"Dressed Up" Diet Meal Ideas

Hello All! Feeling much, much better today! It was my first day back at work and I think getting out of the apartment and being with other people helped my recovery process greatly!

I just wanted to put up a quick post of some of those meal ideas I was talking about in my post from yesterday. I know the diet is horribly bland and boring, so here are some ideas of meals that I eat to keep me semi-satisfied.

Here is one of my breakfast meals..

egg white omelet with half a slice of cheese and chopped tomatoes,

whole wheat toast with PB,

cottage cheese with a bit of homemade blueberry jelly

Above I have a grilled mahi mahi burger patty. 

Mahi Mahi is a fish that doesn't really have that "fishy" taste that

Tilapia does, so it's a lot more bearable. 

I paired it with long grain brown rice and a dry salad (YUMMMMM! haha)

(sorry the picture isn't all that great)

This is a salad I made for lunch

I used organic lettuce, black beans, that plain salsa that i LOVE (a few posts back I have it),

tuna fish, whole grain tortilla chips crushed up and some lemon 

I made this salad for my sister and I - she hated it but I thought it turned out pretty good, actually! 

This is another little concoction I made for lunch one day, I make it all the time now I love it so much!

What it is is: chicken burger, grilled, organic baby romaine lettuce and spinach, tomato, cucumber, lemon, and some hummus - turns out delish when you mix it all up :) 

Pair it with a greek yogurt and you're golden ! 

And as a little treat, I made sweet potato brownies one day last week.

It was the first time I've ever made them - they tasted a bit different from regular brownies, 

but they were still really chocolatey and moist and very, very good. 

I would def. make these from now own over any other brownies,

I think they'd be pretty easy to get used to. 

I kind of just messed around with the ingredients, 

next time I make them I'll let you guys know if they come out any better and

what I did different. Here is the recipe for now:

Felicia's "Healthy" Sweet Potato Brownie Recipe

2 Medium Sized Sweet Potatoes 

6 eggs 

1/2 cup organic coconut oil

1/2 tsp flax seed

1 tbs honey

6 tbs whole wheat flour

4 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup enjoy life choc chips

1/2 cup walnuts (personal preference)

• Start by preheating oven to 350 degrees 
• Use the microwave (or oven, or boil) to cook the sweet potatoes
• Once potatoes are cooked, peel the skin off, place into a large bowl, and mash
• Add eggs, coconut oil, honey, vanilla - mix thoroughly
• Then add flax seed, whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, choc chips, walnuts and cinnamon
• Once well mixed, put into a baking dish (I used a 13x9 pan)
• Bake for 29-31 minutes (no more, no less!)
• ENJOY!

They came out so moist and yummy, and they smelled great! I'm thinking that next time I'd like to incorporate applesauce somewhere in the recipe, but I'm not sure how much or if it

will clash wit the sweetness and moistness of the sweet potatoes. So maybe you guys try it

for me and let me know lol. :) 

Enjoy your night, everyone!

xxo Fitness Felicia 

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth..

...I've just been busy, busy, busy!!
How has everyone been?! Sorry it's been a few days, but things have been cray!! GUESS WHAT, though?!! I got my first call for a client for personal training! Exciting, right?! I'm very excited :) I also put an ad in the newspaper to see how that goes. I actually got an email saying I can't put flyers in people's mailboxes anymore (lol woops), so I had to find a new way to get the word out...we'll see how this new method works! I'll keep you guys posted.

So..I know you guys are all just dying to know what I've been up to the past couple of days, challenge wise. So let's see, I have Thursday, Friday, and today to cover.

Thursday's new challenge is pretty exciting...I signed up for my very first figure competition!! Exciting, right?! It's in October, so that gives me about 4 months to focus on my training and diet...which opens up like, a million new challenges. I have to switch up my workouts and eating habits completely. Which opens doors to LOTS of new things for me! I'm competing in the True Novice Figure category, which is for first time competitors. I'm not really sure how much of a chance I have at actually winning, but I'm excited that I'll at least get the experience of competing.

So that was Thursday's challenge. Onto Friday..

Thursday I completed my workout cycle for the week, so Friday's training consisted of only cardio and some core exercises. Friday's challenge was a new recipe. Sorry it's been mostly recipes lately, I'll start up with new workout posts tomorrow again. I'll be switching up my workouts completely, so I'll have lots of new things to put on here for you all.
Friday's recipe was "egg muffins"

I wanted to try out this recipe because I started a new job where I will be starting work a lot earlier than normal, and wanted something that I could grab quick without having to wake up even earlier to make a healthy, complete breakfast. These egg muffins can be wrapped up in saran wrap after making them and can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days before going bad. I actually really liked the way they turned out.

Recipe:

Large eggs (use one for every muffin spot on the muffin tray)

Any toppings/seasonings you normally put on your eggs

These were so simple, and quick to make. 

Start by cracking an egg into each of the muffin spots of the tray. 

Add your toppings and seasonings into each of the eggs. I added low-fat cheese, sodium-free ham, tomato, mushrooms, pepper and garlic powder. 

After adding your toppings, put into the oven at 350 degrees and keep in for about 12-15 minutes. 

I really liked the way these egg muffins came out. I wanted to try them with egg whites, but wasn't sure how they would turn out and I didn't have the time to try. I'll try using egg whites next time to see how they turn out. I'm not sure if the egg whites would be too thin to hold up as a "muffin."
Heat them up in the morning for about 30 seconds, and you're good to go! I haven't tried them cold, but I like my eggs hot, so that's how I ate them. I'm sure they would be fine cold if you chose to eat them that way.

I haven't done my challenge yet for today, but check back later tonight or tomorrow to see what it will be!! ;)

How is everyone's weekend going so far? What's everyone been doing to keep healthy?!

Check back later on for today's challenge. Let me know if you guys try this recipe out. Has anyone reading ever done any figure competitions before? Any words of advice??? I really have no idea what to expect! I'm very exciting to start training, though.

Talk to you guys soon/!

XXOO 
Fitness Felicia 

Kookin' with Kale

Hey guys! Thanks for all the responses and motivating words yesterday! I really appreciate it :) I'm feeling a lot more motivated today, and am back in action. I took a long walk with Jackson today through some neighborhoods and handed out more personal training flyers. I've probably handed out 100 by now. No calls yet, but I'll keep waiting. All I need is just ONE client, and the flyers will be a success!

I added some new tabs at the top of my page, by the way! One of the tabs is a way you guys can contact me if you have any questions, advice, complaints, requests..etc. You can also find a link on there to follow me on pinterest and twitter. The other new page I created is a "get to know me" page. I just provided answers to some basic questions on there so you guys can get to know a little bit more about me. Let me know if you guys have any other questions for me!

Anywho! I was feeling a bit under the weather today, so I decided to skip the gym. Today would have been shoulders (one of my favorite days). Hopefully tomorrow I'll be feeling better and can get my sneakers back on and myself back into the gym!

Since I wasn't able to get into the gym today, I gave myself a cooking challenge...actually more like 2 cooking challenges. I've been reading a lot about the vegetable kale lately and have been wanting to try it. Kale is FILLED with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. One cup of kale is only about 35 calories and has 5 grams of fiber. I've never tried kale before, and didn't even know what it looked like (it looks a lot like lettuce, except darker)! Just out of the blue the other day, my mom texted me a new recipe she wanted me to try, "kale chips." What a coincidence!!! It was then that I decided that making kale chips would be my next challenge!

The recipe is quite simple:

1 bunch of kale

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

dash of garlic powder

dash of salt 

KALE

Preheat oven to 350

Wash and dry kale thoroughly

Cut the kale leaves off of the stem part of the kale and tear into bite-sized pieces.

After tearing the leaves, lay out onto a baking tray

Drizzle olive oil, salt, and garlic powder over the kale leaves

Bake for about 8-10 minutes, until the leaves start to turn brown around the edges

Cool and enjoy! 

The kale chips were....interesting. I've never tried kale before, so I wasn't even sure what kind of taste or texture to expect from the chips. They were very light and flaky almost. For a snack, these chips are great, but they aren't going to fill you up, that's for sure. I have A LOT of kale left, so I will be trying some other recipes with this veggie. If you like kale, try these chips. They're not "OMG delicious," but they are different for a snack, and extremely healthy and filled with nutrients. 

My next challenge of the day was zucchini and eggplant fries. I'd seen a recipe off pinterest for this snack and decided to give it a go! I've NEVER made eggplant by myself before, so cutting it up was a challenge in itself..I wasn't sure if you had to take out the seeds, or if it needed to be skinned..I was clueless. I basically just started chopping away and chopped the eggplant into a bunch of long, skinny fries. Is that how you cut an eggplant?

The ingredients for this recipe was also simple:

One whole eggplant

One whole zucchini

100% Whole Wheat bread crumbs

3 egg whites 

Pinch of onion powder

Pinch of garlic powder

Cut up the zucchini and eggplant into long, thin "fries"

Dip the fries into the egg whites, and then coat with the bread crumbs

Place out on a baking tray and back at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes (depending on how crunchy you want them)

Unlike the kale chips, these fries turned out "OMG delish!" They were so crunchy and yummy I couldn't stop eating them! These make a great snack or side dish at dinner. So, so yummy and I really recommend you make them. They were quick and easy to make and "OMG SO DELICIOUS!"

Try out these new recipes and let me know what you think!! Back to the gym tomorrow, everyone, and I'll have a new workout challenge ready! 

<3 Fitness Felicia