Healthier Traditions in 2012

New Year's has never been a big deal to me so it didn't seem that important of a date to change my life over by making shallow resolutions. My birthday, especially big ones, are great days to make goals for myself. However, now that I'm married and we have combined goals it makes more sense to set goals at the beginning of the year. This is the first year we've decided to set goals. Last year, our first year of marriage, was spent celebrating, redecorating, and generally getting used to each other's schedules.  Now its time to get our married life organized.

Our first goal is to live a healthier lifestyle with more activity and more home cooked meals.  We're starting breakfast with some great products I've discovered recently.  Both my husband and I don't really eat breakfast during the week, something I've learned isn't that healthy as you should be eating more than 200 calories for breakfast.  My husband's solution was LeanPockets but I've convinced him to have fruit smoothie and english muffin. 

We discovered Orrowheat's Double Fiber English Muffins  while visiting my in-laws.  They are filling, give us the extra fiber, and taste a bit sweet because of the wheat just at 120 calories per muffin. A spray or two of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Spray give it a perfect hint of butter with just 1 calorie per spray.

Cuisinart Compact Blender

A post-Christmas shopping trip to Bed Bath & Beyond led me to the Cuisinart SmartPower Compact Blender with 4 16oz travel cups and lids, chopper, and blender bowl.  At $70, it's more expensive then other compact blenders on the market (like $20 ones at Target) but it has larger travel cups, more of them, and a trusted brand name.  If you get it at Bed Bath & Beyond you can use a 20% off coupon and there is a $20 mail-in rebate making it about $40!

The blender is perfectly matched with Jamba Juice Smoothie Kits I found at Ralphs.  For a 16oz smoothie at 120 calories, add 1 smoothie kit bag of frozen fruit and a cup of juice or milk in a travel cup and blend.  It's that simple!   If I can't finish the smoothie that morning, I save the travel cup in the fridge then add more frozen fruit to thicken it up the next morning.  I also got a few Yoplait Smoothie mixes but I haven't tried them yet.  Next thing I'm going to look for are smoothie boosts like Jamba Juice has in their shops to add protein to the morning smoothie mix.

All together that makes about 245 calories for a healthy breakfast of fruit and fiber!

March 2011 Craft Day: Parfaits

Every month or so we host a Craft Day for our friends to get together to talk and craft. At the last Craft Day I served simple yet delicious parfaits. They are great for parties because they are simple to prepare, don't make much of a mess, and look great when you're trying to show off to guests.

Parfaits look best in multiple layers of fruit, yogurt, fruit and sprinkled with granola served in glass bowls, like Pier1's mini trifle bowls.

Parfaits

INGREDIENTS

Plain or Vanilla low-fat Yogurt
Low-fat Granola
Basket of Strawberries
Basket of Blueberries
Basket of Blackberries

INSTRUCTIONS

Wash all berries.
Cut off strawberry tops.
Cut strawberries into smaller than bite size pieces.
I turn them upside down, with their stem side down, cut in half long ways, then cut 3-5 slices on each side.
Mix all berries together.
Serve berries, granola, and yogurt in individual bows.
Provide bowls for guests to construct their own parfaits.