Ginger Glazed Salmon Burger

After sharing some of my favorite "Fit Girl Finds" from Costco, I figured I should follow up with some actual recipes and reviews of the items!  This Ginger Glazed Salmon Burger definitely impressed me with it's flavor and easy preparation!



Ingredients:

Calories: 360

Weight Watchers Smart Points (sp): 8sp

1 Salmon Burger (170 calories/3sp)

1 cup Kale & Quinoa Blend (100 calories/3sp)

Handful of Arugula

2 Tbsp. of Annie's Naturals Lite Gingerly Dressing (40 calories/1sp)

2 Tbsp. Wonton Strips (35 calories/1sp)

Grape or Cherry Tomatoes

The Trident Seafood's frozen Alaskan Salmon Burgers clock in at 170 calories per patty!  They are made from wild salmon, include no fillers and are gluten free!  You can prepare them on the grill, in the oven, or on the stove top.  I opted for the oven preparation because it requires no oil, like the stove top method, and I didn't have to go outside in the cold to use the grill!  For the glaze, I simply used 1 Tbsp. of Annie's Natural Lite Gingerly Dressing on one side of the patty while cooking!

Next I microwaved one of these amazing steam bags of an Organic Quinoa & Kale blend.  Only 3 minutes in the microwave and you have approximately 2.5 perfect servings of 100 calorie Quinoa & Kale!  Top the Quinoa & Kale with a handful of arugula tossed with one additional Tbsp. of Annie's Lite Gingerly dressing.  Place the glazed salmon burger on top and garnish with some wonton strips for crunch!  Delicious!

Can't wait to try some different preparations with the Salmon Burgers!  Stay Tuned!

Turkey Sausage Breakfast Hash

This morning I woke up wanting something a little different for breakfast.  I had saved a few delicious breakfast skillets and hash recipes earlier this week and began to wonder if I could make an easier, healthy version.  I did a quick mental inventory of what was currently in my kitchen and compiled a list of ingredients that would suffice for a glorious breakfast hash!  I reviewed some of the recipes on Pinterest to see if I could get any ideas for supplemental ingredients and began to come up with a quick grocery list, but then realized: the simpler, the better.  So I put the grocery list aside (for now, I really need to hit the store to stock up...) and began to create my 5 ingredient hash; no fuss, no frills.

Turkey Sausage Breakfast Hash

Calories: 325

Weight Watchers Smart Points: 7sp

Ingredients (for 1 serving):

4 oz. little potatoes - I use Micro Baker's Bites Petite Potatoes to save time.  They come in bags with 3 - 4 oz. servings at 85 calories/3sp per serving and only 4 minutes in the microwave results in perfectly steamed potatoes!  They come in gold, red, or a mixed medley.  I usually can pick up two small bags for $5 in the produce section of the grocery store.  They are great to keep on hand!






4 Turkey Sausage Links - Jones Farm has been my new favorite find from the freezer aisle.  Four of their turkey links is approx. 90 calories/2sp and they can be easily microwaved or cooked in the skillet.

1 Small Tomato, diced - I tend to use Roma tomatoes because they are the perfect size for my individual recipes, but any tomato will do!



1/4 cup Kraft Fat Free Shredded Cheddar Cheese - At only 45 calories and 0sp per 1/4 cup, I couldn't help myself.  I am a cheese fanatic and will find any way to sneak in as much as possible into almost any recipe, without sacrificing too many calories.

1 Egg - you can prepare the egg any way you like for this recipe!  I prepared mine over medium (accidentally); I would have preferred it a little more yolky, but it was still delicious.

Directions:

I prepared both the potatoes and the sausage links in the microwave to save time, then diced them up.  Toss in a skillet with olive oil cooking spray and heat over medium-high for a few minutes until slightly browned.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Once the potatoes and sausage are to your liking (slightly crispy, but don't burn!) I added the diced tomato to the skillet for the last minute to heat up a bit.

Place the heated potatoes, sausage, and tomatoes on your plate and sprinkle with cheese.

Prepare egg as desired.  Feel free to toss the egg in the skillet while all the potatoes, sausage, and tomatoes are still in there!  You can even mix it all around for a scramble!

Serve and enjoy!!!


This recipe could easily be multiplied to prepare for your whole family (and they will absolutely love it!)  I plan to invest in one of those cute, little cast iron skillets to up my presentation game!  

Some additional ingredients that would be absolutely fabulous in the hash include: mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, or black beans!  Play around with it a bit; I would love to hear about some of your favorite variations!

I was excited to use my new food scale that I received for Christmas!  New Years Resolution: Accurate portions!  Yay!

A Lazy Girl's Guide to Meal Planning - Part 1: Costco Wholesale (the Mothership)

January 1st is now two days away and coming with it a swirl of resolutions, hope, and diets galore!  In preparation for this new year/chapter of my life, I have begun cleaning out my fridge and cabinets for all the healthy, delicious food that I hope to fill them with.  I will also be starting my second Fit Girl's Guide challenge on January 5th - the Fitkini Body Challenge!

For me, the key to staying on track is not only through meal planning, but also through "emergency" back-up plans (i.e. what the heck will I eat when I'm too busy/lazy to prep and cook!?!)  Therefore, I thought a proper Costco trip was in order, to see what goodies I could pick up.  I have yet to visit Costco since I began my first Fit Girl's Guide challenge on December 1st, so I was interested to go in with my Fit Girl mindset!  I have dieted in the past, but something about the Fit Girl's Guide has made it easier and more realistic for me to create healthy meals!  (For one, the fact that they didn't completely drop carbs was one of the biggest selling points!)  Anyways, back to the crowded aisles of Costco, where I stood with the eyes of a hawk, scanning for any potential Fit Girl Finds!

The goodies:

Skinny Pop Popcorn:  My boyfriend actually hunted this down at Costco because he loves the stuff!  How can you not for 39 calories per cup?!  This giant bag costs $5.29 and is worth every penny!  Snack away without the guilt!

Kirkland Premium Chunk Chicken Breast:  6 - 12.5 oz. cans for only $11.59!  That is $2 per can!  I felt like I was robbing Costco!  Get the chicken, make a delicious chicken salad and you will not be disappointed (reminder: post my easy-peasy chicken salad recipe asap!)

Minsley 100% Organic Brown Rice (Microwaveable):  90 seconds for delicious brown rice plus no dirty pan?  Sign me up!  6 bowls costs $6.99, not the cheapest, but I will gladly pay $1 for an easy, filling side!

Good Grains Organic Quinoa & Kale Blend (with citrus & black pepper seasoning):  Found this in the freezer section and the package includes 4 steamable bags.  1 cup is only 100 calories!  Contains approximately 11 - 1 cup servings for $9.99.  Oh the glorious recipes I will prepare with this!

Trident Alaskan Salmon Burgers: Best part is that they are made from wild salmon!  Each patty is 170 calories and I cannot wait to enjoy these on a salad, in a pita, or protein-style!  No fillers in these either, the main ingredient is the salmon and the rest of the ingredients (mainly seasonings) make up less than 2% of the burgers. Great price as well, only $13.99 for 12 burgers!

Kirkland Tilapia Loins:  These are another great backup plan for a quick and easy protein.  Found in the freezer section, they are only 110 calories for 4 oz. of tilapia.  Planning on some fish tacos and ceviche with these bad boys!  $14.99 buys you a 40 oz. bag (~10 - 4 oz. portions!)

Sabra Hummus Singles:   I love having these around when I am in a rush to get out the door for school or work.  Each package contains 1/4 cup of hummus, which is more than you technically need for a snack if you are watching calories, but can be great to have half for snacktime and save some for lunch!  (Still better than grabbing a bag of chips from the vending machine!)  Each package is 150 calories and the box of 16 singles is $5.99.

Kirkland Creamy Almond Butter:   I normally don't consume a lot of peanut butter or any nut butter for that matter, however, the Fit Girl's Guide has really gotten me into almond butter.  I bought a small jar from my grocery store (for $7, yikes!) and it is almost gone!  When I stumbled across this 26 oz. jar at Costco I was pretty stoked because it only cost $10.99!  Also, there is only one ingredient: roasted almonds.  Ah the simplicity, I love it.  (Forgot to add this to my group photo above, so it earned itself a premium solo photo).

So those are my Fit Girl finds at Costco!  This bounty cost me under $100 and will provide supplemental recipe material for many of my meals (I'm actually getting excited just thinking about all the different possibilities!)  Next week I'm planning on tackling Trader Joe's... it might be a VERY long post!  Well this is fit girl Shelby signing out -- stay fit and stay happy!

Turkey Sausage Egg FitFuffin!

Good morning Fit World!

Woke up today to find out that I was one of the winners for the Fit Girl's Guide December #WinterWonderlandChallenge !  Feeling pretty motivated for my second challenge now!  Thought I would share one of my favorite breakfasts from the past month of the #28DayJumpstart by Fit Girl's Guide.  They called it an Egg McFitfun, but for some reason I couldn't remember the name and kept calling it an Egg FitFuffin!  My boyfriend really got a kick out of that (also he loved these healthy little breakfast sandwiches!)

Some of my favorite things about the challenge include the fact that the food is "boyfriend-approved" (as I like to call it).  I would also say it's kid friendly as well, which is great because often through our fit journey's we don't just cook and eat by ourselves!  We usually have significant others, family, and children that have to come along for the ride too.  As a busy grad student, I can only imagine how busy mothers are when trying to eat clean and live a healthy life, so when a program comes along that is great for the whole family, well HOORAY!

Another great part of the Fit Girl's Guide is the fact that the recipes are so easy!  They even outline your grocery list for the whole week and when to prep which items to keep your time in the kitchen to the minimal!  So with that being said, here is my version of their delicious Egg McFitfun (watch out McDonald's!)

Turkey Sausage Egg FitFuffin!

• Thomas' Light Multi-grain English Muffin (Only 100 calories & delicious!) - Simply put it in the toaster

• 1 Fried egg - Just use a little olive oil cooking spray & sprinkle with salt & pepper

• 1 Jones Farm Turkey sausage patty (see picture below!  These are so tasty for only 60 calories!) - I cooked in the pan next to the egg!

• 1/2 slice of provolone cheese (~35 calories) - I have learned to control my burning desire to eat as much cheese as possible at every meal!  One of my hardest habits to break!

• Tomato slice - This can even be heated up slightly in the pan as well!

• Small handful of spinach & raw mushrooms - Toss in the pan after the egg and patty have cooked and use the remaining grease/oil left in the pan to saute these!  Sprinkle with a dash of garlic powder for added flavor!

• Sit back and enjoy!

As you can see, my dog Tobi thought the Egg FitFuffin smelled delicious!  Here are the wonderful turkey sausage products I stumbled upon in the freezer aisle of my local grocery store!  Not only are they low calorie, but also have no MSG, no nitrites, and no preservatives!  I even introduced my family to them while staying there for Christmas; they were even a hit with my picky little brother (we never told them they were made of turkey, ha!)  To the right is the picture of breakfast with my family.  Instead of having an English muffin, I opted for a tasty hash brown (for 140 calories, we get ours frozen from Target!)  Kept the meal and my family healthy, while sharing with them a new breakfast option!

This is another variation of the Egg FitFuffin that I love!

This one used only spinach, tomato, and feta cheese along with the fried egg!  

Hope you enjoyed all the Egg FitFuffins!  I have seen recipes of pinterest where you can actually make a bunch ahead of time, wrap in foil, and freeze them!  This way you can simply grab one and warm it up for a quick, hearty breakfast to-go!  

Turkey Burger Wedge Salad

This delicious creation was the result of a much needed cleaning of my kitchen!  Hoping to clear out as much clutter and unused food as possible before the New Year, I found the perfect combination of ingredients for this amazing lunch.  (Going to keep these recipe blog posts short and sweet!  Could never figure out why most blogs babble on and on and give a whole family history to why the recipe is being made and featured!)  So here it goes!

Turkey Burger Wedge Salad:

1 Jennie-O Lean Turkey Burger, seasoned with garlic powder, salt & pepper

1/4 head of iceberg lettuce

1 hard-boiled egg

Tomato slices and diced

Sliced pickled beets

Reduced fat Feta cheese

2 tbl. turkey bacon bits (gobble, gobble!)

Walden Farms Calorie Free Blue Cheese (This is the key to keeping the salad low calorie!  I love browsing the dressing aisle for tasty new dressings and this one is delicious!)

Hope you enjoy!  I thought the turkey burger would be dry and bland, but the seasoning plus cooking it on the grill made in flavorful and delicious sans bun! 

Becoming a "Fit Girl" - Social Media as a Means of Fitspiration

28 days ago I embarked on the "28 Day Jumpstart" Winter Wonderland Challenge from Fit Girl's Guide.  These ladies have figured out quite the simple, cute & fun way to motivate girls to get fit via clean eating and at-home workouts.  Their Fit Girl's Guide was available for about $20 with an online code and easily downloaded to my computer, where I could view it there or on my phone.  This guide was complete with tips & tricks, grocery lists, meal prep plans, recipes, & more!  I was thoroughly impressed, but what was more impressive was the online community that has sprung from this Fit Girl revolution!

Many of the girls taking on the 28 day challenge decide to create new instagram accounts, often bearing the "fitgirl" badge somewhere in the name.  I chose to make one for myself so I could share my progress without forcing my new found "Fit Girl" lifestyle on my current friends and family.  Upon creating and sharing a few posts of my before pics & goals, I found myself swirling in a whirlwind of fitgirl likes, comments, & support.  After discovering the photo editing app "A Beautiful Mess" and realizing my talent for adorable food photos and designs, I woke up one morning to find that my Fit Girl instagram account had grown to almost 500 followers!  Fit Girl's Guide had shared one of my breakfast photos on their instagram to their 1.2 million followers and that was how I launched my new hobby as an insta-famous (as my brother calls it) Fit Girl representative (self-proclaimed)!

So now, on the last day of my 28 Day Jumpstart Challenge, I am almost 9lbs. less (which is impressive because I barely did the workouts and had many cheat meals/days), I have decided to expand my Fit Girl kingdom to the wonderful world of blogging.  The basis of my posts are easy, health recipes (because I am lazy and do not have much time to spend shopping, cooking, and prepping).  I hope you enjoy this page and my journey (and I apologize in advance if I go on public health rants here and there, it's my line of study after all).  Also, I'm not one to push products upon people, but I highly suggest you purchase a copy of the Fit Girl's Guide!

If you are interested, please follow me on instagram too!  (@fitgirl_shelby)

Case Study: Shape Up Somerville

Shape Up Somerville started as a community-based participatory research (CBPR) trial in 2003 with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.¹ The goal was to create a multi-level approach to prevention of obesity among elementary children in 1^st through 3^rd grade.²  In Somerville, “44% of the city’s 1^st through 3^rd graders were overweight or at-risk of being overweight.”² The city of Somerville partnered with Tufts University, the Somerville School Committee, and a variety of community-based organizations to engage the community and influence the multiple sectors that would have an impact on obesity prevention.³ A broad range of strategies were used to develop and implement projects that would coordinate efforts to create environmental changes within the community, specifically targeting elementary aged children.³

Formative research, including: focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and community meetings, were conducted to gather data for the community initiative.¹  Building relationships was crucial to the success of Shape Up Somerville.  Tufts University met with community leaders and conducted key informant interviews to gain support and trust within the community.¹ Additional support for the intervention was garnered from elected and appointed officials in the community, as well as numerous organizations.  To aid in the design of the intervention, focus groups were held with parents, children, and teachers.¹ Other forms of community outreach included: monthly parent and community newsletters, community events, local media utilization, meetings with the Parent Teacher Association, and the use of public forums for specifically parents.⁴

Projects and programs that Shape Up Somerville developed included:

• Shape Up Approved Restaurants that display healthy options on their menus.³
• Improved school nutrition program which increased the amounts of healthy food choices and decreased the amount of unhealthy options to students.³
• HEAT Club In-School Curriculum, which stands for Health Eating, Acting time.  90 teachers were trained to teach this curriculum.⁴
• Safe Routes to School to increase walkability in the community.  This included walkability checklists from parents, pedestrian trainings, and data collection to inform future policies and city planning.⁴
• Training clinicians and school nurses to address overweight issues among children.³
• Improvement of current parks and create new parks.³

These are a few examples of some of the original projects that Shape Up Somerville pursued, however more projects continue to develop and be implement as the community collaborative continues.  As Shape Up Somerville grew, it began to take on a Collective Impact approach, which enabled it to manage the intricate web of various organizations, individuals, and programs across the community.  Collective Impact includes five conditions, which were utilized by Shape Up Somerville to increase the efficacy of the community collaborative. 

Five Conditions of Collective Impact

• Common Agenda: It was critical that all stakeholders involved shared the same desired outcomes for the community.³
• Shared Measurement: Discussions among the community and partners took place to decide upon three key measures for Shape Up Somerville; weight, BMI z-score, and “increases in energy expenditures (EE) beyond increases in EE and energy.”³
• Mutually Reinforcing Activities: Projects and strategies were coordinated to produce a greater effect on the outcomes.³
• Continuous Communication: This took place via regular meetings and websites.  The community was constantly informed through media such as newsletters, newspaper columns, TV, and radio.³
• Backbone Support: The city of Somerville provided the backbone support for Shape Up Somerville and its projects.  A team of individuals was created to support and ensure the functioning of the initiative.

Shape Up Somerville did face some challenges while working to achieve its various goals.  While attempting to alter the school nutrition program, barriers such as budget issues, allocating resources and union contracts arose.  Also, some resistance came from parents and school staff initially, but was resolved shortly after implementation.¹  When the first changes were made, the sales of a la carte items at schools dropped, but over time, the sales and school lunch participation has increased.²  Somerville’s food service director notices that improvements and notes that “without access to sugary and high-fat treats and with messages about healthy eating coming from everywhere, students began to opt for our meals with fruits and vegetables.  Now we never hear complaints—these changes have become the new normal.”² 

Additional challenges were faced in regards to recruiting restaurants to be Shape Up Approved.  It was impossible to conduct focus groups with the restaurants and difficult to make contact with owners and managers to discuss the initiative and convince them to offer healthy options.⁵  This was mainly because there was no restaurant association or any sort of leadership organization that could have been contacted to enable contact with the restaurants that would have been convenient and considered trustworthy.⁵  This challenge was overcome by unplanned visits to restaurants and conducting on-the-spot interviews with owners and managers of restaurants that were identified during parent focus groups as popular locations.⁵

      From initial evaluation measures, Somerville children had decreased the amount of beverages sweetened with sugar by an average of at least 12-ounces per week when compared to controls in other cities.⁶  Also, sports participation and physical activity increased 0.2 per year.⁶  This data was from the first two years of Shape Up Somerville and likely there has been greater improvements over the course of the initiative since its inception in 2003.  BMI scores also displayed positive association from 2003 to 2004, in which children in Somerville on average reduced “approximately one pound of excess weight gain over eight months for a 9-year-old child.”²  More evaluation of the Shape Up Somerville is necessary to fully understand the impact it has had on the community, however evaluating an initiative such as Shape Up Somerville can be difficult due to the diverse amount of projects it envelopes, as well as additional outside factors within the community that would have an impact on the outcomes.

Today, Shape Up Somerville community initiative continues to develop and is considered a model program in the Let’s Move Campaign by Michelle Obama.⁷  Somerville is also a part of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Mass in Motion Program and has been funded and recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as a leader in the national program Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities.⁷  Key factors to the initiatives success are its ability to be flexible, encompassment of multiple levels of a community to enact change, and its ability to be sustainable.  Using the five conditions of Collective Impact has helped it continue to be an impactful, engaging community program with a great number of partners and stakeholders.  Shape Up Somerville is a prime example of how the community, government, and organizations can band together to initiate environmental changes to achieve better health outcomes for its population.   

References

1.      Economos CD, Curtatone JA. Shaping up Somerville: A community initiative in Massachusetts. Prev Med. 2010;50:S97-S98.

2.      Cluggish S, Kinder G. Shape Up Somerville: District Tackles Childhood Obesity. The Education Digest. 2008;73:32.

3.      FSG.  Collective Impact Case Study: Shape Up Somerville.  Boston, MA.  http://www.fsg.org/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/PDF/CI_Case_Study_Shape_Up_Somerville.pdf.  Accessed September 16, 2014.

4.      Shape Up Somerville.  Tufts University Web site.  http://www.nutrition.tufts.edu/index.php?q=research/shapeup-somerville. Accessed September 16, 2014.

5.      Economos CD, Folta SC, Goldberg J, et al. A community-based restaurant initiative to increase availability of healthy menu options in Somerville, Massachusetts: Shape Up Somerville. Preventing chronic disease. 2009;6:A102.

6.       Folta SC, Kuder JF, Goldberg JP, et al. Changes in diet and physical activity resulting from the Shape Up Somerville community intervention. BMC pediatrics. 2013;13:157-157.

7.      Shape Up Somerville.  A Decade of Shape Up Somerville: Assessing Child Obesity Measures 2002-2011.  Somerville, MA.  http://www.ci.somerville.ma.us/sites/default/files/SUS-BMI-ReportFINAL-4-12-2013_0_0.pdf.  Accessed September 14, 2014.