life+running » iowa girl eats

I’m a Yoga Loser + General Tso’s Chicken

chimes — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Twice this week I made it to a yoga / yoga-blend class.

Yeah. Yoga. I don’t do that.

Why?

Because I’m 5’2″ (or 3?) and I can’t touch my toes. I don’t come anywhere NEAR touching my toes. Never have. But maybe I will?

On Wednesday I went to a class called Yo-Pi. It was a yoga/pilates/plyo blend — and it was hard. But the sweaty kind of hard. Not the HOLYSHITICAN’TBENDLIKETHAT hard.

Yesterday I went to Fitness Yoga.

That was HOLYSHITICAN’TBENDLIKETHAT hard.

This happened.

[ source ]

And this happened.

[ source ]

Yup. Those things happened all around me while I stood there with my foot on my thigh thinking WHAT THE HELL.

So more yoga to come. I want to touch my toes. And do feats of bendiness.

A LONG long time ago, we decided to make this takeout recipe makeover for General Tso’s Chicken on Fitsugar. One of my blends had a General Tso recipe up the day before this one was originally scheduled, and hers was more awesome than this and I didn’t want to seem like a copycat, so I rescheduled. Or at least I swear she did … but I can’t find it to link to it now. :/ Maybe I dreamt it. Anyway …

Of course, there were some modifications. I added veggies and omitted the sesame seeds. Also? We were in Target and found some pre-made General Tso sauce. Score! Much less expensive than buying the ingredients to make the sauce … though I’m sure it was more salty. And of course we added some more heat (and salt) with sriracha sauce.

And I had seen about a million baked crab rangoon recipes on Pinterest in the last month. So I thought this was a good time to try Iowa Girl Eats’ version (PS to BLEND-ers … we all need to campaign for her to go to BLEND!). You make them kind of like you make ravioli. Except bake them instead of boiling them.

The verdict? Meh. Neither recipe ended up becoming one of our favorites. We might make the stir fry again, but not the rangoons. It wasn’t the recipe for the rangoons that was the issue, it was the fact that we prefer the super naughty fried version. I’m thinking we might try pot stickers using the same method next time.

Have you tried a new recipe or a new fitness routine — or a new anything — that didn’t go as well as planned?

Share on Facebook

Wonder-Bred Italian Boy Cooks: Turkey Burgers and Coleslaw

chimes — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 15:00:00 +0000

In the search for fun, easy and healthy summer recipes, I came across Greek turkey burgers from Iowa Girl Eats. I’ve been wanting to try these for a while — and, bonus — you can make a bunch of patties ahead of time and freeze them for later use.

In the mix for turkey burgers (IGE’s original recipe):

1lb 99% fat-free, lean turkey breast
~3/4 package frozen spinach, thawed and excess water squeezed out
~1/4 cup feta cheese
~8 sundried tomatoes, hydrated and chopped
1/4 cup red onion, minced
salt, pepper, dried oregano & dried thyme
to this we added 2 cloves of garlic

We also made coleslaw to go with. I used this recipe from Real Simple, but used red cabbage instead of regular cabbage. We added extra green onions and skimped on the raisins.

Patty action — and did I mention that we found a Fonzie tumbler at a local antique shop? A-mazing! It’s our most coveted possession. And now Mark has a glass to use when I use my Care Bear glasses.

These need to cook at a lower heat to make sure the turkey gets done and not burnt on the outside and undone in the middle.

Mark doing his best Fonzie impression.

And the finished product — with piña coladas. Awesome! We now make these turkey burgers about once a week.

Share on Facebook

Italian Wedding Soup!

chimes — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000

This past weekend I made a fabulous batch of Italian Wedding Soup. I used this recipe from Iowa Girl Eats.

I’m looking forward to leftovers. YUM!

Share on Facebook

I’m bananas about bananas!

chimes — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:44:36 +0000

Wow that is a cheesy title, but it’s true!

I finally took the plunge and tried to eat a banana a couple weeks ago for the first time in at least 10 years. When I was younger I couldn’t eat bananas because they made my stomach hurt — which is ironic because it’s one of the things doctors always tell you to eat when you can’t digest much else.

Anyway, after a dormant period without bananas, I’m totally crazy about all things banana! (well, not as much as my friend Niki I suppose).

My absolute favorite thing and new obsession is making frozen banana custard. I found this “recipe” on Iowa Girl Eats’s blog. This was actually what prompted me to try bananas again. I have a huge ice cream obsession and a few weeks back had an issue with stress eating (ie. pints of ice cream) lead to an unhealthily quick weight gain. So, I thought, if I could replace the ice cream with something healthy (ie. frozen banana) then I would be set.

AND yay. It worked. Those 7 pounds gone in a flash (gained ‘em one week, lost ‘em the next). They say that bananas are bloat-fighters, and I must agree. Because I’m going to throw it out there and say that 5 of those 7 pounds I gained in a week HAD to be water weight. (right? right.)

Anyway, here is my cleverly disguised banana for the day:

I will say that the trick is to cut the naners into smaller pieces before freezing. Also, I’ve been doing mine in the blender and using the “ice crush” function to get it going. I add a little bit of soy milk and some vanilla to the mix to get things going. I’ve also thrown in some chocolate ovaltine for a chocolate version of my faux ice cream.

Another thing that’s awesome about the banana obsession (aside from the health benefits) is the fact that they’re way cheap. I can make 3 pints of frozen banana custard using 4-5 medium bananas. That is roughly $1.50 for 3 pints. Compare that to the price of one pint of Ben and Jerry’s. Just try.

Hopefully I don’t get sick of bananas because so far they’ve been doing wonders for me and my pocket book!

Share on Facebook

I’m a lottery winner!

chimes — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:20:41 +0000

Not the kind of lottery that involves money, unfortunately, but still awesome all the same!

I recently participated in FatQuarterShop.com‘s Jolly Jabber Block Lottery (see my entry here)… and I won! I get 1/3 of the blocks sent in.

Here’s my bounty of blocks (you can only see the top one):

Not sure what I’m going to do with them but I’m sure I’ll come up with something crafty (probably not something approved by the makers of the blocks, but still).

ALSO — on the same day I won Iowa Girl Eats‘s Pure Bar Giveaway. That means I get to try 4 flavors of Pure bars for free. How cool is that? I think it’s pretty cool.

Wow. Lucky day, eh?

Share on Facebook