Easy Breakfast: Veggie Quiche Cups!

This is one of my favourite healthy recipes. I find breakfast to be one of the hardest meals because I don't feel like eating in the morning. If I have these ready to go, it's a lot easier! I make a ton at a time because my husband eats them too!

 
Vegetable Quiche Cups to Go
 
Ingredients

• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach
• 3/4 cup liquid egg whites or egg substitute
• 3/4 cup shredded reduced-fat cheese
• 1/4 cup diced green and red bell peppers
• 1/4 cup diced onions
• 3 drops hot pepper sauce (optional)

Instructions

Microwave the spinach for 2-1/2 minutes on high. Drain the excess liquid.

Line a 12-cup muffin pan with foil baking cups. Spray the cups with cooking spray.  (I always forget to do this)

Combine the egg substitute, cheese, peppers, onions and spinach in a bowl. Mix well. Divide evenly among the muffin cups. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Quiche cups can be frozen and reheated in the microwave. Any combination of appropriate vegetables and reduced-fat cheeses may be used.

Tips & Bonus Information

77 calories; 3g total fat; 2g saturated fat; 10mg cholesterol; 3g carbohydrate; 9g protein; 2g fiber; 160mg sodium

Yield: 6
Preparation Time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Motivational Tricks!

So, it's almost the middle of January. After a few weeks of New Year enthusiasm, it's easy to lose your motivation. I have found some very cool motivational tricks that I thought I'd share. 

Set a goal of how many workouts you want to do in one month. Print off a blank calendar page and check off each one as you go. When you complete them all, treat yourself to something fun like a new book (ok, not everyone is as dorky as me) or a clothing item, workout clothes, makeup, whatever! Print off a picture of it to keep right above the calendar page.

 

 I found this next one on Pinterest. I know, that is American money in the jar. Loonies and Toonies don't take up as much room unfortunately. What you do is, decide on an amount for each workout, say a dollar or two dollars, depending on your budget. For each workout you complete, you put the money in the jar. When it gets to a pre-determined amount say 50 or 100 dollars, you get to spend it on something fun for yourself guilt free!

Speaking of Pinterest, I find it to be an inspiring motivational tool. There are so many cute sayings and images. There are also tons of links for healthy recipes. If you want a Pinterest invitation to start your own pinboards, let me know and I'll send you one. Read here for more info on what Pinterest is all about and how to use it and click here if you want to see my boards!

Another thing is, if you are losing motivation try to make it as easy as possible on yourself. By that I mean, get organized so it takes no effort. Prep lots of food at once so meals are a piece of cake (not literally, of course!) keep your gym bag ready to go with water, workout clothes and shoes, ipod and headphones, magazines, snacks, whatever you need. Lay out your clothes before you go to bed so you have everything ready to just grab what you need and go! Team up with a friend to get you moving!

The motivation you feel when you are about to embark on a new goal is nothing compared to when you are on your way and doing it! I had an amazing workout with a friend of mine yesterday and I felt so amazing that I am on this path that I'm on. 

If you need any help getting motivated, feel free to message me, email me, call me whatever. I am here to help! I didn't become a personal trainer just to coach people on fitness, I wanted to cheer people on in their goals! This part of my business is completely and totally free of charge! :-)

I'd love it if you tell me what motivates you in the comments below!

Taren

Who Inspires You?

In my opinion, inspiration is the fuel of life. It lights my fire and gets me moving on things that are not easy. I have always strived to get in the best shape possible and I know that despite my passion for a healthy lifestyle, that has not happened yet. Now I realise that I wasn't training the most effective way and I need to clean up my diet even more!

This weekend I finished my Personal Training course. No, I'm not over the moon yet because all though my original certification education is finished (but education is never finished!) I still have to have a practical evaluation and take a 3 hour final exam. This is not as easy as it looks people! The registration process I am going though, BCRPA is not an easy one. They have the highest standards in Canada and  they do not want lazy, stupid, neglectful trainers so they make you jump through many hoops. The closer I get to the finish line, the more grateful I am for this.

What I learned in Personal Training: That most of the information out there for people trying to get into shape is not relevant or helpful to specific people. My passion is to help women who have struggled with their weight as I have, and I can't wait to get started. I have learned effective methods for fat loss and I now have a new workout program thanks to my personal training course that I can't wait to start trying it out on myself and let you all know how it goes.

I would like to leave you with someone that has inspired me. I have many, many people that inspire me but Taryn Shea Loughran is hanging on my inspiration poster. I was so impressed when I read her story in Oxygen magazine that I tore it out and hung it up. I also love that  she is Canadian and she has the same name as me! Click here to read her story! She has a Facebook fan page here and she is also launching a website September 1st.

Here is her before her fitness transformation:

After:

How inspiring is THAT? Who inspires you?

Taren

I heart soup

Originally posted on Life Of T October 27, 2010. Making this today!

I have a thing with soup. I want it all the time.

In the past week, it seems like the temperatures have dropped because I am always freezing. This seems to kick off my soup obsession that continues until about June.

I think this stems from when I was younger and soup was the one thing I could make myself when I didn’t like what my family was eating. This was pretty much every day. I used to be an extremely picky eater. Now I like almost everything except sushi and some seafood.

When I was younger, I loved to eat canned soup, usually vegetable and my special occasion soup was Campbell’s Vegetable mixed with Lipton Chicken Noodle. If you haven’t tried this before, you must. Especially if you’ve gotten hit with a lovely fall cold.

However with the exception of my special occasion soup, I find I am so not into canned soup anymore! I absolutely love making homemade soup, especially since you can make a big batch and have soup every day for a week. If you’re like me, that’s perfect!

One of my favourite things about soup is that it can be so good for you depending on the ingredients. For me, it’s the best way to get veggies in!

My go-to recipe is one I found in Oxygen magazine years ago and it’s a super-clean recipe!

(I apologize for the picture quality, I always forget to take a photo when I cook it so I took a photo of the magazine.)

Healthy Hodgepodge Soup

Ingredients:

Canola Cooking Spray
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped cerly
1/2 cup chopped carrots
2 minced garlic cloves
1/2 tsp ground black pepper, divided
pinch kosher salt
1 1/2 cups water
5 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
2 tsp tomato paste (which I never remember to buy, tastes fine without it)
1/2 cup finely chopped green beans
4 bay leaves
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 cup uncooked whole wheat ziti
1/2 cup canned great northen beans (drained and rinsed)-(I always use white kidney beans, I can never find great northern beans)
2 cups chopped escarole (also difficult to find, I found it at superstore but tastes fine without it)1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup fresh italian flat leaft parsley chopped


Instructions:
1. Spray large non-stick skillet with cooking spray. On medium-high heat, saute onions, celery, carrots,garlic, 1/4 tsp pepper and salt for about 8 minutes
2. In a large pot, add broth, water, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, green beans, bay leaves, basil, oragano, remaining pepper and saute mixture. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.
3. After 25 minutes add pasta, beans, escarole, balsamic vinegar and parsley. Cover and simmer for 10-15 more minutes. Vegetables should be slightly soft and pasta should be cooked through. Remove bay leaves.

Enjoy!

Tips & Bonus Information

This soup is soo easy to substitute anything you want! I like to switch up my whole wheat pasta shapes to keep it interesting. You can used crushed tomatoes or diced if you like chunks of tomatoes in your soup. You can add different veggies, like chunks of potatoes. I also tried a variation of this soup in my slowcooker and it tasted fantastic!

I'd also like to try adding ground turkey at some point!

Nutritional Info:

Calories: 169, Total Fats: 2g, Sodium 362 mg, Total carbohydrates: 34g, Dietary fibre 9g, Sugars 4g, Protein 7g, Iron 1mg

Yield: Makes 10 servings.
Cooking Time: 1 hour 10 minutes total

Closer!

As I get closer and closer to my Certified Personal Trainer status, I want to get this blog updated more often. I find it difficult to have two separate blogs, maybe one day I will merge them, who knows. I will try to update this more often but if you don't read my Life of T blog you may have missed some of my recipes, so I will be reposting them on here. Enjoy! :)


Taren

How to Eat Healthy the Easy Way

Have you ever gotten busy and let yourself get too hungry? And then when you ate you either felt way too full or not satisfied or just didn't feel good for the rest of the day? I do too sometimes. Yesterday, for instance, I was out of the house for a few hours between 11 and 3 and since I was away this weekend, I didn't have any snacks in the house to take with me.

This brings me to the single most important (in my opinion) aspect of healthy eating:

                                

                                           BEING PREPARED!!

It reminds me of one of my favourite quotes: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. I think that was Winston Churchill but correct me if I'm wrong! Anyways, being prepared meaning having food ready to eat is such a HUGE part of eating healthy. It makes it so much easier to stay on track. Getting hungry is a recipe for disaster. Last time I let myself get too hungry, I went and got a burger. It was gross and I threw it out after a few bites and I was mad because it was expensive and I make better ones at home. It made me resolve to try harder to not let that happen.

Here are a few tips that have helped me and also my husband, who greatly benefits from my planning and preparing meals ahead of time.

1. Make big batches of your healthy staples. Mine are chicken, brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta for my husband, and tuna (a tiny bit of light mayo with diced pickles)

2. Make a big pot of clean something! It's still raining in most parts so get your soup/stew/chili eating time in now. If you use a slow cooker, it takes minutes to prepare lunches for the entire week. See my recipes tab for my fave recipes. Also what I love about this is soups and stews are so filling!

3. Make some homemade protein bars! They are filling, nutritious and help you get in extra protein without yet another chicken breast! Plus they hit the sweet spot!

4. Hard boil eggs. If you pop out the yolk or just eat one, they are high in protein and low in calories and fill you up fast. It's a perfect thing to pair a piece of fruit with.

5. Speaking of fruit: buy some. Wash it. Put it in your fridge in a pretty bowl so you see it when you open the door.

 6. Also, veggies. I find having pre-cut veggies helps me a lot because I never feel like cutting them when I'm hungry.

7. Store everything in glass containers. They are a great investment for your health since they are easy to clean and won't contaminate your food.

These are President's Choice Containers

8. Have a nice big pitcher of water in your fridge at all times. I have a Brita, and for some reason I just drink more water if I can pour myself a nice cold pure glass. I also like adding slices of lemon.

9. Have a nice reusable water bottle (or a few, just in case) so you can leave the house with a full bottle of water at all times.

10. I also got my husband a shaker cup and stocked up on 1L containers of almond milk so he can have low calorie protein shakes at work whenever he gets hungry. We scoop out servings and put them in baggies so they're ready to go.

 I hope you liked my tips, they have certainly made eating clean easier for me! I'd love to hear your tips too, so leave them in the comment section!

Taren

Crushing Your Cravings: Breaded Zucchini Sticks

I think we can all agree one of the hardest parts of following a healthy lifestyle is the crazy cravings that can happen. You may be eating clean and loving your diet, but sometimes you just want something really, really bad. I'm not going to tell you that it's okay, eat whatever you want. That can get out of hand VERY quickly! First it's just a slice of pizza, then maybe a class of pop and while your at it you might as well have a slice of birthday cake, you don't want to be rude after all. This downward spiral is very familiar to me. However, I have found certain things that help me cut the cravings.

First of all, don't eat the crap!! It's scientifically proven that when you have sugar or fat in your system, your going to want more. If you don't believe me, try it yourself. Cut the junk and within a few days you won't want it nearly as bad. I have a good personal example of this. My husband and I have a serious weakness for Coca-Cola. You don't have to tell us it's practically poison, we know. But it's so damn good!! Around Christmastime we had it in our house a little bit because it was a special occasion. But what happened after Christmas was bad news. My husband was in trade school for 7 weeks  and was spending every night studying in our 700 square foot apartment. It was stressful and we were in survival mode and we had ourselves a wee bit too much Coke. Okay, a lot too much. Also chips and salsa. They were bad delicious days. Anyways, mid February my husband finished school (with wicked grades, I might add) and we cut the crap. Cold Turkey. Honestly, I don't even think about drinking Coke now. There might be a time later where I get a weakness for it again but as long as I can stay away from it, I know I won't have cravings.

Here's another example of me cutting my cravings. I used to work in an office that was super close to a Starbucks. It got to the point where I was craving Earl Grey Tea Lattes on a daily basis and BAD!  I wasn't gaining weight but they have sugar in them and it just was not a good situation at $5 bucks a day. So what I did was bought a tin of the Earl Grey Tea and as soon as I got to work I would have a cup just with a bit of milk and Splenda. As soon as I had some warm Earl Grey in my tummy, my desperate need for Starbucks went away.

I have realised that I can have a healthier version of something I love and when I do, I won't crave the fatty/sugary version. Awesome!!

Now a lot of the things that I love are some kind of bread/pasta/tomato sauce/cheese type things...I don't need to tell you I can't afford to eat like that! So I don't bother with the bread most of the time, and I make my own whole wheat pasta with a few different variations. I recently came across a recipe at one of my favourite sites EVER, Skinny Taste, that had me drooling so I decided to give it a whirl and I'm so glad I did because they were fantastic. I honestly felt as satisfied as if I had a big bowl of pasta!

                                            Skinny Taste's Breaded Zucchini Sticks

Note: I was lazy and cut mine too large. Don't do that!

Ingredients: 

• 3 medium zucchini sliced into 3" x 1/2" sticks
• 1 large egg white
• 1/3 cup seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• cooking spray
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  
• salt
• fresh pepper

Instructions:

In a small bowl, beat egg whites and season with salt and pepper. In a ziplock bag, place breadcrumbs, garlic powder and cheese and shake well. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray and set aside.

Dip zucchini sticks into eggs then into bread crumb and cheese mixture, a few at a time and shake to coat. Place the breaded zucchini in a single layer and spray more cooking spray on top. Bake at 425° for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with 1/2 cup marinara sauce for dipping.

SkinnyTaste has a super simple recipe for Marinara along with her breaded zucchini stick recipe, so check it out here. I didn't have any canned tomatoes so I just used jarred tomato sauce, obviously homemade is always better if you can.

Enjoy!!

Taren