Quinoa Granola

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Say, what?! I know, it sounds a little weird, right? That’s what I thought when my sister sent me an email with a link to this recipe from her favorite blog, Iowa Girl Eats, but after making it, I can promise you there’s nothing weird about it!

I made a number of additions/substitutions based on what I had in the apartment and based on what I thought I wanted to include in it, but using her recipe as a base was a great place to start. I never would have thought to have included quinoa in a granola recipe!

Crunch Quinoa Granola– Adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

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Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
1/2 cup sliced almonds– I used 1/2 cup chopped almonds and 1/4 cup copped pecans
2 Tablespoons flax seeds– I ran out of flax seeds so I left this out
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of salt
1/4 cup honey– I used a mixture of honey, maple syrup and agave. I probably used between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup combined.
2 Tablespoons coconut oil, melted– Left this out since I didn’t have any. I added in 2 TBSP of almond butter instead.
1 cup raisins– I used craisins instead because I like them better

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350*. Combine all ingredients except for the raisins or craisins.

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2. Spread onto a baking sheet and bake at 350* for 20-30 minutes, checking on it periodically and stirring to ensure that everything is baked evenly.

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3. When it’s cooked, remove from the oven, add the raisins or craisins and enjoy!

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Not surprisingly, I couldn’t keep my hands out of this granola. Ugh, it’s such an obsession! What I loved about this granola, though, was the extra dose of protein and fiber from the quinoa that helped kept me full and satisfied for longer. It was the prefect fuel for the run I did after eating it by the BIG handful.

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Needless to say, this batch didn’t last every long… whoops!

Questions for you: What’s the “weirdest”, but surprisingly delicious, recipe you’ve ever made? Do you prefer raisins or craisins?

Wednesday Workout: Full Body Supersets Workout

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As I said on Monday, I taught a workout in SHRED last week that I loved when I did it on my own, but wasn’t crazy about it when I was teaching it. I based my workout off of Athena’s 35 Minute Upper Body Blast workout that she posted a while ago. I knew I wanted to do an upper body strength workout, but since I was at my apartment, obviously without a rowing machine, I had to do something to replace that piece of the workout. Enter: core supersets and short cardio blasts.

Since the workout left me really sore, I thought it would be good to teach (I’m evil that way 😉 ), but I knew I wanted to add in some lower body super sets so that my members could have a more well-rounded workout (when I workout on my own I can pick and choose what I want to do, which is why I loved Athena’s upper body focused workout). Here’s what I came up with!

Full Body Supersets

I’m not really sure why I didn’t love teaching this, perhaps because we did each superset 3 times through and it felt too repetitive? Regardless, I liked the actual workout and can see myself doing it again, which is why I’m sharing it with you today!

I think most of the moves are self-explanatory, but if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Also, if you’re running short on time, but still want a full body workout, feel free to do only one or two rounds of each strength/core exercises. Or, you can skip the cardio! I do this all the time with workouts that I see online. I’ll change something, add something, remove something… you get the idea.

Let me know if you try this!

Questions for you: Instructor friends- do you like to teach different formats from what you do when you’re on your own?

Weekending: Relaxing, Spontaneous Girls Night, Sunday Dinner

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I wasn’t sure what my weekend was going to entail going into it, which is very unlike me! For once, I went entirely with the flow and sans plans. It was quite nice, might I add!

Friday was weird since I went into the office. Luckily, we can wear jeans on Friday’s now. Since I was dressed and had my hair done, I had wanted to get drinks after work, but no one was around and by the time I got home, the last thing I wanted to do was go back out in the cold so I just stayed in.

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Saturday morning I took a class at Recycle studio with my friend Lindsay which was the best way to start my day!

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We grabbed coffee (tea for me) at Starbucks after class and it was really interesting to hear how she got into teaching at Recycle. It makes me want to do it, but it was a huge time investment and I don’t know if my schedule allows for that right now. By the time I got home, I was starvinggggg, so I quickly whipped up this delicious quesadilla.

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Ground turkey, mushrooms, kale and cheese. It.was.perfect.

I was able to spend the rest of the afternoon catching up on a LOT of blogging. I don’t often have a solid chunk of time to do that, but I wish I did because I was so productive.

I met my sister and Amy at Stoddard’s in Downtown Crossing for a drink before our dinner reservations at 49 Social. It worked out perfectly because they are literally across the street from each other. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you probably remember that the “Shapleigh” girls like to get together for girls nights. Rachel was out of town, so it was just the 3 of us this time.

49 Social was really, really good! I didn’t take any pictures of the food, but we got hummus, a Duck Confit Quesadilla, a burger and some asparagus and everything was absolutely delicious. We always like to get things from the bar menu or appetizer section since we all like to share, so it was perfect. Danielle and I shared a bottle of this sauvignon blanc which was quite tasty.

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For once, I didn’t want to go home after dinner. We were having so much fun that we decided to keep it going and have “one more” at Gem as it was nearby. Well, “one more” ended up being “three more” without even really realizing it! I absolutely love nights that turn out like this. We were all just living in the moment and enjoying being out together, so we kept it going.

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We met the young man in the photo above when Danielle was showing off her stellar dance moves. He was visiting from Australia and I’m not sure he really knew how to handle us. It was hilarious.

Anyway! Sunday was productive, but also flew by. I went grocery shopping and then next thing I knew, it was time to head into the city for a class at Exhale Spa. When I got home, I got cookin’ in the kitchen. I made garlic and cheese mashed cauliflower, roasted veggies and marinated chicken. It was simple, but healthy and really good. The flavors were spot on.

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Fantastic way to end my weekend!

Questions for you: When’s the last time you were spontaneous? What was your best meal over the weekend? What was the best part of your weekend?

This Week: Workouts, Things I’m Looking Forward To, & Week 3 of the January Challenge Check-In

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Hi there! Happy Monday! I hope you’re all feeling refreshed after the weekend.

At the beginning of last week, I was feeling bored with my workouts. I don’t really know why, because I feel like it was just a few weeks ago where I said my workouts left me really sore, so that must mean I’ve been doing different things, right? Whatever the reason for having that feeling, it went away just a few days into the week. Between subbing a class, doing an at-home workout and going to my first class at Recycle Studio, I had a fun-filled week of fitness by the end of it!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I did 20 minutes on the cross trainer before doing 10 minutes of abs and teaching kickboxing at the Watertown BSC.
  • Tuesday- It was my plan to go to the gym after work, but by the time I left work it was freezing cold, windy and snowy, so I opted to take advantage of a non-teaching day and head right home after work to do an at-home workout. I based it off of this workout from Athena. I obviously didn’t row, but I did 2 minutes of cardio and core supersets in place of the rowing. My chest was so sore on Wednesday!

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  • Wednesday- I ran 3.5 miles before teaching a packed UXF Burn class. Dana asked for a hard workout and although I planned it before  her request, I think it still ended up being pretty hard!
  • Thursday- I taught SHRED and Kickboxing. I based my SHRED workout off of what I did at home on Tuesday night, and although it was a good workout, it didn’t pump me up while teaching it. Fitness instructors- do any of you ever experience this? You do a workout on your own and love it, but don’t love to teach it? Hmmm.
  • Friday- Rest day! Besides my normal walk to and from work… I had an exciting meeting that I’ll share more about with you later 😉
  • Saturday- I took a “Reboot” ride with my friend Lindsay at Recycle Studio.

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  • Sunday- I went to Exhale Spa for one of their Core Fusion Barre classes. Since I bought the Guilt 3 class pass, I wanted to try out different classes. Last week was yoga, this week was Barre. I liked the class, but I think I like Pure Barre better!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m not sure what I feel like doing after work today! I received a 3-week pass to the gym in my new office building and they offer a ton of classes so I may try something there during or after work or I may head to spin at the East Boston YMCA. After my class with Linsday, though, I’m not sure I can go back to regular ol’ spinning!
  • Tuesday- I have plans after work so I’ll get up and probably do some strength training in the morning.
  • Wednesday- The usual: running and then teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- Again, the usual: teaching SHRED and Kickboxing
  • Friday- Rest- but maybe some yoga when I work from home.
  • Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA.
  • Sunday- I may be running a 5k in Cambridge with some BSC gym friends. If I don’t do that, I’ll do something else since I think it’s the Super Bowl and even though I don’t watch football, I’ll probably be around people who do… and eating football food (whatever that means… I’m pretty sure it’s not healthy…), so a workout before that is not a bad idea.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

I think I’m getting together with someone on Tuesday after work. We talked about going grocery shopping and cooking dinner, which is one of my favorite things to do! I’m also looking forward to hopefully running a 5K this weekend and then rewarding myself with food, drinks and friends while pretending to watch watching football.

January Burpee and Push-Up Challenge- Week 3 Check-In

I have to be honest with you guys. I did NOT want to do the challenge yesterday. I had gone to a barre class and showered and was feeling super relaxed when I got home and the LAST thing I wanted to do was get out of my peaceful mood and bust out 100 push-ups and burpees.  We also did a LOT of push-ups in the barre class, so  the thought of doing more was daunting. I don’t get like this very often, but when I do, I try to honor my body and myself. My friend, Jen, posted on Facebook that she did the challenge for week 3, but not for time because her legs were tired from snowboarding. I was so proud of her for acknowledging this and modifying for it. It’s important to push ourselves, but we also need to know when to call it quits, right? So, I copied Jen and did the challenge last night, but not for time. I modified the burpees (didn’t do the jump at the top) and did the push-ups on my knees and with multiple breaks within each set of 25. I’m happy that I listened to my body and took the challenge down a notch. I know I’m guilty of getting wrapped up in doing things as fast as I can all the time, so it was a big thing for me to slow down, achieve the challenge, but leave behind the competition with myself. It made for a much more enjoyable experience!

I want to hear from you- Week 3 of the challenge… how did you do?  Did you push yourself this week or did you do it without a goal or time? What was the hardest or easiest part for you this week? We’ve got one week left and I hope you’re all going to stick with me until the end!

Questions for you: Did you make it to the gym in the snow storm or did you opt for an at-home workout? Did you try any new workouts this week?

My Thoughts On Being “Type A”

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Happy Friday, friends! I hope you’ve all had a good week. Mine has been good and even though I’m not working from home today (hopefully exciting news to share with you soon), I’m still feeling like it’s Friday- woohoo! I’ve got a little bit of a “heavy” post for you today, but I’m hoping some of you can relate and we can get a good discussion going in the comments section. So, read away and let me know what you think!

If you’re on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve seen this post, which gives 16 signs of being a little (or a lot) “Type A”. Since I frequently joke about being super Type A, I couldn’t wait to read through the article; I just had to see if I was really, truly Type A or if maybe I just carried some of the Type A traits.

Waiting in long lines kills you a little bit inside.
You’ve been described as a perfectionist, overachiever, workaholic or all of the above.
You bite your nails or grind your teeth.
You have a serious phobia of wasting time.
You’re highly conscientious.
You’ve always been a bit of a catastrophist.
You frequently talk over and interrupt people.
You have a hard time falling asleep at night.
People can’t keep up with you — in conversation or on the sidewalk.
You put more energy into your career than your relationships.
Relaxing can be hard work for you.
You have a low tolerance for incompetence.
You’d be lost without your to-do list.
At work, everything is urgent.
You’re sensitive to stress.
You make it happen.

Verdict? Holy crap. If being Type A was on a scale of 1-10, 1 being not at all and 10 being the definition of… I am right there with a big ol’ 10. Woof. I mean, it wasn’t a huge surprise, but I didn’t know that I would pretty much be/do all of them so much “by the book” (or article in this case).

With that said, this article made me think… a lot. While I like and appreciate a lot of these qualities that I have because I think they have been a huge factor in why I am where I am today, there are some that I’d like to be more of a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1-10 instead of the 10 I currently am.

As I mentioned in my New Years Post, this year it is my goal to relax more and stress less, go with the flow more and schedule less, live a little more carefree and worry less… you get the idea. Basically, it’s very natural for me to be the way and act in a way that’s listed out above, but is that “good”? Is that “healthy”? I do all these things for myself to be healthy and live a healthy lifestyle (workout, eat well, try to not drink too much, take the stairs and walk when possible, etc.), but am I doing too much? Is my need for overachieving, succeeding and always wanting to be better an unhealthy trait? Is my fear of wasting time, taking on too many things, saying “yes” even when I want to say “no” and having an inability to relax creating an unnecessary stress on me? Sometimes, yes, I think it is.

I’ve talked to my friend Athena about this before because I know she can relate. I remember telling her about one particularly upsetting weekend when my Type A came on strong. It was a Sunday last summer and I was really stressed… to the point my sister told me I was being a crazy person. The week had been crazy busy and I had a bachelorette party in NH on Saturday night so when I got home Sunday morning, I did go a little crazy. I was so stressed about cleaning the apartment, doing my laundry, going grocery shopping, getting my blogging done and working out that I was literally tunnel-visioned and wouldn’t stop until I got those things done. It was a terrible, terrible feeling and although my sister told me to relax and forget about all those things because they weren’t things that I HAD to do, I couldn’t. That’s the hard part… it’s when you know something isn’t really that big of a deal, but you make it out to be.

But, for me, it’s easier to just get the things done and off my list (I ALWAYS have a to-do list going and I love the feeling of crossing things off. Sometimes if I do something that wasn’t on my list, I add it just so I can cross it off…) when it’s bothering me and THEN relax. If I relax and push things to the side, when it comes time to face them, I am even more stressed than I was to begin with.

Knowing this about myself is one step closer to working on letting go of some of those thoughts and “type A” qualities in favor of relaxing, going with the flow, being spontaneous, putting more into a relationship and choosing that person over something on my to-do list, etc. I don’t always have to be in a rush or on a time schedule. I don’t always have to have a to-do list. I don’t always need to do X amount of things on one day because I did Y amount of things the day before. I don’t need to be home by a certain time so that I can blog and make my lunch for the next day. Because you know what? Life will still go on if I don’t do those things; I will survive, haha. Although it’s hard to imagine, it will all be ok if I let go of things for a day, few days or even a week. So, that’s my goal for this year. To loosen up and work my way down the 1-10 Type A scale and get a little more balance in my life.

I want to hear your thoughts! Where do you find yourself on the “spectrum”? Do you relate to any of those Type A qualities that I listed above? What’s something you want to work on this year?