stuff from Whole Foods Market

Oils, wine

Yogurt, dressing, Amazing Grass, apricot preserves

Pita chips and spinach queso

This afternoon, I made some hummus. I used sun dried tomatoes and garlic. This was so good with the pita chips. I also use this with raw veggies.

Before my much needed nap, I threw together a snack of chips, grapes, and queso.

This week WILL be better!

I was raised on summer farmer’s markets. My grandmother didn’t have much of a garden by the time I was old enough to help her store vegetables for the winter. She instead went to the local Farmer’s Market in Jackson, Mississippi. She was a repeat customer of Ms. Ann Patrick from Crystal Springs, MS.  She would get bushels of peas, beans, and corn for us to blanch and store for the winter.  But she would also buy tomatoes, onions, okra, squash, and watermelon. I loved going to the market to see Ann and watch the big shelling machines and get an ice cold Coke while Mamaw and Ann talked about the heat, families, and what’s looking good this week from the farm. We made our last trip to see Ann in 1991 or ‘92 before Mamaw got too sick to put up vegetables. Imagine my surprise in 2008 when my Grandpa on my mother’s side mentioned that some lady named Ann Patrick had a stall in the new Byram Farmer’s Market. On my way back to Alabama, I just had to drive by and see if this was MY Ann from those many summers. Sure enough, it was. I walked right up and she recognized me at age 32 and 17 years after I last saw her . Needless to say, there is a special place in my heart for the local Farmer’s Market.

One of the many things I like about Birmingham is the rapidly growing community of health foodies, in addition to the huge running, biking, and triathlon community. One of my favorite weekend activities is to drive over for an early morning race, then head over to Whole Foods Market to stock up on favorites that I cannot get where I live. I do this about 4-5 times a year during spring and fall.  Now, I’ve found a reason to travel to Birmingham in the spring and summer months.  The Pepper Place Farmer’s Market is open each Saturday May-late September. I had no idea what to really expect because a “farmer’s market” can be anything from a group of trucks tailgating their produce to a huge downtown square filled to the brim with stalls and stalls of bountiful produce, local wines, cheeses, plants, fresh stews and breads, boiled peanuts, grilled veggies, pickles and jams, herbs, and much more.

Check out my gorgeous morning in Birmingham, Alabama.

I enjoyed my day in Birmingham and I will always be thankful for “Miss Ann” and my grandmother for leading the way for me to follow in the tradition of the Farmer’s Market.

I love nachos! But I’m spoiled on the kind I make so now I don’t even try the restaurant ones.

I modified this from a Rachel Ray recipe to lighten up the fat and sodium, but still full of flavor.

• 1lb lean 97% ground beef
• 1/2 cup of onions (red or white)
• 1 jalepeno, chopped with seeds discarded unless you want a LOT of heat. The heat is in the seeds.
• 1 can of beans, drained and rinsed to reduce salt-pinto, black, OR red
• 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained or 1 fresh tomato chopped
• 1 clove of garlic or 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• spices: chili powder, cumin, red pepper, salt. Adjust accordingly.

Brown the beef, onions, garlic, jalepeno. Add cans of beans and tomatoes and spices. Let simmer while making cheese sauce and toppings.

White cheese sauce (where most of the calories/fat live)

• melt 1 stick of butter
• add 1/8 cup of flour. Stir together and cook on med. heat for 2-3 minutes (DO NOT BROWN!!)
• add 2 cups of skim milk. As this thickens, add more milk if needed until desired consistency.
• 1/2 cup of shredded reduced fat sharp cheese. Melt in white sauce on low heat for 2 minutes.

Toppings

• can of sliced black olives
• chopped cilantro
• chopped green onions
• salsa
• reduced fat sour cream

Assembly

Layer tortilla chips on plate.

Spoon meat/beans on top

Add cheese sauce (remember, most of the fat/calories are in the sauce)

Add desired toppings.

Boot camp starts again this week and I’ve got to eat something before I work out, but I need to have something easily portable to eat within an hour of working out. I’ve found a lighter version of a breakfast sandwich. I use these things called “deli thins”. They’re like little flat buns that are the perfect size for smearing Laughing Cow cheese or peanut butter. They are also for a small sandwich. I made one with turkey, cheese, and egg so I can heat it up at school after I work out and change.

Before camp, I made my usual oatmeal with granola, berries, and almond butter.

I packed the rest of my stuff back in my favorite lunch bag—a diaper bag from Target. Fully lined, machine washable, plenty of pockets.

Let’s hope I get time to eat all this!