Living A Healthier Life: Shopping and Cooking

Here’s how you know you’re living a healthier life: when you chase someone down in the grocery store because they accidentally took your shopping cart instead of their own and when they finally look in the cart, the amount of vegetation is jaw-dropping. Seriously folks, this happened today on my weekly trip to the grocery store for our Fresh20 and SkinnyTaste ingredients. One minute, I’m picking out hamburger buns in the bakery section and the next the only shopping cart in my vicinity is one that has nothing but two pies, cookies and ground turkey. Luckily, I brought my own bags and the only way I was able to locate my cart was when I saw a woman pushing one with my bright red grocery bag at the bottom. I flagged her down and told her she had my cart and she looked shocked and said, “You’re right! This cart is too healthy, it CAN’T be mine!”

: My gorgeous, slightly kidnapped shopping cart

4 months ago, my cart would have resembled that woman’s cart more so than the one I had to hunt down today. Now granted, I wasn’t in the habit of bringing home whole pies but cookies? Yes. Only a few fresh ingredients? Sure. More stuff from the middle aisles (packaged, processed foods) than the outer sections (fresh foods)? More than likely. Today’s little incident was a great reminder that we (my partner and I) really have come a long way when it comes to what we bring home, what we cook and how much time we spend in the kitchen making fresh, healthy food. The amount of dishes we do everyday is another story BUT I’m grateful I have a kitchen full of food to cook everyday so I really can’t complain.

Today, I really had a hankering for a savory, indulgent-esque American meal. I went traveling along the interwebz and came across a couple of new yummies I just had to try. Tonight I made the Buffalo Turkey Burgers from Skinnytaste for dinner. Oh Em Gee. When the hubs loves a dish chock of vegetables, you KNOW you have a winner! There were so many good things about this dish: the turkey patty with shredded carrots and buffalo sauce, the topping made of broccoli slaw mixed with the Skinny Bleu Cheese Dressing (<— so good, I’d put it in my morning coffee.), the Sargento deli thin cheddar slice that was just enough cheese, and the fluffy, toasted bolillo roll it all sat within. Perfection!

: YERMMEEE

For dessert, (which I just now remembered I needed to make) I made 2 ingredient oatmeal cookies! What a great way to use old bananas! I used Quaker Oat Perfect Portions oatmeal which is my new love because it’s a sack of instant oatmeal that is NOT sweetened. You can make as much or as little as you want and add your own sweetener. I love the Cinnamon flavor and it worked really well with these cookies. What’s great about this recipe is that it’s super fast and you can add whatever mix-ins you want! I added some left over walnuts we had in a weird amount unfit for a formal recipe and mini chocolate chips. So easy and very tasty! Not to mention, it’s clean (sans the chocolate chips) and pure eating.