Sweet Potato Kale Pizza

I was at the gym Thursday night flipping through a mag on the treadmill when I came across this page with a sweet potato kale pizza recipe on it. Well.. I love sweet potatoes..I eat kale at least every other day..I always have feta in the fridge for salad..and I just bought flat/pita bread - I'm SO making this.

I may or may not have ripped the page out of the gym magazine and stuffed it in my bag.

 

It was easy enough, to make- first here are the Ingredients

• 1 Medium sweet potato
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil  
• Crushed red pepper flakes
• Pizza dough (or like me I used a whole pita pocket, can also find flatbread)
• Kale (about a handful)
• Goat Cheese (I used Feta, I'm sure blue cheese would work too)
• Sliced Almonds

The recipe calls for shredded parmesan and crushed walnuts, I skipped the extra parm because I already had a lot of feta- and calories were adding up- but I did use 1 tbsp. of sliced almonds I had in my cupboard I keep for salads

 

I diced up the sweet potatoes as good as I could and boiled them in water until soft enough (I'm sure you can microwave too- then let them cool for about 5 or so minutes- poured potatoes into my blender bullet adding 3/4 tbsp. olive oil with crushed red peppers and a dash of sea salt - and blended until smooth.  I'm sure you really don't need to blend it- if the potatoes are soft enough you'd be able to mash it yourself, I'm sure I'll do that next time to save some cleaning.

 

 

(don't forget to set oven to bake at 425 while doing this)

 

Peeled apart some kale pieces- poured the remaining 1/4 tbsp. of olive oil on them- then added sea salt.

 

Spread the blended potato/oil/pepper mix onto your bread of choice (again, I used a whole pita) ..top with kale, top with feta then sprinkle with almonds.

 

 

And. bake for about 10-15 minutes, I'm always bad at timing things- I just kept an eye on it and took it out when it looked good and the kale was crisp.

 



And there you go! It was really good, I was pleasantly surprised as.. it's sweet potato kale pizza, something I never would have thought twice about wanting to eat a year, or maybe even couple months ago. I will definitely make again. It came to 547 calories, so I had to lighten up my dinner in order to fit this into my daily! The Pita worked well too- I was a little worried it wouldn't bake very good- but it was just dandy! The pita was 200 cals it self, so I may look for a lower cal alternative if I can find something next time!

Protein Pancakes!

Pancakes are Delish! here's how I'm making mine lately;

• 1/4C Steel Cut Oats
• 1/2 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder
• 2 Egg Whites
• 1/2 Banana

Topped with...

• 1/4 Cup Sugar Free Syrup (1/4 C was too much)
• 4 Dark Choco Chips

(Blended the Ingredients together in my bullet but only for a sec as I wanted it a little thicker)

 

= 308 Calories

= 24g Protein

  + 32 Calories for 1/2 Cup Raspberries on the side :)



 

 

So they may not be the prettiest looking pancakes..which also might be part my constant fail at making the perfectly un-burnt pancake.

 

And of course a side of my love, Raspberries!

Found on Pinterest_ Recipe inspired by: This!

Thoughts on Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

Had sort of a bad day yesterday, so this seemed fitting :) Happy Thursday

 

Jewel Statement Necklaces

Can I just say that I like Love jewel statement necklaces.

 

 

 

 

 

Aka Pretty much every piece of jewelry from J.Crew

 

You can wear them with solids, stripes, graphic tees, blazers- they are everything.

 

 

Words from Catt

While scrolling through my morning social media, I came across this post from Catt Sadler. It really resonated with me as I'm constantly wishing I could join some sort of fitness group, be a beach body coach, be in some weight loss competition at the gym, etc- but really you're the only one who's gonna make things happen and make the necessary changes to get to your goals.

 

So, thanks Catt.

 

 

Quick & Easy Lunch

 

 

Andrea and I made a trip to Trader Joes the other day, can I just first say how much I love Trader Joes? It's great.

 

 

Picked up some extra lean ground turkey and whipped it up in the frying pan for the week- I was kind of feeling lazy and just wanted to make something, anything quick for lunch so I cooked up heated up some ground turkey, and cooked the bag of corn, red peppers and edamame I got at trader joes- added some seasonings and had lunch! It was a little bland, next time I'll maybe mix some salsa or something in it to add some flavor, but for only 300 calories and a filling- clean healthy lunch it did the trick.

 

Open field!

The last 2 days I've just ran a 5k then did a mile/2 mile extra in on and off jogging- then some of my Jillian DVD- but I kind wanted to do something different today!

I did my Jillian (No more trouble zones) dvd which is always brutal - and I guess I was on a work out high and decided I should go do sprints? My legs were already wobblin- that Jillian makes you do some squats and lunges I tell yah.


Sprinting on a sidewalk on the side of a busy road would just be weird- so I went to our local soccer field!

 

I miss the days I used to play competitively  growing up!

I did springs from one light post to the next diagonally, spring to one, jog to the next, spring to the next- etc.

 

 Who knew jumping could be so exhausting?  Got creative and did squat jumps side to side in box- that almost made me sweat more than sprints did! Then took some jumps to the stairs!

After all said and done, my legs were shaking and I could have crawled back to my car- I didn't burn as much calories as I have been on my 4+ mile jogs but I'm hoping I burned some fat by keeping the heart rate moving with springs and intervals!



...back to the apartment to make my protein smoothie dinner & sit on the couch to watch Extreme Makeover Weightloss & Catfish :)

Veggie Dip!

Trying to eat more veggies.. but I'm not as big on cooked/steamed veggies.. but like them raw but sometimes get a little..blah.

 

 

So of course pinterest led me to a recipe for Greek yogurt veggie dip!

 

• 6oz cup plain non fat Chobani
• 2 Tbsp Italian dressing (you can use whatever kind)
• Then some dashes of seasonings (also use whatever floats your boat)
• Then I cut up a bunch of celery, green peppers, carrots, cauli and broccoli- mixed it all together

 

I used about half the cup of Chobani though- I didn't like it drowning in dip.

 

Perfect snack :) 

 

And so my staycation begins!

I have the Aug 31st-Sept 8th off.. and decided to take a staycation and stay in Milwaukee for some R&R and really focus on doing what I've been increasingly growing a passion for, health & fitness!

So I'm taking the week to work out, and try new healthy recipes :) may not be the most ideal vacation and time off from work, but I'm gonna capitalize on the time off! I've been trying to lose weight since February, and though it's been a long & slow process, I've lost 16 lbs since I started at my highest in Feb by just working out and eating healthy. I'd of course have weeks where I just blow it- but I always got back on track.

 

10 more to go :)

I always just do cardio- maybe throw in 15 squats and lunges each or something and call it a day, but I know strength and circuit training will have the most impact on the bod.

I count cals to keep me on track, and so usually I have the elliptical telling me how much cals I burn, but with strength training I don't have that so I bought a heart rate monitor to tell me what I'm burning while I do my DVDs at home :)

Took the HRM for a spin and went for a run and liked what I saw, I feel like that's a high burn but i'm trusting it's accurate- I mean, I won't complain! It has a chest strap so it's gotta be somewhat accurate?

So here goes a week of health, fitness and wellness :)

...and blogging about it.