You know that feeling....

...when you switch shampoo or conditioner and your hair has never felt and looked better?

I asked Brandy at Shades 'N Waves her technique to get my hair so soft, yet full of volume.  She took her time and talked me through the routine she was doing, I went home to practice and was seriously disappointed.  If you know me, you know my version of styled hair is a little bit of back combing and, if I'm really feeling fancy, a bobby pin or a BRAID!

The next time Brandy put color in my hair I told her about my failure and then she asked me about my shampoo & conditioner.  Oh.

Apparently she has this theory that what you put on your hair has something to do with how it looks and feels.  Hmm.  Yeah... that makes absolute perfect sense.

Fueling your body is the same.  When you put crap in your body you don't feel (or look) your best.  Yes, it is cheaper.  Yes, this bottle is twice as big as the other and the same price.  Yes, yes and yes.  I'm sure your momma told you quality, not quantity.  That is the exact determination you need to make when grocery shopping.

Quality food.  Quality calories. Quality fuel. 

I'm sure you know to shop around the outer ring of the grocery store.  The high carbs & calories are located inside and on the ends of the aisles.  Take an extra 10 minutes and plan your meals for the week, walk in prepared.  In some of the upcoming posts I'll have a weekly shopping list with meals so you can plan ahead.

Look good, but most importantly feel good with the food you put into your body.  Also think about how much it's worth saving in the long run by making smarter decisions, boosting your immune system and teaching your children to make healthier decisions.

Fuel your body to do more than just stay alive.  Fuel your body to FEEL alive.

Italian cheese & herb veggie skillet

Easy.  Low-calorie.  Quick.  Healthy.  Filling.  Delicious.  Cost efficient.

All of us can appreciate the above adjectives... especially when it comes to making a great dinner!
In late spring I bought a little tub of the Philadelphia Cooking Crème . It sat in the back of my fridge in the land of pickle & jalapeno jars waiting for me to use it.  I don't know why it took me so long to try this ingredient.  Since I made this, I have purchased 3 more flavors to try!


Notice there are FOUR servings in this. Here is where you can alter both flavor & calorie count.  I took a butter knife and scored the crème inside in half to help ensure I only used half the tub to make 5 servings. 

Math: 1 tub= 110 Calories  / 2 = 55 calories per half.  55 calories/5 servings = 11 calories a serving.

Now that I have fully covered this delicious, flavorful addition to the recipe I will talk about the recipe…
I boiled 2.5 cups (measured dry) of whole wheat wide egg noodles.


*Optionally, and for about 100 more calories a serving you can brown some chicken in the skillet...or use some you prepared on Sunday like I told you about in this post.  After it’s browned, I used my phenomenal specialty bamboo cookware tools from Pampered Chef {thank you Momma!} to haphazardly cube and shred the chicken. The flat edge helps you do so much more than stir.  I toss in most, if not all, a bag of vegetable mix that has broccoli in it.

I always have several bags of this “California Style Veggies” frozen mix on hand because it can literally go in ANY dish.

Calorie count here: 30 calories a serving. 

Remember when I talked about how there are good calories and bad calories?  Well, these are good calories so if you have more than a serving it is absolutely ok.  It is the proper fuel for your body!

          

My delicious version seen above has chicken in it which adds an additional 80 calories ( I used 4 4 oz breasts and split the servings up so I have 5 servings.)  Additional calories in chicken also add about 17g of essential protein!

This cooking creme has made a quick weeknight meal into a healthy, delicious dinner like you won't believe!

Shamrock Salad

I cannot believe it has taken me this long to post on a dessert!!! It takes me 30 minutes to think of a dinner recipe but ask me what dessert to take to a cook out and I'll tell you 6 and have the recipe memorized.

This is a lighter dessert and is already on the "thumbs up" end of the dessert scale.  The way my family & in-laws have made it aren't bad but we can improve things slightly and it work out better! (Bigger serving anyone?!)

Some people call this pistachio salad, some shamrock salad and I'm sure your family has a name for it but it looks like this:

Shamrock Salad

It involves several of my favorites: marshmallows, chopped almonds, pineapple, cool whip and pistachio pudding. 

The kind my Grandma used to make has approximately 425-450 calories, 10g fat, 50g carbs, 5g fiber, 20g of sugar and 5g protein for 3/4 of a cup serving. That is with the full fat everything option & walnuts which have a high fat content (granted it is a good source of essential omega fatty acids).

This lower calorie version tastes the same but will save you 200-250 calories per 1 cup serving.

• 1 8oz tub of sugar free cool whip
• 3/4 c crushed pineapples (preferably from the produce section but if you get it in the can make sure it isn't in syrup!)
• 1/2 a packet of sugar-free fat-free pistachio pudding mix
• 2c mini marshmallows
• 1/4c chopped almonds

My calorie count is a range because I love pineapple so I added about a cup of pineapple.  I didn't have any prechopped almonds so I chopped my very first almond and it wasn't hard and it made use of the big bags I buy.  (The options are endless after I discovered how to make almond butter!).  

Have you ever had fresh pineapple? O.M.G.  it is so much better than the canned stuff.  I still eat the canned stuff but when budget allows I get some from the produce.  This is seriously one of the easiest desserts to make that you can eat a big bowl of without feeling that regret.  And kids love it, too! The spoonful above is how I got my 6 year old out of bed this morning since he didn't get to try any last night =)

Now for the nutritional breakdown: 150-175 calories, 5g fat, 33g carbs, 3g fiber, 15g sugar and 2g protein.
Most of the protein in the fattier version came from the almonds- which is also where all those fat & calories came from!

Natural Peanut Butter

They say smell is one of the greatest ties to a memory.  The smell of peppermint makes me think of my mom, everytime I smell a Werther's Original I think of a family friend of my parent's, and peanut butter makes me think of my husband.  His favorite food is peanut butter. Steak and chicken are a close second...

He goes through a jar of Skippy Natural every 10-14 days.  At about $7/jar that gets to be a pretty expensive food.

Did you know peanut butter has no butter in it at all?  The butter-like texture comes from the oils within the peanut being broken down.  With that in mind, I pulled out my tiny food chopper, a canister of unsalted peanuts and conducted an experiement. 

My little chopper takes a while.  And I have to hold down the button the whole time.  Some people with their fancy food processors can be done a lot faster than 8-10 minutes.  (Do you sense my food processor envy?)  My first batch needed some salt.  I determined with my second batch I salted it too much.  Then I just started buying the salted, dry roasted peanuts to make the peanut butter with and found this to be so much easier!
                                                

Keep crushing!

We're getting there!!

Ta-Da!!!!!   And you've only used about 75 cents worth of peanuts and made 8oz of natural peanut butter.  A 2 tablespoon serving is the same as 1 oz of peanuts so check the back of your canister for nutritional info. This is such a fun thing to do with kids.  =)

(Or maybe it's just fun to make them try this "experiment" while you rest for a few minutes!!  I won't tell!)

You can also add some cinnamon & sugar.  I like making the No-Bake Naturals with this kind of peanut butter for a little extra flavor!

Turkey Sausage

About 3 o'clock in the afternoon I begin to hit my wall.  I get so hungry! I blame it on my afterschool tendancies when I would eat a snack before volleyball or softball practice.  I mean, 3 hours after breakfast I'm not starving like I am at 3pm.

It is also back to school time!! Until Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution petition (read about it here) has had an effect, I will be packing my 1st grader's lunch.  I like to get things that we can both snack on and turkey sausage is something we fight over!  It is a good source of protien and paired with a small chunk of cheese puts it about 100 calories.  The sodium is a little high, yes, but have you tried the school's pizza?  Or spaghetti?  If we ate out more often I would worry, but because we don't use much salt at home so I am not concerned with that number. 

Kroger has a great price on these- you can find them in the little specialty cheese island they have usually near the bakery.