amy'slightandlean

I’m excited to announce that I have added a new category to the menu bar up top! In case you haven’t noticed, when you place your mouse over “Skinny Talk” one of the sub categories that appears is “supermarket skinny”! I decided to add supermarket skinny to the mix because I feel like it is something I’ve been over looking in the past but is an essential part to creating a happy, healthy life you love! You need to know about AMAZING products out there that can make your sweet and skinny journey even easier. I love cooking but even I have those days where I just want to run to the supermarket and grab something I can heat up quick or stick in the oven and I thought why not share my favorite healthy finds with you?! I think we could all use a break every now and then and with the scorching hot days of summer ahead of us we might not want to be slaving away over the oven for an hour all the time!

So here is my first find, Amy’s Light and Lean Vegetable Pizza. This is a great yummy treat when you want to indulge a little with out derailing your diet and healthy habits! Amy’s makes some absolutely fabulous stuff and I am all about the new “Light and Lean” line because although all their stuff is organic and some of it’s vegan and gluten free, it still has calories and fat and you really need to read your labels when buying pre-made or frozen food. Just because it seems healthy does not always mean it is! Be savvy! This individual veggie pizza was exactly what I needed after a long day and wanting something a little naughty and quick. It’s nothing terribly fancy, kind of like an adult Elio’s pizza (if you remember those) but it satisfied the craving and I felt completely guilt free about my indulgence! Amy’s Light and Lean Vegetable Pizza gets my skinny star of approval! 🙂

Do you constantly find yourself saying that you don’t have enough time to exercise or to prepare healthy meals for yourself? Well this video is for you! In connection with your Summer Slim Down Challenge, I hope this video helps you through those struggles and creates a breakthrough for you to step up your healthy, happy living game! Enjoy and please like, comment and SUBSCRIBE to the channel if you haven’t already!

fruity french lentils

I LOVE LENTILS! Seriously. In the winter lentil soup is one of my favorite comfort foods and now that it’s hot outside I needed to find a lighter, more summery way to enjoy my lentils! Inspired by a recipe I found in The Kind Diet, these Fruity French Lentils are the perfect way to enjoy my favorite beans all year round! Enjoy these at home with some Cauliflower Steaks and salad or bring them to a barbecue as a great vegan/vegetarian alternative dish. They are sure to be crowd pleasers!

FRUITY FRENCH LENTILS
1/2 cup of lentils
1 cup of water
6 large strawberries, cleaned and chopped
2 tbsp of fresh chopped basil
2 tbsp of fresh chopped parsley
1/2 cup orange juice (I made mine fresh with a juicer)
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
a pinch or two of salt

In a saucepan, combine the lentils and water and let boil, mixing the lentils until all the water has evaporated. Chop the strawberries and place them in your orange juice while your lentils cook. When the lentils are finished, drain out any excess water and add in your basil, parsley and OJ’d strawberries. Gently fold the berries in and top it off with your balsamic and salt before your ready to serve. This a delightful light lunch on its own or side dish but can also be combined with some tofu or seitan if you would like something heartier!

raspberrykeylimesmoothie

It’s a scorching 90 degrees in New York City today and I was itching for something light and cold for lunch after running around to meetings all morning so I whipped up this delicious and refreshing protein and fiber packed concoction! Give it a whirl this summer!

Raspberry Key Lime Protein Smoothie
1 cup coconut milk
6 ice cubes
1 lime, chopped and skinned
1/2 cup frozen or fresh raspberries
4 scoops of Adonia Key Lime Pie fat free frozen yogurt
4 tbsps of vanilla hemp protein powder (Manitoba Harvest)

Blend it all together and top it off with a lime for a little added festiveness! This delicious smoothie has 10 grams of protein and 10 grams of fiber!

Join me each week for June’s Summer Slim Down challenge! Every week I’ll be giving you 3 tips to incorporate into your routine to help you create a slimmer, sexier body this summer! We’ll pile on the tips a couple at a time so that you have a chance to incorporate them into your routine and really master them before adding on! Comment below, commit yourself and let’s get sexy and slim together this summer!

cauliflowersteaks

Cauliflower steaks are an easy to make, delicious, vegan food. I baked these in the oven at 375 degrees on a baking sheet but they would also be fabulous on your grill this summer! Healthy and light, these can become a summertime dinner staple for you.

Cauliflower Steaks
1 head of cauliflower (makes 2-3 steaks)
EVOO or White Truffle Olive Oil
3 tbsp fresh garlic (chopped or spread)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Clean and cut your cauliflower head like a loaf of bread. You are likely to get two or three good ‘steaks’ and then a lot of extra little pieces that fall off. I cooked everything because it’s all so delicious! Drizzle your oil on the baking sheet and place your cauliflower on top. Drizzle more over your cauliflower and spread on the fresh garlic or sprinkle it over the cauliflower. Bake for 15 minutes, flip the steaks and drizzle a little more oil and garlic if needed. Bake for another 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy this quick and easy light vegan dish with a nice summer salad, lentils or quinoa to complete your meal!

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For those of you that follow me on Instagram (@gosweetandskinny), you have already seen this yummy delight and for those of you who don’t, what are you waiting for?! I post healthy food porn all the time and inspirational sayings! Haha Anyways, back to business, this post is about my new breakfast obsession, avocado toast ! All I do is toast some of my favorite bread ( which happens to be one degree organic’s lentil whole wheat) and then top it off with half of an avocado that I’ve skinned and chopped. Then I drizzle a little olive oil and sprinkle some salt. It’s just as easy as making cereal but is packed with lots of healthy filling fats to start your day off right. Plus as an added bonus, it just happens to be vegan! Double win! I have grown to love this so much that I now prefer it to almost any other breakfast, which is why I just had to write about it for you guys! Give it a whirl this week and you just might develop a seriously healthy addiction! 😉

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A friend of mine hashtagged a photo at the gym yesterday morning “#yougotcaughtsleeping” and I absolutely loved it! It truly is about going the extra mile and honoring that commitment you are making to yourself to have a healthier body! Now, I am the first person to admit it’s not always easy but it’s ALWAYS worth it! Have you ever felt like you wish you had skipped the gym after a good workout? My guess is probably not. It’s all about showing up, not every session needs to be crazy intense but if you do yourself the favor of getting into the space regularly, you have won half the battle. You create a routine and you can build upon it and expand. Sometimes the last thing I feel like doing when I wake up is getting dressed and hitting the gym but when those less than ambitious days come and I drag myself there anyway I always reward myself with something small. It can be as simple as a sauna session afterwards or buying a new magazine to read on the elliptical but it gives me something to look forward to while I’m lacing up my sneakers. I’ve also found that having a gym buddy can really help motivate you to get to the gym more often. Sometimes my girlfriend and I will spend an hour gabbing away on side by side treadmills and totally forget we’re at the gym! Plus, it definitely helps you get out of bed when you know you have someone waiting for you at the gym.

So there’s some Monday motivation for you! Make a pledge to get to the gym everyday this work week and be a little unreasonable in what your commiting to do for your body!!

Forgiving yourself for all your negative self talk and your little food blunders is the first step to getting healthy, happy and hot! Take a few minutes to watch this video, it’s going to give you one of the easiest tools to lay the foundation to new and improved healthy you! Please SUBSCRIBE to my youtube channel, like and comment below to let me know what you think!

 

 

 

pumpupyourcereal

I almost didn’t think this worthy of a post, and then I realized this is EXACTLY the kind of post you guys want!! Sure, recipes are fun and I’m sure those cupcake pictures get your tummy grumbling but the best way to start yourself on the road to healthy, happy, hotness is to make small changes to your normal routine everyday! So if we can all get honest a second, who has time to make an elaborate breakfast every morning?! Don’t get me wrong, I do love my quinoa or chia seed pancakes but on the average day that’s just not realistic for me. Cereal is so easy! However, talk to me on the norm and you will know I’m not a huge cereal fan. This is because MOST but not all cereals are loaded with sugar and refined carbs and have very little nutritional value. However, the lovely folks at Barbara’s (who make the cinnamon puffin cereal I’m seriously in love with) gave me a sample of their new healthy kiddie cereals! Yeah, their pretty awesome and I totally love that their helping children eat better and not even realize it. So this morning I gave their “snackimals” a whirl with some almond milk and made it in to an adult protein, omega and antioxidant packed breakfast by sprinkling on some of my favorite super foods! Hemp hearts and goji berries are both delicious and great for you and best of all, they take no time to prepare! Great stuff to have around the house to kick any meal a notch up.

Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts
Just one serving of these in your cereal (oatmeal, yogurt, etc) has 10 grams of Omegas 3 & 6 and 10g of protein! That’s one hell of a pump up if you ask me!

Sunfood Organic Goji Berries
These raw super fruits are loaded with antioxidants to keep you healthy and beautiful! Not to mention they contain 18 amino acids and all 8 essential amino acids! Can you say vegetarian gold mine?

So there you have it. Literally took me two extra minutes if that to sprinkle these delicious goodies on my cereal and give it a healthy super punch to start my day off right!

Hello all! As a lover of all things healthy, delicious, and gluten free, I have been battling a most recent foodie obsession with kelp noodles. On the hunt and coming up short in finding these little guys, I was finally able to pick some up at a local Gluten Free Fair here in San Diego! You heard me correctly, kelp noodles…as in sea kelp. Kelp is a type of seaweed that is packed with more than 70 minerals and 21 amino acids. Kelp aids the body in digestion, increases metabolism, and works to strengthen bones and teeth! Kelp noodles are relatively flavorless and if eaten cold offer a crunchy consistency whereas when warm offer a more typical noodle like texture.
Here is the dish and the quick simple steps/ingredients to tasty nutritional success!

Amanda Alimo Girl in the Healthy City

Ingredients:
1 bag of kelp noodles
1 whole red pepper, chopped (high in alkaline, help balance out acids)
1/4 cup of Kalamata olives (provide healthy fats to the body)
1 container of firm tofu, chopped into eatable pieces (contain antioxidant effects)
1 can of chickpeas (high in fiber)
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds (high in calcium & magnesium)
3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar (gluten free)
3 tablespoon of tamari (gluten free soy sauce)

Cooking:
Combine the kelp noodles, chopped red pepper, Kalamata olives, and chickpeas in a bowl. Mix in 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons of tamari. Set bowl aside.
In a pan over medium heat, cook pieces of tofu with sesame seeds, remaining rice wine vinegar, and tamari until tofu pieces are golden brown around the edges.
Add tofu into the bowl set aside, mix and enjoy!

I hope you find this to be as tasty, nutritious, and delicious as I did 🙂
xoxo Amanda Alimo- Girl in the Healthy City

Amanda Alimo is a studying Health Coaching at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. A recent transplant from NYC to San Diego, she soaking up the West Coast lifestyle with some sun and Namaste. Amanda is a digital savvy gal with a passion for holistic health coaching a love of writing, cooking, and teaching. You can follow all of her happenings on her blog, Girl in the Healthy City, or catch her on any of her social media pages!

Girl in the Healthy City: http://girlinthehealthycity.blogspot.com
Girl in the Healthy City Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Girl-in-the-Healthy-City/397017427062996?ref=hl
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/aalimo29/

I was so overwhelmed with gratitude from all the lovely messages I got after my “Get Skinny from Meditating” video and honestly, a little surprised! I had no idea how many of you would really be interested in meditation. A few brave people also mentioned to me that they have a hard time meditating, they don’t know where to start and I can totally relate. I have been meditating off and on since college but it wasn’t till I found Gabrielle Bernstein’s book “Spirit Junkie” that I actually sat down and did some real work. Now I’m a total meditation addict and I look forward to it when I wake up in the morning before my coffee and at night before I tuck myself into bed. However, I would not claim to be an expert, YET, I’m still working on it. So here’s a video from Gabby about how to meditate that I thought would really help all of you GS&Sers take the plunge and give it a try! Feel free to comment below or email me any thoughts or revelations! Namaste!