Perspective

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Feeling Blue

Coming off of yesterday's post and the potential goodness that blue M&Ms can provide, I thought I'd share with you all some love about my current favorite little round blue comestible - the blueberry.

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I have loved blueberries since I was a little kid, when my father had a blueberry bush growing behind my childhood home.  It was a yearly tradition for us to help him pick blueberries, and our spoils from the event would be 10+ plastic containers filled to the brim with the delicious little guys. We'd put most of them in the freezer, and as a result, all year round we could enjoy blueberries in our pancakes, muffins, cobblers, or just as an afternoon snack.  It was paradisical.

Considering my love for blueberries at the time, I'm somewhat surprised I didn't end up turning into one, a la Violet Beaureguarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I guess my lack of a gum fetish saved me on that one.

It could have been me. (source)

It's been years since we moved away from that home (and subsequently that blueberry bush), but I'm happy to report that blueberries are back as my current favorite fruit obsession.  Now that they're in season (and cheap!), I have been buying about two cartons a week, and I am totally okay with the fact that I crush the contents within a matter of days.

Can you blame me?  They are delicious, they are adorable, and the health benefits are off the charts!

Did you know that:

• Blueberries have one of the highest antioxidant concentrations of any fruit?  Antioxidants boost your immune system and prevent you from getting sick.  They also keep you feeling in tip-top shape from head to toe.  And that is a great way to feel! 
• Blueberries can keep your brain healthy and strong?  Tons of the nutrients - like vitamins A, B, C, and E, manganese, zinc, and more - are associated with healthy brains.  There are even studies being conducted associating blueberries as a cure for Alzheimers - pretty awesome!  In addition, blueberries are believed to help keep your memory going, so pop a few and then try your hand at a good old round of Simon.
• Blueberries can keep your heart healthy and strong, too?  Blueberries are packed with fiber, antioxidants, and cholesterol-lowering agents - all crucial for keeping your heart beating beautifully.  They have also been known in studies to help fortify the cells in the heart's blood vessel walls, and to keep blood pressure at healthy levels.  Bump-bump, bump-bump!   
• Blueberries are a natural anti-carcinogen?  They have also been shown to help those currently suffering from cancer by stunting the growth of cancerous cells. 
• Blueberries potentially could reduce belly fat?  Some fad diets of the past recommended eliminating fruit since the fructose (a form of sugar) was thought to make people gain weight, instead of losing it.  I'm so glad that blueberries (among other fruits) are finally touting as a good healthy diet tool, instead of a harmful one. 

All of these facts come from research garnered from World's Healthiest Foods: "Blueberries" and WomenFitness.net's "Top 10 Health Benefits of Blueberries."  There are even more health benefits to blueberries than what I listed above, so I strongly recommend checking these two sites out to learn more!

So, as you can see - blueberries are a powerful food.  And a mad tasty one at that - so pick up a carton today, and enjoy them with me!

If I keep this up, you might start having to call me Violet Beaureguarde.

Or maybe Bizzy the Blueberry.  I don't know, it kind of has a nice ring to it.

Junk Food That's Good for You

Shape Magazine had an excellent and very fun post yesterday on 15 junk foods that actually have potential benefits.  There are some commonly known ones that have already made the rounds on the health circuit, like red wine.  But some others may surprise you - like blue M&Ms for example!  Give the article a read, and let me know what you think!

Junk Food That's Good for You

(from Shape Magazine)

There are health benefits in these?  I'm down with that. (source)

Burning Summer Calories

The summer solstice is upon us (at 7:09pm EST, in fact!) - and that means summertime is about to be in full swing - hooray!  Warm weather!  Watermelon!  Other words beginning with "W"!

As much as I love this time of year, it's not always the easiest season to maintain a healthy lifestyle, since, if you're like me, you tend to inhale pretty much every good comestible in sight as you make your way through barbecues, picnics, ball games, pool parties, and the like.

Luckily, Fitsugar posted an amusing and helpful chart that equalizes yummy summer eats and drinks to fun calorie burners in an aptly titled post called How to Work Off a Corona and Other Summer Favorites.

It's a great way of keeping things in perspective, too - multiple hours of tennis to make up for a funnel cake will certainly make me reconsider my portion size when it comes to that delectable treat!  

Hope you enjoy!

Check out the whole article here.

By the way, Fitsugar (as you may know from my Monday Afternoon Links posts) is one of my favorite health blogs.  They have tons of great fitness, food, and general well-being tips and ideas and present them in super cute ways.

Check them out, and get inspired to be healthy!

Rabbit Food

I have spent a fair amount of money telling you all about my love for all things breakfast.  However, as much as I love it, there are two other mealtimes of the day that haven't been getting as much love from me lately, and I am excited to fill you all in on how I get Bizzy living, lunch style. 

For the past few months, my go-to lunch (I'd say four out of five days of the week) has been the ever-popular, super easy:

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Yep.  Salad.  Or, as it is colloquially known, rabbit food.  

It has become my go-to for a few reasons.  

First, it's super easy for me to obtain because the cafe in my office has an awesome salad bar (I tried bringing my own for a while, but I found myself missing the second point, below).  

Second,  it's a dish that can easily be adjusted to fit my mood.  If I'm not feeling peppers one day and want to overload on tomatoes instead, I can go for it. If I'm feeling iffy about beets but love cucumbers, I can heap it up.  If I just want to eat a big bowl of radishes, I can, um, do that too.   

Third, I can eat a lot since the majority of the ingredients are just vegetables and fruit, and as we learned from my Weight Watchers post yesterday, they're zero points+!  And less points for lunch means more points for dinner (and dessert)!  

I typically pair the salad with a cup of whatever the soup of the day is, and that is more than enough food for me to last until dinnertime.

One word of warning:  As amazing and healthy of a choice as salad can be for a lunch or dinner option, please be careful with the salad dressing - it can turn a super light meal into the caloric equivalent of eating a bacon cheeseburger, which kind of defeats the point.

yes, please.  (source)

To avoid these problems, always ask for dressing on the side.  I tend to stick with just an eyeballed tablespoon (two if it's a big salad) of fat-free Italian dressing (zero points+ for one tbsp, one point+ for two tbsp) or a teaspoon of olive oil mixed with a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar (one point+).  One of my favorite methods is dipping your fork into the dressing and then stabbing the salad afterwards (thank you, Weight Watchers!).  You still get a good taste of the dressing without packing on the extra calories and fat.  

Here was my lunch yesterday:

Consisting of:

(note: everything is zero points+ unless noted otherwise)

• Lettuce (I usually like spinach but they were out that day)
• 2 oz smoked turkey breast (2 points+)
• 1/2 cup cucumbers
• 1/2 cup tomatoes
• 1/2 cup mushrooms
• 1/2 cup beets
• 1/4 cup green peppers
• 1/4 cup artichoke hearts (not marinated) 
• 1/4 cup hearts of palm
• 1 tbsp fat-free Italian dressing

I paired the salad with a side of vegetarian curried-carrot soup (~2-3 points+).

Some other variations I love to keep things fresh (pun intended) include:

• Grilled chicken or roasted turkey breast instead of smoked turkey breast (2-3 points+)
• 1/4 cup edamame (1 point+)
• 1/4 cup broccoli
• 1/4 cup cauliflower
• 1/8 cup feta cheese (1 point+)
• 6 medium-sized olives (1 point+)
• Dressing: 1 tsp olive oil & 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar (1 point+)

As you can see, the possibilities are endless.  Salads don't have to be boring or repetitive because there are so many ways to keep changing them up.  

I used to feel uncomfortably full and icky after trying to wolf down a gigantic sandwich smothered in cheese and dressing, a bag of chips, or a bowl of pasta.  Now I feel full and re-energized heading into my afternoon, and it's all I need to get me powered through the end of my workday and on to dinnertime.

What is your favorite lunch food?  Have you ever considered taking the salad route?  Post your comments below!    

Road Trippin' Made Healthy!

This past weekend, Bracks, my brother-in-law TB, and my future sis-in-law Margo embarked on a road trip to South Carolina to watch two dear friends of ours get married.  

a Carolina road-tripping requirement.

It was a fantastic weekend, full of sun, good healthy decisions (including a 3.5 mile walk on the beach with Margo - effortless exercise is my favorite!), and lovely celebrations of love.  

Upon returning to DC, Bracks and I spent Memorial Day with my family - a perfect cap to a wonderful weekend!  

I was reviewing my favorite health blogs yesterday evening when I came across something that I oh-so-wished I had known about during our road tripping adventure this past weekend: 

Eat Well Guide's Travel Map

You plug in your starting and ending destinations, and it helps you find "local, sustainable, and organic food wherever you go."  Just look at the amount of amazing places along our route at which we could have stopped!

Ever since I have started focusing on a healthier life, fast food has lost much of its appeal to me - seeing as the healthy choices available are scant at best (even the ones that pretend to be healthy), and I usually end up feeling icky for hours afterwards.  This travel guide will be a game-changer for future road trips.  I can't wait to employ it soon!

Have any of you used this resource before?  Will you use it now?

I hope that you had a wonderful three-day weekend!

K&K Come to Town!

This past weekend was wonderful - a mini-reunion with some of my best friends in the entire world!

mini-reunion!

The two lovely brunettes on the left, Kimberly and Katie, came down from New York City to visit Kerry, Blair (remember them?), and me.  All of us met when we were in the same sorority at UVA, and we love each other dearly.  We definitely missed our sixth counterpart, Valerie (she's getting some blog love of her own tomorrow - stay tuned!).

We made a lot of healthy weekend decisions that I was very happy about.  For starters, we were active!  So important for fitness maintenance.

Ready for some hardcore walking!

We took a 3.5 mile walk on Saturday, bopping down the footpaths along I-66, crossing over the Key Bridge into Georgetown, and walking along the canal, all while enjoying each other's company and what was absolutely a perfect spring day.

map calculated with my Pedometer app - the avg speed & time are off because I forgot to turn it off when we returned from the walk, oops!

We even headed back to Georgetown later that day to do some store exploration - another two hours of walking around from store to store can really be an effective way in which to get your daily step requirement. It's amazing to watch them all add up!

Food-wise, we ate tons of veggies, oatmeal, egg white omelettes, and turkey sandwiches with cranberries.  We got substantial amounts of sleep (which is always an accomplishment when five ladies are cramming into a two-person apartment), and drank plenty of water.

Healthy snacks, courtesy of Kerry!

We were healthy for the most part, but... I got distracted.

Maybe it was the excitement of all of us being together, maybe it was the non-stop fun we were having, but I found myself straying from the healthy ideals I am striving to attain and getting caught up in the moment.  I made a lot of healthy decisions that weekend, yes.  But I made some unhealthy ones, too.

I had an extra glass (or two... or three...) of wine when we were out together that I probably did not need.  I inhaled junk food, most notably the lethal combination at a party of melted processed cheese product and hamburger meat (which - for the record - was incredible.  I am determined to devise a healthy version of it ASAP).  Once the girls headed home on Sunday, I avoided any form of physical activity, preferring to lay down watching TV and reading books instead.

This is what happens whenever I lie down.  So you can see why once I was lying down, I was kind of stuck.

My body is really starting to become used to my healthy lifestyle changes, and it reacted very adversely to those negative health decisions I had made.  I felt achy and a bit nauseous.  And it wasn't just physical - I was getting irritable and feeling anxious for no reason.  Not the best way to feel going into Monday, knowing that you still have a full week of work and responsibility ahead of you.

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I stated in my recap of my weekend with my mom last week that it's okay to indulge every once in a while because it keeps you from becoming resentful of having to avoid things that you really enjoy.  But I also stated the importance of keeping the indulgence in check - that moderation is the key.  I overindulged, and I paid the price for it.

At first I was really angry with myself.  I had been doing so well and I had regressed.  It took some self-reflecting, but I finally had to come to these ultimate truths:

I'm human.

I make mistakes.

And sometimes I slip and make unhealthy decisions.

I'm not going to let my slip-ups keep me from becoming 
the healthy and fun person I ultimately want to be.  

I'm back on track now, filling up on nutrients, getting plenty of exercise, and staying hydrated.

Please don't let slip-ups discourage you from your health goals, either!  If we were all perfect at making healthy decisions, the mission of this blog would be irrelevant, wouldn't it?  So while my blog's purpose is still relevant, let's keep on working together to find optimal ways to treat our bodies and minds.

I had an amazing time and so much fun with my girls this weekend. I let my fun tip the scale a bit too much, and I'm okay with it now.  Heck, sometimes I probably tip the scale a bit too much on the healthy side too!  It's all part of the journey to discover the perfect balance between a fun and healthy life.

Loves!

Pizza Muffins

There are multiple foods that I truly miss now that I'm on this health kick.

There are the aforementioned buffalo wings.

There is macaroni and cheese.

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And there is pizza.  Sweet, gooey, delicious, wonderful pizza.

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Give me pepperoni or give me death!  

Now, as you all hopefully know by now, I figured out a way to "healthify" buffalo wings that works for me so that I can still enjoy the taste of one of my favorite "bad" foods without drowning myself in the calories and fat.

It's pizza's turn.

My elation was tangible when I stumbled across a community recipe on Weight Watchers for pepperoni pizza muffins.  Fresh dough, yummy sauce, pepperoni, and cheese and all for 8 points+.

8 points?, you say. That doesn't seem like a very good value.

But what if I told you it meant that you got to chow down on SIX of these little puppies?  That's right.  Six little pizzas.  Enough to sate any pizza craving, and tasty enough to make over and over again.

It's almost unsettling how easy and good these are.  

Truly.

They're awesome.

This recipe is adapted from a community recipe on Weight Watchers that you can access here.

Pizza Muffins

Printable recipe.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup fat-free tomato sauce (the original recipe calls for Trader Joe's fat free pizza sauce, but you can use whichever tomato sauce you want, provided it's fat free)
24 tsp shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (I purchased the Trader Joe's kind since I was already there)
1/3 bag of Trader Joe's Ready to Bake Garlic & Herb Pizza Dough
12 slices turkey pepperoni
Non-fat cooking spray (I like the Smart Balance Omega Non-Stick Cooking Spray)

Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 325.
2.  Spray a muffin tin with the cooking spray.
3.  Use a knife to cut the dough into 3 equal parts - set two parts aside (I put them in sandwich-sized ziplock bags and put them in the freezer.  Trader Joe's pizza dough freezes like a dream).
4.  Use the same knife to divide the dough into 12 equal parts.

5.  Put a piece of dough into each space in the muffin tin. Use your fingers to spread out the dough so that it covers the bottom of the pan.
6.  Use a 1/2 tsp spoon to scoop a heaping amount of sauce on top of each morsel of dough.

7.  Put a piece of pepperoni on top of each piece of dough.

8.  Sprinkle each piece of dough with approx 2 tsp of cheese.

9.  Bake for 10 minutes.
10.  Eat them while they're hot!  They easily slip out of the muffin tin thanks to the cooking spray.

This recipes makes 12 pizza muffins, but the serving size is half of that - so make them with a buddy!

When I make them with Michael, I use olive oil instead of tomato sauce for his half because he's not a fan of the red stuff.  If you do substitute olive oil for tomato sauce (1/2 tsp for example), be prepared for a couple more WW points+ - for a total of about 10.5 points a serving.

Ahhhh, what a great way to get your pizza fix.

There is hope for the healthy pizza lover after all.

Girls Weekend

This past weekend, my mama and I took advantage of the gorgeous April weather and awesome spring travel deals by getting out of dodge for a ladies weekend.  

It was filled with long walks, lots of wine, sporadic mini-workouts, plenty of delicious food, and some classic goober hanging out.

Example:
Me: [as I climb into the car at the start of our road trip]  Mama, you're my BFF.
Mama:  Biz, you're my BFD.
Me: ...
Mama:  Best... Friend... Daughter...?!

That, ladies and gents, is how our weekend began.

We had a great time, and since we're both trying to get healthier, it was a very interesting challenge for us.  We tried our best to follow our pre-determined mission:  How to balance having fun on vacation while still being responsible about your health.  

All in all, I can confidently say that our weekend combo of health and fun was a raging success...






...despite the fact that we made a pit stop at a potato chip factory not two hours after heading out of town.

It was Route 11!  Any native Virginian could tell you that you can't just bypass a Route 11 factory sign.

My mama and I came up with a list of fun ways to keep health a priority when you're on vacation, and I have compiled them here for your pleasure (and hopefully for some healthy future vacation inspiration - or as I like to call it, future vacayspiration).


So without further ado, Mama T & Bizzy B present...

The Queen & Bizzy Bees' Guide to 

Having Healthy Fun on Vacay:

#1 - B.Y.O.S. (Bring Your Own Snacks).  We stuffed a big cooler to the gills with fresh fruit, Greek yogurt, bottled water, Vita Coco, tomatillo salsa (zero points!!), seltzer, and more.  In addition, we brought some veggie crisps and multigrain tortilla chips.  It was great to have healthy options while we were on the road, and once we were in the hotel room we moved the perishables to the minibar - voila! - healthy (and cold!) snack options all weekend long!

Yes, that is 3 buck chuck.  My mum and I keep it classy.

#2 - Take the stairs.  I know that this is not always an option, but if your room is on the second or third floor of your hotel, use the stairwell instead of the elevator.  It's a super easy way to get some extra cardio in without having to go crazily out of your way.  Our room was on the second floor, and we promised each other when we arrived that we would not use the elevator for our entire stay - and we didn't!  And wouldn't you know it, we consistently arrived on our desired floor at the same time as those who took the elevator.  More than once, as my mama and I skipped out of the stairwell, we heard our elevator counterparts remark: "Oh, darnit, we should've taken the stairs."  Let's replace those "we shoulds" with "we dos!"

#3 - Walk it out.  You all probably know by now that I'm a big proponent of walking for fitness.  One of the great things about being on vacation in a new place is that there is so much to explore!  Which means there are plenty of opportunities to walk around!  Our hotel had plenty of foot paths and trails surrounding it, and we took full advantage.  Like good little walker bees, we brought our pedometers and had a great time watching our steps add up as we explored our surroundings.  So make sure you pack a pair of walking shoes or sneaks, grab your pedometer (or your pedometer app), and make like Dora!

(Source)

#4 - Your Hotel Room = Mini Gym.  My mama and I would start each day off by doing a quick under-10-minute ab workout, and a series of stretches.  Hotel rooms aren't the most spacious of places, but there is usually enough to stretch out and get your muscles warmed up for the day.  I definitely recommend making a habit of doing it before you head down to that breakfast buffet.  It was amazing how good we felt after starting off our days with little strength training routines!

Work it out!

#5 - It's okay to indulge every once in a while.  After all, you're on vacation!  Though I'm not suggesting that means we should all throw caution to the wind and take a bath in a giant tub filled with macaroni and cheese (though let's be honest - it would be awesome), vacation is about stepping away from the norm and having fun doing it, isn't it!?  We don't always have to deprive ourselves.  So, for example, when the lobster mashed potatoes were calling our name at our restaurant on Friday night, we ordered them (to share).  I think I've dreamed about them every night since.  Totally worth it.

Whoops, forgot to take a pic of the lobster mash.  But this is the place.  Isn't my mama the cutest?

So there you have it - just how my mama and I were able to have an indulgent weekend full of lobster mash, potato chip factories, wine, and the like, while still eating (mostly) healthy, staying active, and feeling good all the while!

Since vacation season is fast approaching, I encourage you all to brainstorm your own tips and strategies for how to balance fun and healthiness while out of town.  Both are possible and work wonderfully well together!!  It goes without saying that when you're on vacation, sticking to your typical health regiment is more difficult.  But what is wonderful about this type of challenge is that it offers you the opportunity to get creative- to find new ways to have fun while still being good to your body and mind.

Queen Bee & Bizzy Bee

Especially when you get to stop at a potato chip factory along the way.


~~~~~~~~


If you want to read a bit more on how other health-focused peeps handle being on the road, here are some great links:

• 5 Tips for Eating Healthy While Traveling 
• Hungry Girl's 2012 Travel Survival Guide!

Spaghetti Squash Silliness

On Tuesday night, I got together with two of my closest friends, Blair and Kerry, for a night of catch-up and yummy eats, all while partaking in some good old fashioned healthifying (as far as I'm concerned, this is a real word now).

Cuties - and I'm apparently a giant now?

Like many of my friends, Blair and Kerry have been very health-oriented for as long as I've known them.  Blair is a rock star at working out and eating healthy, and Kerry is a physical therapist, so it comes with the territory that she is in terrific shape and eats well.  Not to mention they are both hilarious and two of the nicest people you will ever meet.

We headed off to the grocery store to pick out stuff to make a healthy meal, and decided on the following:

• White Wine Spritzers with Fresh Mango
• Spaghetti Squash with Tomato & Meat Sauce 
• Asparagus, Tomato & Feta Salad (a concoction courtesy of Kerry's mom)  

We started our initial food prep (getting the squashes ready and putting them in the oven), then headed off on a leisurely two mile walk (approx 3800 steps according to my pedometer) around the neighborhoods of Georgetown.  The walk was easy-going and took about 40 minutes - such an easy and fun way to hit almost half of our 10k steps for the day!

We returned and the food prep began in earnest.

With the wine spritzers in hand, of course.  Cooking is always more fun when you have a wine spritzer in hand.

The meal was ridiculously good.  On almost every healthy food blog I follow, they rave about the idea of using spaghetti squash in place of regular pasta to eliminate unnecessary carbs and sugars and to in their place fit in another serving (or two, or three!) of veggies.  I had been jonesing to finally try it, and I am so glad we did - though the texture is nothing like pasta (it's crunchy!), the stringy quality is very similar to spaghetti noodles, and when covered in sauce, it's a fun, revamped version of the classic meal.  YUM!

The finished product, sans spritzer.

Without further ado, here is our Tuesday night menu:

White Wine Spritzers with Fresh Mango  

Printable recipe
1 glass = 0 WW points+

Inspired by this recipe from LaaLoosh.

Ingredients:

1 cup dry white wine

4 cups flavored seltzer water

Fresh mango (peeled,  cored and cubed)

Ice cubes

We divvied out the wine and flavored seltzer water (in our case, we used grapefruit flavored Perrier) among three wine glasses, dropped in 5-6 pieces of mango into each glass, and then added the ice cubes last.  Light, refreshing, and very reminiscent of white sangria.  I think I'll be pulling this one out over and over again this summer.  Feel free to use a different flavor seltzer water if grapefruit isn't your thing.

Spaghetti Squash with Tomato & Meat Sauce

Printable recipe 
2 cups squash + a little more than 1/2 cup of sauce (with meat) = 4 WW points+ 
If you use olive oil to brown the meat, add 1 WW point+

Ingredients:

2 spaghetti squashes (each slightly smaller than a football)

1 jar Classico Fire-Roasted Tomato & Garlic Sauce

1 lb 93% lean ground turkey

Olive oil or cooking spray

1.  Preheat the oven to 375°F
2.  Cut the spaghetti squashes in half, length-wise

Yes, Kerry.  Just like that.

3.  Scoop out the seeds

Scoop Scoop!

4.  Brush the halves with olive oil (or cooking spray)
5.  Fill a baking dish with an inch of water, and place the halves pulp-side-up in the dish
6.  Bake the squashes for one hour
7.  Remove the squashes from the oven, and use a fork to shred the pulp

 (it should have the consistency of spaghetti)

8.  Put the shredded squash in a bowl, serve hot!

Blair is ready for spaghetti!

Meanwhile, for the sauce: 
1.  Drizzle some olive oil or cooking spray in a skillet
2.  Add the ground turkey to the skillet, brown it
3.  Add the pasta sauce, stir until well combined and heated
4.  Serve over the shredded squash, as you would normal spaghetti sauce!

Asparagus, Tomato & Feta Salad

Printable recipe

(1 cup = 2 WW points+ - and only if you're liberal with your feta intake)

Ingredients:

1 bunch fresh asparagus
1 cluster of tomatoes on the vine
4 Tbsp reduced fat feta cheese (we used Athenos)

1.  Use hands to break off the tough ends of the asparagus stalks
2.  Cut asparagus in half, put in large pot and boil for 10 minutes
3.  Chop up tomatoes into large chunks, put into a large bowl
4.  Add the hot asparagus to the bowl
4.  Add the feta cheese
5.  Stir to combine
6.  Serve warm!

This is a real rock star meal - and it's super low in WW points+.  My entire meal (and I was stuffed!) only cost me 10 WW points+ (and only because I got second helpings of the spaghetti squash/sauce). 

A win-win all around.  I hope you enjoy it as much Blair, Kerry and I did! 

Buffalo Wing Hummus

I truly believe that buffalo sauce can make any food better.

Yes.

So it should come as no surprise, then, that one of my all-time favorite foods is buffalo wings.  They remind me of fun things that I love - watching football, hanging with great friends and family, drinking beer.  It has, therefore, been heartbreaking trying to curb my intake with my new healthy lifestyle.

If only this were covered in buffalo sauce.

I mean - of course buffalo sauce is good - it's basically just hot sauce and melted butter.  What is there not to like about that combo?

Unfortunately, butter isn't what the doctor ordered when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle.  So I knew I had a new mission - I needed to find some new ways to still incorporate buffalo flavoring into my life without going crazy with the calories and cholesterol.

My dear, supportive, wonderful mother has been a huge cheerleader for me and my new health revamp.  To keep me alert and creative, she asked me to bring a healthy appetizer to our family's Easter dinner this past Sunday.  I eagerly agreed, knowing that if I could find a winner that is both healthy AND delicious, it could be a go-to for future family events (or, let's be honest - a go-to for just me, sitting on the floor alone with my cats in the corner of my apartment).

I perused recipes and finally came across one that tickled my fancy - Slender Kitchen's Buffalo Wing Hummus.

Wow.
Wow.
Wow.  

This stuff is GOOD.

It was incredibly easy to make (you throw everything into a food processor and blend, blend, blend), the ingredients are easy to find at any grocery store, and there is no butter of which to speak!  1/4 cup of the stuff will only reign you in 2 WW Points+ (if you choose to eat it with carrot sticks, celery, or a spoon, that is - and this stuff is so good that you may just want to).

The most interesting ingredient in this that I was generally unfamiliar with before making this recipe is Tahini.  It's a sesame paste with the consistency of oil/dijon mustard and it is awesome.  Many of you may already be familiar with it, since it is an essential hummus ingredient.  I found a jar of it at my local Giant in the foreign foods aisle (I believe it was with the Mexican cuisine, to be exact - which is funny since it has a Mediterranean label).  Once you open the jar and use some in the hummus, you can seal it up and from what I understand, it basically stays good in your fridge forever.  Which is a good thing, because that means it'll be around for plenty of future batches of buffalo wing hummus.  Yum. 

paired with carrot sticks & pita chips and getting devoured - fast.

My only recommendation for a change to this recipe would be adding a bit more hot sauce (or perhaps even cayenne pepper) if you like it to be extra spicy (neither addition adds any WW points+) .

Head on over to Slender Kitchen's website, check out this amazing recipe, whip up a batch, and celebrate all things buffalo flavored with me.  On the floor of your apartment.  Alone.  With your cats.

Just me?  Okay. 

Buffalo Wing Hummus Recipe!

Crab Cake Recipe

I am married to a Baltimore Boy.

A Charm City Charmer.

A B'more Beau.

A Maryland Man.

Baltimore Boys love certain things, including:

• The Baltimore Ravens

• The Wire

• National Bohemian beer (Natty Boh to the locals)

• The Inner Harbor

• The Baltimore Orioles

• The National Aquarium

• Crab Cakes ("Crab cakes and football, that's what Maryland DOES!")

Michael (or Bracks, as he's known to most of world) has been a great sport so far during my quest to discover the perfect balance between a fun and healthy life. I decided it was high-time to find something I could make that would be right up his alley. Bracks, like all good Baltimore Boys, loves crab cakes. So I was beyond delighted to find an awesome recipe via Pinterest for crab cakes that are meaty, spicy, and altogether delicious.  Oh, and two of them are only 3 WW Points+.  Total.  Ridiculous, I know.  

Before giving you the link on how to make these bad boys, I have a few suggestions to perfect what is already a great recipe:

#1:  The red-pepper-chipotle sauce is delicious but verrrry spicy.  Use sparingly, and serve on the side.  Don’t drizzle on top as recommended in the recipe.
#2:  Add a tablespoon of Old Bay to the crab mixture before cooking.  Though the crab cakes were still good without it, I think the Old Bay is just what is needed to take these patties to the top - and without adding any WW Points+, either!

#3: Pick some nice veggie sides. I served ours with: 

• Fresh corn on the cob - I just shucked the corn right into the trashcan, wrapped them in a damp paper towel, and microwaved them for five minutes.  If I’d had more time, I would’ve grilled them outside, but it was cold and I was in a hurry (2 WW Points+ without butter/spread).

• Asparagus - I broke off the tough ends with my hands (they naturally break off where the tough part stops), sprayed them lightly with olive oil cooking spray, and lightly salted them. Then, I broiled them for about 10 minutes (0 WW Points+)!

So without further ado, here is 

the crab cake recipe!

I promise you - the last thing you will be after chowing down this meal is crabby.

Printable recipe