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weight loss

Friday Fare, Health

Friday Fare a collection of healthy recipes

January 17, 2014

Hey everyone! Welcome to the first edition of Friday Fare a collection of healthy recipes.

Friday Fare is going to be a regular weekly post (may become bi-weekly during the uni semester though unfortunately) where I will be posting healthy and filling breakfast, lunch, or dinner recipes. Why did I choose ‘Friday Fare’ as opposed to ‘Monday Meals’ or ‘Tasty Tuesday’? Well a) I wanted to be original and b) ….

Friday Fare a collection of healthy recipes

Which is exactly what I will be doing. Posting a range of foods, especially of a particular type – the healthy and nutritious type 🙂

The first edition of Friday Fare features one of my favorite simple meals that can be eaten for lunch or dinner. What I made for you all today is a simple stir-fry featuring a lean protein – shrimp, carbohydrate source – sweet potato, healthy fats – coconut oil, and plenty of fresh vegetables. It only took me about 30 – 40 minutes to make (chopping, cooking and everything) and is such a delicious and nutritious meal! The photo below shows you all the ingredients you need to make this delicious stir-fry.

healthy and easy shrimp stir fry

As you can see, you really do not need many ingredients at all! They are all relatively cheap as well, although I know shrimp is not that cheap but if you buy it frozen you can get some great deals. As you can see, I did not put a measurement on how much salt or cumin to use. This is because I think you should spice and salt the stir-fry according to how you like it. As a rule of thumb though, you can start off with a teaspoon of salt and cumin, and then add more if you like the flavors.

The secret to making my vegetables quickly and in a healthy way is my beautiful steamer … Ta da! I do not know what I would do without this baby. I literally chop up my veggies and throw it in my steamer and then put the steamer in my microwave for a few minutes. I know some of my old housemates will recognize the steamer, they loved using it 😉

Alright, now that you know what ingredients to use, and how to make the veggies, I will now tell you how to make it and nutritional value of this dish.

Healthy and filling shrimp stir-fry with sweet potato and steamed veggies

1. Make sure you have done your prep work – this includes chopping, getting all your spices out, and etc.

2. Throw the chopped broccoli and sweet potato in your steamer and microwave for 5 minutes. If you do not have a steamer, you can mimic the steaming action by placing the vegetables in a frying pan and adding about 2-3 tablespoons of water and then placing a lid on top of the pan. Check it every few minutes to see how soft the veggies are.

3. Whilst the veggies are being steamed, get a frying pan and heat the coconut oil in the pan until the coconut oil has melted (coconut oil is usually found cold-pressed so is in a solid state).

4. Then put your diced garlic and shrimp in the pan and fry until the shrimp is pink on each side. Lightly season the shrimp with some salt and cumin, and add half of your half tablespoon of chicken broth. Once the shrimp is cooked, place the shrimp on a separate plate for now (we will come back to it shortly).

5. Put your spinach into the frying pan with a splash of water. And no, not a Niagara Falls splash, just a tablespoon or so of water. This will create a nice steaming effect for the spinach. I typically just steam my spinach in the pan because since the sweet potato and broccoli take longer to steam and soften, if I add the spinach in with them, it will come out a pile of mush!

6. Now your sweet potato and broccoli should be steamed. Take them out of the steamer and add them to the spinach in the frying pan. After a minute or two, add the shrimp back into the pan so all the flavors mesh together.

Voila, and there you have it! A really simple, healthy and quite filling meal. If you do feel as if you want more food, feel free to add some more sweet potato, shrimp or veggies as you wish. Keep in mind that this will change the nutritional values of what I posted below. Adjust it to your own unique daily caloric needs 🙂 If you are weird like me, you can chop an ounce of Parmesan and nibble on that whilst enjoying the stir-fry (Parmesan has a surprisingly high protein content).

  healthy and easy shrimp stir fry               healthy and easy shrimp stir fry

Mmmmmmm. As you can see, I am a chili fiend so added some chili powder to it. I hope you all enjoy the meal! Let me know if you would like me to post meals with specific ingredients, anything you can think of!

Nutritional Info
Calories: 343
Protein: 30 grams
Carbohydrates: 54 grams (mostly all from the sweet potato which has 41 grams in one cup)
Fat: 6 grams
Fiber: 14 grams

Honestly yours,
Alice

Fitness

Glide your way to toned

January 14, 2014

If I’m right, the area’s women tend to be most concerned about are the abs, legs and butt. Am I right?

Of course there are other area’s we all want to be perfectly toned and slim, like our arms, backs and etc, but the three mentioned above are what I always hear women complain about. How can I tone my legs? How can I tone my abs? How can I look like a Victoria Secret model? How can I tone up fast? All valid questions. I have quite a petite frame and although I have never been fat (although I was definitely overweight as a middle schooler), I have always been on the lookout on how to shed some extra body fat, and tone up those problem area’s. I mean come on, apart from Victoria Secret models, who doesn’t want to lose a little fat and tone up a little?

Glide your way to toned

Glide your way to toned workout

Although a number of factors come into play when shedding body fat and toning up, I am going to talk about an awesome, little, and portable piece of equipment that has given me a whole range of new exercises to do, and has really helped tone up my stomach. I am still on my fitness journey and am nowhere near my ideal body yet, but man oh man, I am so happy to have discovered this baby!

Glide your way to toned workout

Ta-da, super sliders! Super sliders, commonly known as furniture sliders, are what they say they are. They literally help you slide around heavy objects, like furniture … and human bodies! You guys probably think I am nuts and are wondering how on earth I use furniture sliders to tone my abs, legs and booty. I will explain that in a moment, along with a few exercise demonstrations right after I explain how I discovered them.

I first came across the concept of using sliders when I heard about Valslides, which are the creation of celebrity fitness trainer Valerie Waters. I thought they were a great concept, and a new and fun way to really push your routine that extra mile and challenge your muscles in a new and different way. However, as awesome as Valslides are, they are not cheap. They are around $30 dollars for a set and frankly, I was not willing to pay that much for something that seemed like quite a simple product. I did some intensive Google searching and came across a forum which recommended Super Sliders as a substitute for Valslides. They were only $10 from Lowes so I decided to buy them because even if they didn’t work out, $10 won’t break the bank. Let me just say that I am SO happy I did. Not only did they look exactly like Valslides, I actually got 2 pairs instead of 1 🙂 Now they’re a regular part of my workout routines and have been a fun and quite difficult little addition.

The following are my favourite slider moves. Let me know how they work out for you guys, and if you want more moves or even a whole workout utilizing them, then please let me know. For any followers who are located outside of the U.S wanting a super slider, I would be happy to send them to you. If so, please leave your email address below so I can contact you about it.

Honestly yours,
Alice

P.S. If any of you have any advice or experience with video editing, I would love to hear how I can make my video’s better! I am hoping that the more I make, the better I will get, so please bear that in mind when watching the above video 🙂