Comments (22)

March 4, 2010 10:00 am

I’m sure you’ve all heard of pregnancy brain before… right?

I swear when I was pregnant I forgot EVERYTHING! Someone would tell me something and I would forget it 5 minutes later.

When I was pregnant, I would wear my flip flops on my way to work and change into my fancy heels when I got to work. Well one morning I forgot to bring my heels and mindlessly walked in to work with dress slacks, a cardigan, and flip flops… classy… I know. Needless to say I learned my lesson and always kept a pair of heels in my car to make up for my pregnancy brain.

After I had my daughter I was really looking forward to getting my head back in order… and think straight again. Well my friends… I’m here to tell you that pregnancy brain is replaced by mommy brain.

Yesterday morning I packed my daughter’s bag, took her to daycare, then drove to work. I felt like something was a little off. Well… shortly after I got to work I remembered my daughter’s lunch bag was sitting on our kitchen counter! How could I do that?! How could I forget to send my 9 1/2 month old to daycare without lunch?!?!!!!

Luckily I have a very understanding boss who is a mom herself. She chuckled when I told her what I did. So I left work, picked up my babies lunch, and took it to daycare. Lesson learned! Now I have a mini-checklist right by my keys so I make sure not to forget anything… let’s hope it works

Phew! Glad I got that off my chest!

Over the weekend I made a batch of homemade pasta sauce minus the meat.

I like making big batches of things, especially sauces, and freezing them.

Now that I know how to make my own marinara sauce from scratch, I can’t imagine buying Ragu’ again.

I’ve mentioned before that I LOVE meals that have all the food groups in one meal. These stuffed shells are perfect for that!

These shells contain lean Italian turkey sausage, ricotta, and spinach. I know they make whole wheat jumbo pasta shells, but I couldn’t them in my grocery store, so I went with the regular shells.

This dish was so good! And it contained my husbands favorite ingredient… MEAT This dish makes plenty of food so it’s good for lots of leftovers for a quick and easy meal.

Ingredients:

• About 3 cups of homemade sauce – minus the meat
• One box of whole wheat pasta shells, whole wheat if you can find them
• 3 cups part-skim ricotta
• 1/2 parmesan cheese
• 3 links lean Italian turkey sausage (remove casein)
• 1 teaspoon onion salt
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• about 10 grinds of fresh cracked pepper
• One 10 oz box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 egg yolk
• part-skim mozzarella

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove turkey sausage from casein and cook in saucepan until cooked through.

Cook pasta shells according to box directions.

Combine turkey sausage, ricotta, parmesan, onion salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, spinach, and egg yolk.

In a 13×9 baking dish, spread about 1 cup of sauce on the bottom of dish.

Fill each shell with about 2 tablespoons of filling.

Pour remaining sauce on top of shells.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Uncover and sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and bake for additional 10 minutes or until cheese in bubbly.

Enjoy!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Question of the Day?

Have you every had a “mommy brain” moment… even if you’re not a mom

Comments (21)

March 2, 2010 11:51 am

One of my fellow RD’s, MaryAnn Tomovich Jacobsen, runs the blog Raise Healthy Eaters.  This blog is dedicated to providing credible nutrition advice to parents.  As a parent myself, I am focused on making sure I’m providing the best nutrition for my daughter.  A huge part of this is raising her to have a positive relationship with food and with herself. 

This week marks the beginning of MaryAnn’s new series:  Eating Disorder Prevention: 3 Things Every Parent Must Know.  The goal is to provide parents with the information we need to raise children who have a healthy relationship with food and their bodies.  I hope you will join me in reading along with this series and gain valuable information on raising a healthy eater.

This is week 9 of the 12 Weeks No Diets Series.

This week I wanted to talk about letting go of the cheat day.

There are thousands and thousands of diets out there that have a “cheat day”.  We are supposed to follow rigid guidelines all week and then have that one-day where we can eat whatever we want.  What this can do is eventually lead to an all out binge day (trust me, I’ve been there).  We feel we have to eat everything we can’t have during the week on that one-day.  This leads to a last supper mentality where we think to ourselves “tomorrow I’ll start over again”.  The problem is that this mentality can spread to days other than our “cheat day”.  If we go off our diet, it’s so easy to “just call it a cheat day”… which leads to a full on binge, which leads us back to the thinking “tomorrow I’ll start over again”.

Letting Go of the Cheat Day

Another common way of thinking is to eat healthy all week and “splurge” on the weekends.  I definitely went through a phase of thinking this way.  Don’t get me wrong… I enjoy a good splurge every now and again… it’s the quantity of the splurge that matters.  Eating healthy during the week and allowing ourselves to eat out more on the weekend is perfectly healthy, but what we need to watch is the amount of food we splurge on.  We still need to listen to our bodies, listen to our hunger, eat food we truly love, and stop eating when we’ve had enough.  Remember… it’s all about the portion sizes.   If it tastes so good you want to keep on eating, keep in mind that you can take the rest home to enjoy the next day. 

How to Splurge the Right Way

Be realistic in terms of the calorie content of your food.  I’m not going to encourage full on calorie counting, but think of calories in a very loose and realistic way. If we order a dish of fettuccine alfredo, we know that dish has upwards of 1,600 + calories.  Realistically, we do not need to be eating that much food.  Think about the bread, side salad, and wine we’ve already consumed prior to our dish arriving.  This can put us way over a 2,000-calorie dinner.  Have a game plan and assess the menu before you order.  If you really want the fettuccine, you can pass on the bread and/or wine, or, you can order it all and have a small taste of everything, but in reality, you’re not eating much food at all.  It’s the amount of food we eat that matters the most.

Never Deprive Yourself

If we let ourselves eat the foods we love whenever, we don’t need to have a designated day to enjoy them.  Eighty percent of your diet should be healthy, and 20% is whatever else you want (healthy or not).  As long as you are honoring your body, eating when you are truly physically hungry, and being mindful of your portion sizes, you can easily reach and maintain your healthy weight all while allowing yourself you daily “cheats”.

Don’t forget your workout of the week!

Click here for Jessica’s No More Resolutions Workout!

No More Resolutions will run for 12 weeks along with No Diets in the New Year

There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts for everyone!

Comments (23)

March 1, 2010 8:15 am

Do you mind if I gloat for a few seconds? Thanks!

I have never in my life been so excited about the weather as I am today.

You see, this girl (me), was born and raised in South Texas where I met my super cool husband.

My husband took me from Texas to San Diego… I know… I’m spoiled…

Then, my husband took me from San Diego to Washington, DC.

Here in DC, I have experienced some of the most beautiful fall weather with gorgeous fall leaves.

We have a giant Cherry Blossom tree in our backyard, which when bloomed in the spring, looks like pink cotton candy flowers.

And here, in DC, this girl from Texas has experienced more snow then I have seen in my entire life. Thirty-seven inches to be exact!

I have never been more ready for spring!

And today, this first day of March, the weather is suppose to reach a high of just over 50 degrees!!!!!!!!

Spring is on its way! I may even bust out the jogging stroller today… who knows… the options are endless!

Okay… I’m done gloating

If you haven’t figured this out yet… chocolate chip cookies are my absolute favorite!

I have a few recipes that I love. One of them is this recipe. When I made these vegan cookies, people can’t even tell they’re vegan.

Well… they’re kinda vegan. I’m not a huge fan of carob, so I use regular semi-sweet chocolate chips

A couple of years ago I came across this recipe online from Dreena Burton of Eat Drink & Be Vegan.

Over time I’ve slightly altered the recipe. What I love about her recipe is the creative use of molasses.

The molasses combined with maple syrup makes this cookie taste like there’s tons of brown sugar in it… but there’s none at all!

My favorite part about baking chocolate chip cookies is eating the cookie dough!

The fact that there’s no eggs in this recipe makes me feel less guilty about indulging!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon blackstrap molasses
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or carob chips)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Whisk until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk maple syrup, molasses, vanilla, and canola oil.

Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients. Mix until well combined. Add in chocolate chips.

Drop by HEAPING tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Will make about 9 cookies.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven immediately. Let set on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then carefully remove and place cookies on cooling rack.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Have a great Monday!!!!