How I go about making stuffed peppers + my favorite “stuffings”

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Lately, I’ve been mildly obsessed with stuffed peppers. I think I’ve made them 3 different times in the past month and a half, which is unusual for me since I try to make something different each week. I think I’ve been on such a stuffed pepper kick lately because they are SO easy, and there’s really no wrong way to make them.  On top of that, the variations for stuffed peppers are endless. You can do them with ground beef, ground chicken, ground turkey… or you could go meatless and sub out the ground meat for black beans or quinoa. And, the other veggies you decide to put in them can range from a specific theme (Mexican, for instance) to just whatever you might have in your fridge (a marinara sauce to mix everything together).

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Since there are endless possibilities for creating the perfect stuffed pepper, I thought I’d share my process for deciding how I want to “stuff” my peppers

  • Do I want to use a beef base for the peppers or do I want to go meatless by using quinoa, beans or rice (or a combo of all 3)?
  • I generally make this decision by seeing how much ground meat is at the store. Beef is not generally an option I choose, only because I prefer the taste of ground chicken or turkey, but it’s certainly an option if that’s your thing! My last batch of stuffed peppers had ground chicken AND quinoa… really living on the edge, I know 😉
  • Do I want to do a theme like Mexican, Italian or fall (sweet potatoes, squash, etc.)?
  • Do I want to go simple on the veggies and just pick a few like onions, zucchini and summer squash? Or, do I want an “everything in the fridge” mix of veggies, likely including, onions, pepper, broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, corn, etc… you get the idea.

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Another thing I do when I make stuffed peppers is make extra “stuffing”, so that I can use it throughout the week. Sometimes I put it atop spinach to create a different type of salad topper, sometimes I use it in a quesadilla and other times I just eat it as it is- that’s the beauty of the stuffing- you can’t really go wrong!

Lastly, I love stuffed peppers for the nutritious value. They’re an entire meal in and of themselves because they have veggies and protein, so no need for an extra salad or meat on the side. They are great to take for lunch for this very reason 🙂

If you’re looking for a recipe to try out, check out this one: Quinoa, Black Bean, Veggie & Spinach Stuffed Peppers. I have another recipe on my blog for a taco stuffed pepper, but the pictures aren’t showing up so it looks terrible 😦 When I fix it, I’ll share it with you:)

Questions for you: Do you make stuffed peppers? What’s your favorite stuffing for them?

Wednesday Workout: Outdoor Stations Bootcamp Workout

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Hi there! I’ve got a fun workout for you today. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know I starting teaching my own outdoor bootcamp in Wakefield on Tuesday nights. Per usual, I try to mix things up so that we aren’t doing the same thing from week to week. Last week I taught my first stations workout, which is generally a crowd pleaser in my normal group exercise classes. Holding true to that standard, the girls seemed to enjoy the workout and we all agree that the class flew by! It was a fun workout because besides a band and a stability ball, we used everything you’d find in a standard park as our “equipment”.

Here’s what you need: wall or step for jump squats and squats and a bench for step ups and tricep dips. If you don’t have a stability ball, you can do a regular plank and if you don’t have a band, you can do partner lat pulls or superman pulls. Easy enough, right?! I also added in an equipment free cardio blast between rounds.

Outdoor bootcamp workout

Most of the moves are fairly common, but here are a few explanations:

  • Wall squats: perform a regular squat, but go low enough so that your butt touches the wall
  • Reverse lunge & knee twist: lunge back on the right leg and then bring that knee up in front of you and cross your left elbow to your right knee. Repeat on the left after 30 seconds.
  • Sit with your legs extended out straight. Put the band around your flexed feet and pull your arms back, squeezing your elbows towards each other.

If you have any other questions on the moves, please ask! This is a great workout to do with a friend, but can also be done by yourself at your home if you don’t have access to a park.

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Have fun 🙂

Questions for you: Have you ever done a “park” workout? What’s your favorite way to workout outside?

Weekending: Baby snuggles, Dry Bar, a Wedding & Lots of Errands

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Hi there! How are you doing today? This past weekend was a good one- just what I needed after a stressful week.

After work on Friday, I headed to my friend Jess’s apartment in the North End to hang out with her, some other SMC friends and Jess’s sweet little baby girl, Nora. Jess had Nora in August, but because of everyone’s crazy schedules, we hadn’t had a chance to meet her yet. Snuggles with her was the perfect way to relax me 🙂

The rest of the night was spent passing the babe around, drinking wine, eating pizza and just hanging out. They’ve got an awesome little deck off the living room so we bundled up and headed out there to finish the night.

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After teaching on Saturday, I headed to Chestnut Hill to cash in my Groupon for a blow out at drybar in Chestnut Hill. Have you guys ever heard of drybar or been there? If you haven’t, it’s a salon that only washes, dries and styles your hair. Their slogan, “no cuts. no colors. just blowouts.”, is a perfect way to describe their services. What I loved about the place is that it’s such a girly-girl activity! They charge $40 for a blowout which also includes a cocktail… because cocktails make everything more fun, right? I couldn’t help but have a glass of champagne during my 12pm appointment. I literally did burpees and then had bubbly… so fitting 😉

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I was given a “menu” which had all of the styles listed out. The names were names of cocktails and I went with the Cosmopolitan as it was a loose, wavy style.

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Never mind the blowout, I could have had my hair washed for an hour- the scalp massage was so wonderful! From start to finish it was the most relaxing hour, and such a fun way to treat myself to some pampering! Unfortunately, the weather sucked and therefore my hair did not keep the look I got at the salon, but oh well. Nothing you can do!

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Later in the day, RM and I headed to Beverly to attend his cousin’s wedding. While it was freezing during the outdoor ceremony, it was very thoughtful and heartfelt… I just wish I could’ve had a glass of wine to help numb the cold temps! I didn’t take many photos during the night because I was meeting so many people and didn’t want to be that girl taking a million photos, but I’ll say it was a super fun wedding. His family likes to have a good time and we danced all night!

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We slept in until almost 10am on Sunday, which is a very rare occurrence for me. After breakfast we went for a nice walk to soak up some of the nice weather.

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After our walk, we split ways and I headed out to do some major errands. I’m having a party in a few weeks and wanted to get festive decorations so I headed back to Assembly Place with my first stop being Christmas Tree Shops. I love going there to get decorations as they are super cheap!

From there, I did a little shopping at the stores and scored with a great dress at Banana for $12 and new sneakers at Reebok for $50! My last stop was TJ Maxx where I finally was able to find something for the wall above my mantle. What do you think?

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I also decorated the hall area- I love how festive it’s starting to look!

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After decorating and cleaning, I finally made dinner. I sautéed a bunch of veggies and cooked some chicken and made a very tasty chicken and veggie stirfry.

And that sums it up! I could’ve used another 4 hours on Sunday to get everything done, but that’s ok. Although this week is busy, I’m going to do my best to stay calm and focus on one thing at a time. I have so many blog posts I want to write, but I’m going to try to not stress about getting those done if I’m tired and not getting home and sitting down until 9pm each night. I need to give myself more time to unwind at night!

Questions for you: What did you do this weekend? Have you been to drybar? Have you decorated for the fall or Halloween?

This Week: Workouts, split workouts and things I’m looking forward to

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Good morning and happy Monday. If you’re lucky enough to have today off, please don’t tell me… I’m very jealous. I don’t know if it’s because work has been a little stressful lately or what, but I feel like I’m in major need of a day off. Unfortunately, today is not that day for me- oh well!

Do you guys ever split your workouts up based on time? For instance, run in the morning and lift after work because you don’t have enough time to do your full workout in one sitting? I don’t generally do this, but I’m not opposed to it because I think that if you have certain goals you’re working to that requires you to be doing “X” amount of cardio and lifting in a day/week, sometimes it’s necessary to split up your workout to get it all done. I’ve heard of people splitting up their miles if they are training for a marathon so that they run 10 before work and 10 after since they don’t have enough time to do 20 at once.

Last week, I didn’t split up my workouts by doing part before work and part after, but I did split them up by days… does that count? I totally ate sh*t during the New Balance Girls Night Out run last week and tore up my knee quite a bit. While it was an external injury and not an internal one like a twist or anything, it was still rather painful on Thursday. I was so annoyed because otherwise, I felt physically ready for a tough workout; I didn’t feel like I needed rest. But, since my knee was swollen a little and it hurt to bend it because the skin was so raw, I physically knew I couldn’t do anything that required any bending. I ended up doing a 20 minute walk with 10 push-ups, slow mountain climbers & flutter kicks at the benches in the park as I approached them and then did a series of upper body and core super-sets back in my apartment. On Friday, I did the cardio I had wanted to do. Does this mean I didn’t “rest” as much as I’ve promised myself? Technically, yes, but since I worked entirely different things between the days and it was a circumstance where I didn’t feel like I needed extra rest, I think it’s ok. Thoughts?

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I did some push-ups and crunches during the day and then I went to a class at Flywheel. Christina was amazingggg and I left there feeling beat!
  • Tuesday- I went to the Lynnfield BSC for a quick strength session before teaching a stations workout at my bootcamp. We all agree class flew by- I’ll post the workout for you this week hopefully.

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  • Wednesday- I had a sub for my UXF Burn so I could finally attend one of the New Balance Girls Night Out events. So happy I did- it was such an awesome night! I ran with Sarah of Blonde Bostonian and we covered 4.6 miles. I totally wiped out at the end of the run. Woof.

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  • Thursday- As I mentioned above, I really wanted a tough workout on Thursday, but my bum knee had other plans. I did some upper body/core super sets and went for a walk.
  • Friday- My knee was still not great, but it wasn’t as swollen or painful as the day before so I headed to the BSC during my lunch break and ran 3 miles. As I mentioned on Instagram, I wasn’t sure if I needed retail therapy or a workout to help relieve some stress/anxiety and since spending money would probably just add to those two things, I chose the gym. I felt so much better after!

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  • Saturday- I finallyyyy taught my kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA. It was a smaller crowd, but it felt good to be back. I was SO SORE on Sunday from it… I don’t usually get sore from kickboxing, but I think since I hadn’t taught it in 3 weeks, my muscles weren’t used to it.
  • Sunday- RM and I went for a nice 40 minute walk since it was so beautiful out.

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m subbing the 6:30pm Cardio Kickboxing class at the Watertown BSC. If you’re around, come join me!
  • Tuesday- I’m teaching my bootcamp in Wakefield.
  • Wednesday- I’ll probably run before I teach UXF Burn at Central Square.
  • Thursday- I’m holding a bonus bootcamp since everyone wasn’t ready to be done on Tuesday.
  • Friday- Maybe a lunch break workout depending on how I’m feeling from the week. Otherwise, I’ll rest.
  • Saturday & Sunday- I’m going to the Cape for Oyster fest with RM and some of his family and friends, so I’m not sure what my workouts will look like, if anything.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

I’m excited to be teaching a lot this week- I only taught twice last week! I’m also excited to see my friend Tim who will be in town for work. Lastly, I can’t wait to head to the cape for a little weekend getaway filled with good food, good drinks and good people 🙂

Questions for you: Do you ever split your workout up based on time? If you have to cut your workout short, what do you usually skip out on? What was your best workout last week? What are you looking forward to this week?

 

Wednesday Workout: 30 minute burpee spectacular workout

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Happy Wednesday, friends! The workout I have for you today is awesome… especially if you like burpees! As I mentioned on Monday, I was able to go to a bootcamp last week with my favorite instructor. I ended up having to cancel my bootcamp because of the rain, so it worked perfectly. I got probably more excited than I should have when she started the class by saying “the workout today is going to be tough, you guys, but we are going to push through it since the hard part will be over in 30 minutes.” And then, after the warm up, she said “ok, to get you focused and get your drive going, you have 3 minutes to complete 50 jump squats.” Again, I was definitely too excited about this.

I just love the environment of a class where you’re encouraged to dig deep, get in the zone  and give it your all. While I didn’t have the guts to make my class do 130 strict, chest to ground, burpees, I DID have the guts to make them do half of those 😉 And YOU have the option to do 120 burpees OR 60 burpees- have fun!

30 minute burpee spectacular

As the workout says, you do each exercise for 60 seconds. Whenever you decide to put in the burpees, you have 60 seconds to complete 10 of them. Whatever is left of the 60 seconds after your 10 burpees is your rest, so keep that in mind.

Here are some explanations for a few exercises that might be new to you:

  • Hand release push-ups with opposite knee crunch: start in a high plank, then lower yourself all the way to the ground and lift your hands (hand release, get it?). Tighten your core and press your hands into the ground to lift yourself back up into a high plank. When you’re in a high plank, bring your right knee to left elbow. Do another hand release push-up and bring your left knee to right elbow. These are killer after burpees!
  • Side Squats- grab a set of medium size weights and hold one in each hand. Bend elbows to 90* and squat right and then squat left. Your biceps will be burning by the end of this!
  • Spider man plank- the instructor called these long-legged mountain climbers, but I think they are really just spider man planks. Start in a high plank and bring your right foot all the way up to your right hand. Repeat on the left. Want more? pick up your pace so you’re hopping your feet up and back.
  • Plank with under body cross over- I couldn’t figure out what to call this exercise, hence the confusing name. All you’re doing here is holding yourself in a high plank to start. From there, bring your right leg (keep it straight) underneath your body and up towards your left hand. Keep your core tight and hips flat so that you feel a nice twist. Keep alternating legs for the 60 seconds.
  • Side crunches- get comfy on your right glute in a side lying position. Glue your legs together and crunch your knees up to your right elbow. Want more? Try it straight-legged. Repeat on the left.
  • Full body sit-ups- start in a spine position. When you crunch your upper body, crunch your lower body, too. So basically you’re crunching your knees towards your elbows.

I think that covers it. This workout was actually really fun… and the best part is this workout will leave you totally spent, in only a half hour! Instructor friends, after this, I did about 10 minutes of constant upper body supersets. It was perfect!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite burpee variation?