I could make a meal of snack foods and often do. My favorite meals are the ones made up of all kinds of little appetizers especially the chips and dip type. This type of eating can sometimes not be the best especially when you are adding chips into the mix so it’s important to find healthier options.
I recently stumbled upon these new chips that are Way Better for you than your normal chips. They are made from sprouted grains which aid in digestion, they are filled with Omega 3 essential fatty acids and are filled with whole grains. On top of all that they are made with simple, all natural ingredients.
*All Natural * Vegan * Certified Gluten Free * Non GMO * Certified Kosher * Excellent Source of Whole Grains * Low Sodium * Never contain: Trans Fat, artificial colors, flavors or Preservatives
After sampling all the flavors that Way Better Snacks provided me (see disclaimer below) I had to go back for more and luckily our local natural food store had a few flavors including my favorite-Sweet Chili. These chips were so delicious and had just the right amount of seasoning on them to give them flavor but not over power.
The other thing that I love about these chips is that they actually satisfy my craving for snack foods and one serving as a snack leaves me feeling full. Many other chips that I have tried always make me want to eat more and more and more because they are never that satisfying and all of the salt and preservatives cause me to crave more rather than satisfy my craving.
Other flavors:
Simply Sunny Multi-Grain
Simply Unbeatable Blues
Simply Sweeet Potato
Simply Beyond Black Bean <– second favorite and so good with hummus
No Salt Naked Blues <–third favorite and delicious just as is!
Disclaimer:Way Better Snacksprovided me with their product at no cost. I was under no obligation to review them if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway.
This past weekend we made our first international trip with Edith up to Montreal for the RnR Montreal Demi Marathon. Neil and I are going to do a recap of the race and expo this week but until then I’ll leave you with a few photos. I’m exhausted after our weekend away and have a load of dishes and laundry to do but I’ll be back tomorrow!
Lately I have been on the lookout for a refreshing pick me up in the afternoons when I am dragging. Don’t get me wrong I love coffee but it isn’t very refreshing. I then came across an opportunity to try Starbucks Refreshers Sparkling Beverages which sounded like it could be just what I was looking for.
This was the first flavor that I tried and I really enjoyed it. It was a wonderful combination of raspberry and pomegranate, a little tangy and a little sweet.
The second flavor I tried was the Strawberry Lemonade. I also enjoyed this one because if you know me you know how much I love lemonade. I was addicted to anything citrus, especially lemonade throughout my entire pregnancy.
The last one I tried was the Orange MelonRefresher which was my favorite! I was actually surprised that I enjoyed as much as I did. I like melon but not usually in drinks and I really am not a fan of orange soda so I tried this flavor last thinking that I wouldn’t like it but I actually LOVED it. The orange and melon paired really well together without either flavor overpowering the other. Each beverage is a sparkling, delicious boost of natural energy from Green Coffee Extract you can enjoy anytime. With real fruit juice, B vitamins, ginseng, antioxidants from vitamin C and only 60 calories per can, it’s a pick-me-up you can feel good about.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, produced in collaboration with Bliss and Starbucks. I received a Starbucks Refreshers sample to review. The opinions shared in this post are my own.
The first month or so of parenthood was pretty easy and relaxed. We didn’t do too much and Neil was home for the first four weeks (one paternity leave week, one vacation week and two working remotely weeks) so we were able to work as a team. We were sleeping well, for parents of a newborn that is, and we were able to get out for walks and our individual workouts. Then we went on vacation, Neil’s work schedule became more demanding and our weekends became filled with various social/family commitments and to do lists a mile long.
Last night Neil and I finally had a chance to talk about how things were going and where we need to make changes. We both came to the same conclusion that we need to sit down and create a weekly lists of tasks to accomplish both around the house, with our blogs and other work and most importantly do a better job of planning our meals and making time for fitness.
My goal for this week is to create a tasks binder with a list of household chores that need to get done daily and weekly so that we can check them off as they are accomplished. The intention behind this is that all tasks for the day must be checked off before we can do anything fun such as play a game, catch up a TV show, watch a movie or read blogs/mindlessly surf the internet.
In addition to the household chores I want to set up a weekly blogging schedule so that we both can stay committed to our family site and me to my personal blog. I’m also going to throw in there some designated time for Neil to help me improve RWT and my health coaching site as well.
Next thing to make the list is meal planning the one thing I have been horrible at the past two months. Part of this I want to blame on our CSA however I say the same thing every time we do one that I hate that it arrives in the middle of the week. It screws up my meal planning which I like to do on Fridays or Saturday mornings and because the CSA comes in the middle of the week it throws off my planning. I have to say unless we can get a CSA that delivers on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday that we really shouldn’t do one again. I hate having to wait to see what we actually end up getting and unfortunately the CSA we did this year was new to us and the produce has been really lacking in quality so we often end up with unusable produce. What can I say as much as I love the concept of the CSA I am better off shopping at farmers markets where I can buy what I need and want for meals for the week.
The last thing that is going to be part of the tasks binder I am making is designated workout times for the two of us. It has been a bit of a challenge to make time for workouts due to a number of excuses such as Neil’s work schedule, his training schedule and Edith’s lack of napping or now sleeping at night (read more here). Lately Neil has been getting home later and later from work to turn around and have to do more work after he puts Edie to bed while I make dinner. By the time he does get home and Edith has nursed and is ready for bed it is often going on 7pm and after a day of her not sleeping or a night of of her not sleeping I am exhausted myself and it is really challenging to get myself motivated to workout especially when I still have dinner to make.
Mornings are tough because Neil ends up working most nights until 10p-12a I try and let him sleep in a bit while I hang out with Edie and by the time he gets up and showers he has to go to work which doesn’t allow me time to get a workout in, or lately he has been doing is half training runs in the morning which also doesn’t allow for me to have time to workout. Now during the day I was getting in workouts while Edie was sleeping or we would get out for a walk but when it comes to naps she is hit or miss (a lot of misses lately) and when it comes to walks she is currently hating the car seat i.e. stroller and is hit or miss when it comes to being in one of carriers. Needless to say it has been a challenge and one I’m not happy about.
I love to workout and I miss it so much. Neil is running is half marathon this weekend and will be done training which means (hopefully) that I can get back in to a better routine that doesn’t revolve around Neil’s training schedule. I also plan to start going to postpartum yoga which is something I can take Edie to and they have a baby bouncer there so if she fusses someone else can bounce her while I do my practice! Also starting at the end of the month I am committing to Best Body Bootcamp, just what I need to get back in the swing of things and work on getting back in shape post-baby.
As you can see from my posts over the past week I have really been enjoying my Laptop Lunches Bento. Although I no longer have to take a meal to work with me I love creating lunches for Neil and plus a laptop lunch box is a perfect fit since he is a senior java developer.
Neil has taken all of these lunches shown to work with him and everything stayed in place with no leaking! He even brought it in his backpack when he biked to work and there were no issues!
I love how there are little compartments for each food which makes it great for packing the main lunch and snacks all in one place.
There really isn’t much that I don’t like about this lunch box except I would make it a little taller because although my apple could fit in the lunch box wouldn’t close with it in it.
The Giveaway (closed):
Please leave a separate comment for each entry. Also note the additionally entries only count if you complete the mandatory entry first. Giveaway ends 9/23/2012 at 8pm EST.
Winner:
Laptop Lunches is giving one lucky reader a $25.00 gift certificate to their store!
Mandatory: Head on over to the Laptop Lunches website and tell me what you would buy with the gift certificate.
I had planned to write a more personal post today however after a crazy weekend of solo parenting (Neil was away at a conference for work) I am running on fumes and have a number of deadlines to meet for work, baby yoga today and oh yeah that whole finding time to sleep thing. I will be back with an update soon but until then here is a recipe to keep you busy.
While shopping at the farmers market I came across the cutest baby eggplant and I knew I just had to pick some up. I decided to pair them with a few other farmers market finds which included yellow beans and new potatoes and cook them all up in a yummy curry coconut broth. Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 medium onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 lb yellow beans or green beans, rinsed and halved
1 lb whole new potatoes quartered, rinsed
1.25 lbs baby eggplants, stems removed
1 tablespoon red curry paste
1 vegetable bouillion cube
2 (15oz) cans of coconut milk
1 teaspoon umeboshi plum vinegar (optional)
Directions
Heat a large heavy bottom pot over medium-high heat; add the 1/4 cup water and onion and carrot, cover and cook 7 minutes.
Stir in the potatoes and beans, cover and cook for 8 minutes.
Stir in the eggplant and red curry paste. Then stir in the boullion and coconut milk.
Bring to a simmer and then cover and cook on medium for 15 minutes.
Stir in the umeboshi plum vinegar (if using). Return the lid and cook for 10 more minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Serve with brown rice or your favorite grain.
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Over on Naturally Family we take a look at our past weekend in numbers.
Ever since around week 16 of my pregnancy, when my morning sickness had finally subsided, I have been itching to get back to running. I considered starting back up in my second trimester but between a busy work schedule, not running for about 12 weeks and the fact that it was the middle of winter I chose to focus on other ways to stay active during my pregnancy like prenatal workout videos, prenatal yoga and lots of walking.
I was happy to be able to stay so active during my second and third trimesters, I even thought that because I had been that my body would bounce back fairly quickly after giving birth…but boy was I wrong. Staying active during my pregnancy really helped me while giving birth but to my surprise it took me much longer than anticipated to get back to being active postpartum.
I tried to get out for a walk around day three and after about 15 minutes I was sore and ready to go home. Then I thought I was super woman and decided to go out to the farmers market at five days postpartum- I was in so much pain after. Over the next few weeks I got out for walks almost daily ranging from 15-25 minutes each but I was still really sore. A few times I was so sore (and more) that I had ended up making panicked calls to my midwives office, each time I was reassured that things were normal. Finally, around week five, I started to feel a bit better and increased my walks to 25-35 minutes. I slowly added in some strength and ab workouts but wasn’t feeling ready for yoga or running.
Finally at seven and half weeks postpartum I felt ready to run and I started back at seven weeks and five days. I have been out for 3 run/walks since getting back at it and I surprised myself with average 15 minute miles. Now for me that is pretty good considering my pre-pregnancy mile was around 12 minutes. I am looking forward to making running part of my regular routine and to run a race soon.
Q: Running moms when did you get back to running and when did you run your first race?
Not a mom? Have you ever had to take a break from running? How long did it take you to get back at it and when did you run your first post break race?
All Way Better Snacks Are:
