Spinach & Goat Cheese Chicken Meatballs

March 11, 2013March 11, 20136 Comments

Hi! I’m not sure about you, but getting up on the first Monday after the “spring ahead” daylight savings is just not that fun. Don’t get me wrong, I love the extra daylight at the end of the day, but the first couple of mornings are always hard to adjust to.

Last night I made a delicious dinner, but before I get to that, I have to share how stinkin’ cute my parents are. It cracks me up because they are SO into my blog, and even though I laugh when they talk about it, it really means the world to me that they take time every day to check it out and that they support me in this. Anyway! My sister was home (so jealous) and I knew my parents were going to cook a favorite meal of hers. As I started on my own dinner, I got the following texts

I asked for the recipe, but mom said “no no no. This is not a healthy meal for your blog”, so I just have to go by pictures… Looks pretty freaking good to me! Like I’ve said before, mom really does make the best chicken parm!

Onto my dinner…

I was looking through my phone the other day and I saw a picture of a chicken meatball dinner that I made a while back. As soon as I saw that picture, I knew that I was in the mood to make a similar meal tonight. I have to admit something to you, though… I totally suck at creating recipes. I hate measuring things out when I am making the recipe up as I go along (heck, I don’t even like to measure when I bake, but I know that I have to), so I tried to eyeball and estimate how much of everything I was putting into the meal. Hopefully you’re a similar “ad-lib” cooker!

Spinach & Goat Cheese Chicken Meatballs (served atop spaghetti squash & sautéed veggies)

Ingredients:

For the meatballs-

1/2 lb. ground chicken (my sister is making chicken burgers tomorrow, so I saved her 1/2 of the package)
1 egg white
2-3 tbsp. bread crumbs
2-3 tbsp crumbled goat cheese
1/2 cup wilted spinach
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
dash of salt & pepper
1 small spaghetti squash

For the sautéed veggies-

1/4 cup sliced onion
1/4 cup sliced green pepper
1/8 cup summer squash
salt, pepper & garlic
1 tsp EVOO

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 400*. Cut open, de-seed and boil spaghetti squash. Same way that I explained before. This one was so small that it only took about 10-12 minutes to cook.

2. Mix Meatball ingredients together in a small bowl and use your hands to form small, golf ball sized meatballs. Place on a greased pan (or pizza stone, in my case) and bake for about 20ish minutes (or until they are fully cooked).

3. While the meatballs are in the oven and the spaghetti squash is cooking, cut up your veggies and saute them until everything else is cooked. I cut mine extra thin tonight so that helped to speed up the cooking process.

Once the squash is finished, remove from the water and shred some of it into a bowl. Top with veggies, sauce, and meatballs.

Mmmm! I will say that the meatballs needed a little extra seasoning from what I originally did, so I accounted for that when I was estimating amounts above. The flavor with the goat cheese and spinach, though, was on point! I liked adding the sautéed veggies as they helped to beef up the spaghetti squash.

It’s worth noting that I baked some butternut squash to have on the side as well (holy veggie filled meal!). Nothing fancy, I just cut it up, used some spray Pam, salt & pepper and garlic seasoning and baked at 400* for about 30 minutes.

I used BBQ sauce as my “dipping” sauce of choice (I LOVE sauces. If I could have a meal with 10 different accompanying sauces, I’d be so happy)… wasn’t sure how that would work out, but I actually loved the combo!

Questions for you: Are you a sauce person? Fan of spaghetti squash and chicken meatballs? Takes a little getting used to, but I’m totally hooked now!

What a weekend!

March 10, 20138 Comments

Hi everyone! Happy Sunday!

Today has been a wonderful day, but before I get to that, let’s catch up on yesterday. Last night, I was finally able to babysit my favorite kiddos! I met their mom when we used to take yoga together every week (miss that!!) and for the past 3 or so years (might even be more), I have been able to babysit her kids every couple of months. Well, between work and teaching classes, my schedule hasn’t really allowed for much free “babysitting” time, so I am happy that we were able to coordinate last night. I got this from Lila and it totally melted my heart

So sweet.

Long overdue…

I have been in dire need of a massage for SO long. Between teaching 5+ classes a week, commuting to work (carrying too many heavy bags), and an overall busy lifestyle, my body was screaming for some relaxation. I put a poll out on Facebook to get recommendations for good spas in the Boston area and my cousin and his wife both suggested the Intercontinental Hotel. I couldn’t be more thankful for that request!

Since I knew I had access to the hotel’s facilities all day, I headed over around 9:30 this morning so I could get in a workout prior to my 11am appointment.

I started off with 32 minutes on the elliptical (my legs were TIGHT from my run yesterday) and then set up a circuit to run through. I swear, new gyms with fun “toys” make me way too happy.

If you have access to a box (or step with lots of risers), BOSU & Kettle’s (or a weight), you can totally do this!

For Time- Complete 4 rounds of the following circuit in as short amount of time as possible (while maintaining good form)

10 Box Jumps
10 Weighted Squats on the BOSU
10 KB Swings (go heavy!)
10 BOSU Burpees
10 Russian Twists (use weight or a Dynamax ball)
10 Plank Rotations

Let me know if you try it! I didn’t have time to finish 4 rounds, but if you push yourself and give this your all, you’ll definitely be huffing and puffing!

After my workout, I rinsed quickly and then slipped into the softest, most comfortable robe ever!

My masseuse was wonderful. As soon as I walked in, she asked if I had any injuries or any areas of tension. My right shoulder has been bothering me lately; I think it’s overuse, which is so frustrating. I told her about this and she said she could see how my left shoulder was scrunched up and my right shoulder was looking more limp… I didn’t even notice this, but as soon as she brought it up, it totally made sense. Iris did a phenomenal job paying special attention to that shoulder and did lots of different things to increase the range of motion and rotation. She said that my left shoulder was actually more tight than my right because it was overcompensating for the right. I think it is SO interesting to learn about how muscles work and how one little thing can affect many other things.

Anyway! Iris gave me lots of tips and stretches to perform on my own with the hopes of nursing my shoulder back to normal in no time. When I go back (yes, WHEN… I definitely plan on going back in the next couple of months), I am going to ask for Iris again. She was wonderful!

Oh, there’s more! Not only was the workout & massage amazing, but the showers and products were to die for! I was a happy, happy girl… I smell so good now!

My life is so hectic these days (brought on by myself, but still…), that I cannot tell you how nice it was to be in a serene “locker room” setting with nice products, soothing music… and no sweaty gym people:)

……..

To continue on with my “Mental & Physical Health Day,” I decided to splurge and grab lunch, too! Look at me… Really living on the edge now! My sister got me a gift certificate to Life Alive for Christmas and I have been dying to use it ever since.

My friend Jess introduced me to this place after one of my classes in Central Square and I have been hooked ever since! I got the demi portion of The Adventurer and it was ahhh-mazing!!

I mean, look at that thing! Corn, broccoli, beets, tofu, almonds, kale, quinoa & a dressing so good I think I could drink it (ok, maybe not DRINK it, but it was so good!). To finish it off, I grabbed a Paleo dessert.

I have to say, I was pretty skeptical of these, but after one bite I was sold. These were delicious!

Phew! If you made it this far, THANK YOU! That was quite the wordy and picture heavy recap of the past 24 hours.

As for the rest of the day, I may take a walk while I think about what I want to use as my benchmark Dynamax workout since it’s beautiful out. Today has been such a great day… no rushing on my end, no stressing, good food & workout… and, best of all, total relaxation. Why don’t I do this more often?

Questions for you: When is the last time you had a “me” day where you pampered yourself? Favorite healthy food place? Let me know if you try the workout!

Dallas, Y’all!

March 10, 20133 Comments

Howdy! (sorry, I had to!) Sorry for being a little MIA this week (I tried to keep you entertained with some facebook updates, photo’s and workouts, though), but from the time my alarm went off at 5am on Tuesday from the time I walked in the door Thursday night at 10:15pm, I had literally zero free time. It’s a good thing that I like my coworkers so much:)

I am not going to recap everything, but I will say that there were some very funny videos, terrific speakers and lots of laughs! I kept Tuesday night fairly low-key since I knew I had to be at the hotel for my professional photo at 7am on Wednesday morning. I lead a very small boot camp workout (big thanks to JP and Doan for showing up!) before meeting up with the crew for a Mexican dinner. Check out the size of this gym!!! Amazing. I was in fitness heaven:)

We just did a quick 25 minute workout- 5 minute warm up & 2 10 minute circuits of 10 moves done for 60 seconds each. I did a similar workout in my hotel room on Wednesday morning, too. Even though I had to get up so early, I knew I wouldn’t regret the workout!

Wednesday night was the awards dinner. I knew I might be in trouble when we had a happy hour that lasted, ohhh like 2 hours. Whoops! (note to self, there is really no need to double fist when it’s an open bar all night.)

Post dinner, more drinks and socializing, we managed to round up the troops and head to Sfuzzi’s. Enter: more drinks, loads of dancing, and a push-up contest. Yes, you read that correctly.

Sonja took a video, but it was too dark and blurry. I will say, though, that I won the contest haha

Anyway, I love that I have lots of fun work friends, it’s just a shame that we work in offices across the country. Maybe that’s why things get so messy when we get together?

SO, that about sums it up! Thursday was definitely a ROUGH day, but every now and again it feels good to let loose and have fun!

Questions for you: Work trips- fun or not fun? Ever been to Dallas?

I’m back!

March 9, 20138 Comments

Hey everyone! Sorry for being so MIA, but between Dallas and then catching up on work stuff yesterday, I haven’t had much extra free time to blog:( I talked to my dad today and he asked “so, uh, when do you plan on posting again? Your blog is getting kinda old and boring” gee, thanks, dad! So, I apologize to those of you who are feeling the same way! I will try to make it up to you over the next couple of days. I have a Dallas recap coming, but until I finish that up, I thought I would catch you up on the past couple of days!

Due to the snow yesterday, my two roommates and I all worked from home. Surprisingly, I was able to stay focused enough to get a good amount of work done. Around 4pm, my sister asked if she could come to my class… umm, obviously that’s always going to be a YES! I LOVE having familiar faces in class:) I wasn’t sure how busy the gym would be on a snowy, friday night, but I was pleasantly pleased when I had 16 members show up with their game faces on.

I have to post this workout for you soon because everyone seems to love (err, ok they may hate it while we are doing it, but that’s only because it’s a good one!) it.

Today was my first Saturday in months and months where I wasn’t teaching or doing something else, and I have to say, it was a pretty great feeling to be able to be on my own agenda! I had all intentions of going to the 10am BodyPump class at the Wellington BSC, but I ended up being in the mood to run, so I skipped the class and continued running… 4.25 miles!! Haven’t run that far in quite some time. After reading Athena’s recent post on drop set workouts, I decided I wanted to give it a try. I only got through a couple of upper body sets before my right shoulder started to bother me. Ugh, the worst! Anyway, I finished up with some lower body moves and HIIT cardio and then some TRX abs. Have I mentioned how much I am OBSESSED with the TRX bands?!?! I want some for my apartment!

Going to the grocery store after a long, hard workout is really never a good idea, but I literally drive RIGHT past it so I decided to just stop and get my shopping out of the way today. I was able to curb my hunger and refrain from snacking my way through the grocery store by grabbing a small coffee. Dunkin’ Donuts is not my favorite, but it did the trick today!

I made it out of the grocery store with only ONE splurge item. Can you pick out what that might be?

Please tell me I am not the only one who LOVES the Starburst JellyBeans?! Guilty pleasure for sure (mom, don’t forget to put a bag of these in my Easter basket, mmm k?). Also, has anyone seen this?

Greek yogurt cream cheese?! It was on sale AND I had cream cheese on my grocery list so it was a no brainer to grab a container to try!

As for the rest of the day, I have a couple of blog related things to catch up on, maybe a little shopping and then babysitting for the evening. Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!! The weather is beautiful today so go out and enjoy it!

Questions for you: What is a guilty splurge for you at the grocery store? Any good workouts to share?

Compound Moves Workout

March 6, 2013February 14, 20151 Comment

While I am in Dallas for work this week, I thought I would keep you entertained with a workout! This was actually the FIRST workout that I taught when I was hired by the BSC. It’s really nothing fancy or exciting, but it does get the heart rate up and burns lots of calories because you’re working both upper body and lower body muscles.