Healthy Clam Chowder Recipe

Last week Big Daddy Diesel asked for my Healthy Clam Chowder Recipe. So here it is BDD, let me know if you try it. I am going to make it tonight!

I found this recipe here and adjusted it slightly:

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups reduced-fat (1%) milk
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
3 6 ounce cans minced clams
1 pound small red-skinned potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 teaspoon low-sodium Old Bay seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Tossed salad, crusty bread (optional)

Directions
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat; add onion and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in wine and cook 1 minute; sprinkle in flour and cook 1 minute.
2. Gradually stir in milk and chicken broth. Drain liquid from clams into measuring cup. Add 1 cup of the clam juice to the pot and reserve the clams. Add potatoes, cover and simmer 30 minutes or until potatoes are fully cooked.
3. Add reserved clams, corn, Old Bay, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer to heat through. Turn off heat and stir in parsley.
4. Serve with tossed salad and crusty bread, if desired

There are approx. 4 servings with 350 calories in each

Photo Food Journal

Have you ever done a photo food journal? I know food bloggers do it all the time but this was a first for me. It was seriously a challenge to remember to take photos of everything I ate before eating it. I wanted to do this because I think it's good to have a visual representation of everything I ate in a day to see the overall balance.

First Breakfast: home made protein balls, Winston wanted to share. Too bad I wasn't feeling very giving. I also downed two cups of coffee and some water before heading out to a 90 min spin class.

Second Breakfast: Protein Green Monster with Chia Seeds and another cup of coffee.

I always use this creamer in my coffee, I love it even though it's a bit of a frankinfood.

Mid morning snack was a Honey Crisp apple. These apples are the best things ever, sweet, tart and always crispy. LOVE THEM, I wish they were available year round. I often eat two a day I love them so much.

Whoops, didn't get this one before I drank it, but at least I got it before it hit the recycle bin. I had half the bottle since I drank the first half yesterday.

One serving of pop chips and a diet coke. This wasn't the healthiest choice of the day but SO good.

Lunch: was a spinach salad with bell pepper, cucumber, flank steak and blue cheese...so good

With a healthy dose of this on top

Dinner was homemade Clam Chowder. It wasn't as good as usual because I didn't have any white wine at home and was too lazy to run out and get some. Recipe can be found here it's a "healthy" version and still really good.

I had a nuun with dinner, not because I needed it but because I just really like it. My favorite is the strawberry lemonade, SO good! Not pictured are the many glasses of water I drink thoughout the day.

This is a fairly normal weekday for me, I think it looks pretty balanced, what do you think? Cory and I recently went to a sports nutrition workshop where the nutritionist said in "transition phase" (the one we are in, basically off season) we should be eating mostly fruits, veggies and lean proteins with little to no whole grains. This depressed me a bit, I know I get plenty of carbs from my fruits and veggies I just really like my grains! What's your take, could you be that disciplined?

Food, Glorious Food!

I would say that Cory and I are planners, so when it comes to buying food for the week we plan out our diners and rarely "wing it". I like to know what we are going to buy and hate throwing away food that has gone bad. We start by making a dinner menu for the week (we don't plan lunches or breakfasts, we just make sure we have the usual ingredients in the house) We then make a shopping list.

Can you read the menu? It looks like all unhealthy foods like tacos, pizza, burritos, etc. It looks bad but these are all healthy, homemade versions. Here are our fish tacos with mango salsa from last week, SO YUMMY!

After making our list we head out, we almost always end up at two different stores, our favorites are Costco and Sunflower Market. Here is our haul:

We are pretty good at sticking to our menu, admittedly sometimes we end up with takeout (usually Indian)after a stressful day at work.

Do you plan out your meals, or do you decide as you go?

Wipe Out!

I have been on such a bad streak lately I shouldn't be surprised that my 50 mile bike ride yesterday ended with my first ever wipe out on my bike. I don't think there are any permanent damages just some road rash, bruises and sore limbs. Mainly I think that it just means more time off training, it's like the universe is trying to tell me something.

I am sick of being a debbie downer so instead of feeling sorry for myself. I will tell you about my fun night out with Cory. On Saturday night we decided to try out a local restaurant called Solera the website describes the restaurant as;

Inspired by Spanish farmhouse cuisine, Chef/Owner Goose Sorensen uses time honored techniques like slow roasting and braising to create simple dishes that are rich in flavor. Named after the process of aging wine, beer and brandy, Solera understands the craft behind making exceptional food.

We started out with sangria, Cory had the red and I had the white. They were both really good. We then ordered truffle fries as an appetizer, they were the best things ever!

They were so good that I don't even mind you seeing my greasy forehead.

For dinner I ordered sea scallops with white cheddar, truffle mac n cheese. This dish was made for me, including many of my favorite things. It was SO good!

Cory ordered sea bass with risotto, he liked it but it had nothing on my meal!

It was not the healthiest meal I have ever had but it was worth it!

After dinner we watched Crazy Stupid Love, and it was SO good. Seriously deeper than I thought it would be. Two thumbs up, I recommend it to everyone.

Seen any good movies lately???

My favorite part of the day

Mornings are my favorite part of the day, there is nothing better than watching the sun come up while drinking a cup of coffee. I also love to get up early to get my workout in before taking on the rest of the day. On days I do sleep in I feel out of sorts the rest of the day, like I have wasted half the day and am running behind. Being such a morning person helps me get my morning workouts in but makes evening workouts, like masters swimming tonight difficult for me. If I had my way I would have the early bird special of dinner at 5pm and in bed no later than 9pm.

Are you a morning person, if not how do you motivate yourself to get through morning workouts?

I was feeling super uninspired about breakfast this morning, my normal variations on oatmeal are getting really old so I decided to break out the blender and make myself a green monster. This morning I decided to keep things simple:

• 1 banana
• a couple handfuls of spinach
• 1 cup of vanilla soy milk
• 1 scoop a vanilla whey protein
• 1 tablespoon of chia seeds

I threw thew this all in the blender and let it run for two minutes.
Then I added about two cups of ice, blended for another thirty seconds and I had a great banana breakfast shake.
I love green monsters because it's one of the only ways that I get vegetables into my breakfast. This was the first time I have included chia seeds, I think I could taste them a little but it wasn't unpleasant. It was a great way to start my day!

Do you have ways you like to get vegetables into your diet?

Weekly training plans and food

I realized I haven’t posted my weekly training plan in a while so here is my week:

Monday: 35 mile ride
Tuesday: am interval swim 2500 meters, pm interval run approx. 5 miles
Wednesday: am 36 mile ride, pm yoga
Thursday: am: 6 mile run, pm masters swim
Friday: strength training
Saturday: 18 mile trail run ( must find easier trail so it won’t take me 8 hours)
Sunday: open water swim 1.5 miles and Ride 55 miles

I will take everyone’s advice and just try to suck it up buttercup on the heat, I grew up in Portland so this Colorado heat gets to me sometimes and I become a giant whiney baby about it.

Ironman update: Ironman Mont Tremblant is now full so it won’t be an option for me in 2012, so I think I will try for IM Canada if I can’t get into that then I will just have to decide between Vineman and Ironman CDA, I can’t wait to sign up!

Last I want to talk about FOOD! I love to eat and TRY to eat healthy foods. I pack my lunch and take it to work everyday. I tend to eat the same things with little variation, here is my lunch for today:


Salad with strawberries, blue cheese and walnuts
Some kind of fruit today includes watermelon and an apple
Greek yogurt with fruit today I cut up a white peach
And some type of vegetable today is a red pepper

Anyone have any suggestion for variety? Keep in mind I am cheap, lazy and a vegetarian…..you can see why this is difficult :)

Food Glorious Food

With my marathon less than a month away and my longest training run behind me I feel like it's time to put more focus on food. I want to keep my body healthy and strong for my race and the best way to do that is to eat healthy drink lots of water Spinach salad with walnuts, blue cheese and a pear YUM!

take my vitamins

And get lots of rest. Any marathoners out there with any more advice on how to prepare?

I also want to read more about nutrition, any recommendations?

Good luck to those racing this weekend, what fun plans do you have?

Veggie restaurants and gym idiots

Last night I really didn’t want to make dinner so I talked Cory into meeting me at Watercourse, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant near our house in Denver. We hadn’t been there before but it sounded interesting. The inside the restaurant was really cute. And the wait staff was really friendly. I started out with a raspberry beer (not my favorite) and Cory got the hard cider (this was very good). For dinner I got The Champ, described as:

Freshly baked foccacia bread with layers of roasted beets, red onions, grilled zucchini, sprouts, swiss cheese, and lemon caper aioli.

I meant to take a picture but it was mostly gone before I remembered, I must have been hungry. I did like the sandwich even though I am not a huge fan of beets. I used to have to cut raw beets all the time for the Chimps when I worked as primate keeper. I really liked the foccacia and the lemon caper aioli. This morning Cory and I got up early to hit out spin class where the instructor informed us that this would be the last time the class would be offered. WHAT?!?! This class (5:30 Thursday morning) is always full with a wait list, why would the gym cancel this class? We signed a petition, got the number for the gym’s manager so we could complain and then had our @sses handed to us in class. After class we hopped on treadmills to pound at 6 miles for a nice brick. Being able to easily run 6 miles after a difficult spin class makes me feel like maybe I will be able to do this crazy half ironman in June. Now I have to figure out what to do with my training plan, I had relied on Thursday spin to be part of my brick and it isn’t nice or light enough to count on being riding outside. Plus I counted it as an interval workout.

Just Say No

At least that is what my body decided to do. I was sore and fatigued all day yesterday, my body was begging for some more recovery after my high mileage (for me) weekend. I also think that riding outside is a lot more taxing than inside so my Tuesday morning ride was more difficult than normal. So, instead of going to track practice and sprinting until I want to puke I decided to take advantage of the 70 degree weather and take Winston for a three mile run last night. Don't let his rolly-polly appearance fool you. Winston is an amazing runner he can out run both Cory and I for about five miles, and he loves it.Let's go for a trail run mama!

I also decided my body needed more fuel so we whipped up burritos with quinoa that would give Chipotle a run for their money.
I will be back at it full force tomorrow for my morning brick. I don't feel bad at all about missing practice and shortening my run, the last thing I need is an injury less than a month out from my marathon.

What do you do when you just aren't feeling up to it all?