Month: April 2012

I felt like it had been entirely too long since I posted a good old fashioned recipe! With summer just around the corner I figured I would try my hand at ‘skinny-fying’ one of my absolute favorite summertime desserts. Lemonade Pie has been something I’ve eaten in the summer for as long as I can remember. My neighbor/second grandma, Mary, would always come drop off all sorts of pies and crumb cakes for us growing up and this was by far my favorite creation (the chocolate chip crumb cake was a close second but we’ll get to that recipe later). Anyways, another great thing about this recipe is that it’s completely oven free! I don’t know about you, but when it gets hot outside the last thing I want is to be standing next to a hot oven that’s heating up my house, which makes this a great recipe for those unbearably hot days.  So from my house to yours, give this refreshingly tart and creamy pie a whirl at one of your bbqs this summer!

Lemonade Stand Pie

1/3 cup Country Time Lemonade Flavor Drink Mix

1/2 cup water

1 pint of softened vanilla ice cream (get a low fat version or non dairy to tailor this to your diet)

1 tub (8 oz) of fat free Cool Whip, thawed

1 prepared Graham pie Crust (or four/six little mini pies!)

Stir drink mix and water till dissolved. Then, beat lemonade and ice cream in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until completely blended. Gently stir in whipped topping until smooth. Freeze until mixture mounds, if necessary. Spoon into your crust and freeze for 4 hours or overnight (if you can) till firm. Let it thaw for 15 minutes before you serve and garnish with some cut lemons or lemon zest! Feel free to get an additional Cool Whip tub to add a dollop to top the pie off.  (Make sure you store this in the freezer when your done)

 

           Who doesn’t love to do a little spring cleaning?! Well, okay, I’m not terribly jazzed about it either but sometimes you got to put in some work to keep that home beautiful and what better incentive to pamper your sweet abode than all the calories you’ll burn while doing it!

Yesterday, I had my girl over to help me paint my bedroom this kick-ass shade of turquoise and boy did we work up a sweat! Neither of us felt guilty about skipping the gym that morning or indulging in some skinnygirl margaritas and guacamole after we finished. And rightly so on our part! Painting burns about 320 calories an hour and we had just made a whole afternoon/evening of it! So here’s a list of some other surprise workouts around the house, cause come on doesn’t it make it a little more exciting to clean when you get to skip the gym to do it?!

Scrubbing your tub..200 cals in 30 minutes

Making Beds…………..130 cals if you have 30 mins worth of beds to make

Cleaning Windows…125 cals for 30 mins of wax on, wax off

Wash your dishes…..160 cals for 30 mins of skipping the dishwasher

Vacuuming……………..180 cals for an hour of clean carpet

Ironing……………………140 cals an hour but don’t hunch over the board

 Climbing Stairs……..285 cals for 30 minutes of putting that laundry away

Now get cleaning my skinny little sweethearts! 🙂

 

 

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These little treasure troves of healthy lunches are popping up all over Manhattan! I highly suggest popping into one if you happen to spot one, I’ve been to the one on 18th by union square and the one downtown by Wall street but there are plenty more. Dig Inn makes getting delicious veggies fast and easy! My favorite picks are their veggie platter (where you can choose from five of their vegetarian or vegan sides) or their organic tofu platter (which comes with three sides). With sides like local spaghetti squash, balsamic mushrooms and broccoli and quinoa salad your lunch will be so yummy you’ll forget how healthy it is!

And as if this place didn’t already have my name written all over it- THEY MAKE FRESH JUICES! I’ve tried their all greens with apple, lemon and ginger and it is fabulous. With a slogan like “everything here is good for you”, you better make this your new favorite skinny spot this spring. Check them out at http://www.diginn.com/order to see if they deliver to your office! 🙂

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I saw this on Facebook and I just couldn’t have said it better myself!! And what perfect timing when we’re just about to launch our own sweet and skinny special orders section of the website! So if your in Manhattan, stay tuned because soon you’ll be able to get a taste of sweet and skinny delivered right to your door! Now if that’s not just happiness in a box, I don’t know what is! 🙂

Today is my first day since Sunday out of my apartment and I sit here in Starbucks with a large iced green tea and a toasted plain bagel with butter (insert your gasp here, it’s ok). Nope, this isn’t some “cheat day”, sadly white carbs are the only thing I’ve been able to stomach for the past 5 days. Hit by an awful fever and flu like symptoms, I could barely get anything down for the first three days but it became apparent that my antibiotic would just eat my stomach away (or force me to throw it up) if I did not try to get something down there. Enter, the sick girl’s beloved friend “toast”. I have been living on toast for days!! I’ve eaten more simple carbs in the past few days then I have probably eaten in entire months of my sweet and skinny little life. Bleck!

Funny thing is, once upon a time ago, I would have loved such a good excuse to indulge in something so “off limits” in my mind. However, when your body is utterly fighting for it’s health and you feel like death, you actually want something with nutrients in it! I’ve been dreaming about raw broccoli with hummus and fresh fruit. In fact, I’m pretty sure starting tomorrow I’ll be throwing that loaf of bread out and buying some fresh produce because my body is begging for it. I’m not going to say that having whatever awful flu -like-bug I was infected with was a good thing, but it definitely gave me a refreshed outlook on taking care of myself. I can’t wait to feel good enough tomorrow to get back into my work out and to introduce my tummy back to some other food groups!

 

              It’s that magical time of year again, the weather’s getting warmer, the sun’s shining and it’s only a matter of time till you need to be seen in public in a swimsuit. This year I’m saving myself some money and not buying an over priced NYC gym membership, instead, I’m going to do some work out videos in the comfort of my own apartment. Work out videos are great for those of us with less than ideal schedules – you can do them whenever, for how ever long, no judgement. So I’ll be reviewing a string of different workout videos for you guys over the next couple months as I test them out but here’s my very first!

10 Minute yoga is ah-mazing! Not for the beginner yogi, (they have a beginner version for that though) it has a great pace, flowing from pose to pose while connecting with your breath but without giving you enough time to go over your grocery list while hanging out in downward dog. I love that it’s chopped up into little ten minute segments so that even on mornings that I don’t quite have time to work out, I can do a run through of “yoga basics” and get centered for the rest of the day. My favorite is by far the “yoga burn” segment but they are all short and sweet, making it incredibly easy to switch up your workout daily and not have an excuse to skip it. I’m excited to try out the rest of the videos in this ten minute series because I think it’s an absolutely brilliant way to make work outs accessible to even the most time crunched of us all. Give it a whirl! I bought the DVD, but it’s also available on Netflix instant play!