Tag Archives: recipes

Real Housewife of New Jersey at Mohegan Sun – Giveaway!

I’m glad you guys have been enjoying my recaps of Shake Your Soul dance yoga and Max Fish’s Tiki Dinner! A little bit of movement, a little bit of enjoyment. That’s what I’m trying to keep in mind – the fact that it’s all about balance. I also can’t believe I forgot to show you guys yesterday what I did with my Tiki Dinner lei the day after the dinner:

Very me, right?

Let’s get to the purpose of today’s post. How many Real Housewives fans do we have here? Come on, don’t be shy. I know you’re out there. I’m not one of you, but I do have a fan living in my midst – my sister DVRs the series like it’s her job. And while I may not be a fan of the Real Housewives shows, I AM a fan of food and fitness.

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Coincidentally, those happens to be the topics of focus in the Real Housewives of New Jersey star (and Celebrity Apprentice contestant) Teresa Giudice‘s new cookbook, “Fabulicious!: Fast & Fit“. The 60 recipes inside are lighter versions of some of Teresa’s favorite Italian fare. The dishes are also extremely easy to prepare – key tools to living a healthy lifestyle while on the go, as many women nowadays are. Some overarching lessons (like a veggie grilling tutorial) are also included. They can be widely applied to food outside of the recipes included in the book! So even if Italian isn’t your favorite type of cuisine, you can still learn a thing or two from Teresa. She definitely looks healthy and vibrant! Though I have to admit…a Jersey-girl tan may also have something to do with that 😉

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Mohegan Sun Casino is hosting a FREE book signing with Teresa herself next Friday, 7/6, at 9PM! It’s all part of the Shops at Mohegan Sun’s Reality Check series, in which fans of reality shows can come meet and hang out with their favorite reality TV stars. Again, I do not watch much reality TV myself, but could not resist the chance to share this event and opportunity with my readers, many of whom I know love their reality TV guilty pleasures!

So who wants to meet Teresa? Do you want to read her cookbook? My friends at Mohegan are offering a giveaway to a Cait Plus Ate reader! The winner will be able to choose one of two prize options:

  • two front-of-line passes for you and a friend for the 7/6 event at Mohegan Sun – and a free copy of “Fabulicious!: Fun & Fit” to have signed
  • an already-signed copy of “Fabulicious!: Fun & Fit” mailed to your doorstep

I’m so thankful to Mohegan for sponsoring a giveaway that all of my readers can enter. Even if you don’t live near Mohegan Sun and can’t attend the event, a new fit and healthy cookbook is always a treat!

Want to enter? All you need to do is (leave a comment for each):

  1. Comment on this post and tell me your favorite Italian dish (mandatory).
  2. Follow @MoheganSun on Twitter.
  3. Follow @CaitPlusAte on Twitter.
  4. Tweet “@CaitPlusAte is hosting a @MoheganSun #RHONJ giveaway! http://wp.me/p1SfTW-16E” and include the tweet’s link when you comment.

Sorry, US entries only. Giveaway will remain open until this Friday 6/29 at 11:59PM EST! GOOD LUCK!

Soy Protein…Soy What?

Soy – good or bad? Right or wrong? Yes or no? Soy is one of those seemingly eternally-debated foods that seem to be bad for you one second, and great for you the next. And so goes the never-ending phenomenon of the media latching onto every scientific study that’s released, blowing up the results (positive or negative), and reporting their skewed version of them. Help for the curious consumer to interpret studies’ findings and make a rational, informed decision about what he or she is going to consume is not often included.

So what I’m here to do today is talk about the findings of a study that found soy has benefits. But I’m not here to blow those positive findings into a, “Soy is your savior!” kind of blog post. I’m just here to share the benefits of a food I consume weekly, and some tips for easy ways to incorporate soy into your diet.

Dr. Blake Rasmussen’s clinical study, “Effect of Protein Blend vs. Whey Protein Ingestion on Muscle Protein Synthesis Following Resistance Exercise”, peaked my interest because not only am I constantly making an effort to incorporate resistance exercise (strength training) into my fitness routine several times a week, but I am always hearing differing opinions on what form of protein is the “best” to consume post-lifting for maximum muscle repair and growth. It turns out the answer isn’t one protein – it’s several!

Between sets!

The double-blind, randomized clinical trial examined 19 young adults and split them into two groups. All members of the study performed a high-intensity leg workout and consumed some form of protein an hour later. One group of 10 consumed 19 grams of a protein blend (25% soy, 25% whey, 50% casein), and the second group of 9 consumed 17.5 grams of just whey protein. Before and after both the leg workout and protein consumption, scientists took measurements which gave them an idea of the degree of muscle protein synthesis occurring in each subject.

Different types of tofu!

It was found that the first group (consumers of the protein blend) was still showing signs of muscle protein synthesis up to five hours after doing the leg workout! Quick subtraction reveals that to be four hours after consuming the protein blend. Imagine getting your protein on post-iron-pumping, heading out to run your errands, and continuing to build muscle as you stand in line a few hours later at the grocery store. Talk about multi-tasking! Dr. Rasmussen posits that the answer to the question of why these results occurred lies in the rates at which the body digests casein, whey, and soy. Casein is a “slow protein”, whey is “fast”, and soy lies somewhere in the middle. The more complicated a protein blend you throw at your body, the more work it will have to do to get those amino acids and deliver them to your muscles, prolonging the length of time muscle protein synthesis occurs.

Dipping sauce makes EVERYTHING better!

So much for needing meat to build muscle! I myself know plenty of vegetarians and vegans who have seen impressive gains from strength training as a result of consuming soy-based proteins. Just like meats, it is a complete source of protein containing both non-essential amino acids and the essential ones that the body cannot make on its own. How to consume it, you ask? Here are some recipes I’ve scouted-out from some of my favorite bloggers that incorporate ingredients containing soy:

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Cooking isn’t a requirement, though. You can also use soy creamer or milk in your coffee or tea, have soy yogurt as a snack, or keep soy jerky (a recent find of mine) nearby for a fast protein fix. Even if you’re not into strength training (cough – it’s nothing but good for you – cough), soy still provides plenty of other benefits. It gets a bad rep for the hormones it’s said to contain, but soy doesn’t actually contain estrogen, which you may hear can feminize men and impair fertility. It contains isoflavones, a form of “plant” estrogen, and studies have not shown feminization or impaired fertility in men who consume them. Soy has even been shown to have benefits for kids, such as being an attractive alternative for those allergic to other forms of protein (milk, eggs, peanuts, etc) and possibly increasing chances of having a lower BMI later in life.

A soy snack!

So before you knock soy down, if you haven’t tried it yet, I’d suggest heading to your nearest grocery store and getting yourself a few different products to taste-test. You may find love for a new food! And it’ll love you right back 😀

Fitfluential, LLC compensated me for this campaign. All opinions are my own.

Lisa’s Five Bean Salad

Believe it or not, I don’t cook. That’s right – I mooch. I live at home and eat my mom’s cooking. I make a salad every day for lunch, but I don’t consider this cooking. I go out and pay restaurants to feed me. I have not cooked or baked anything since the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap in December.

Talk about working backwards…this is me on Easter Sunday with the finished product!

But this year Easter was being celebrated at my house, and I felt like contributing. I felt domestic. And thanks to Lisa, I felt inspired when I was reading her blog one day and saw that she had posted a recipe for a Five Bean Salad.

Missing from this photo are olive oil and frozen shelled edamame.

I followed Lisa’s recipe, but used goat cheese instead of feta. I love feta cheese, but goat is my favorite!

I started by rinsing and draining the chickpeas, kidney beans, and black beans in a colander.

The above green beans came in their own steam-able bag, so I microwaved them and set them out on a plate to cool off a bit. Per Lisa’s instructions, I cut the ones that were going into the salad in half and also cut the “string” ends off.

I smugly put the rest of the green beans in a container to use throughout the week. In fact, I added them to both yesterday and today’s lunch salads, and last night’s dinner too! Helps to be prepped when eating healthy.

I added the green beans to the other three beans in a mixing bowl, and threw in minced onions, salt, pepper, and lime juice as well.

Then it occured to me that I’d forgotten to prepare and include the frozen shelled edamame. D’oh! It was super easy to defrost in the microwave. I’ve never bought edamame before, I just eat it when I’m dining out at Asian restaurants or at my local Whole Foods salad bar. I think I’ll have to reconsider.

MORE smug leftovers that I’ve been nommin’ on already!

I added the edamame and then the GOAT CHEESE. Of course I saved the best for last!

An unexpected perk that came from using goat instead of feta – goat cheese has a creamier consistency and totally coated all the beans (yes, all five types ;-)). Win!

This forgetful cook was then reminded by her mother that she’d forgotten the olive oil. First the edamame, now this! Can’t forget that EVOO. I added 1.5 tablespoons.

TA-DA! Was there ever an easier side dish for a non-cooking moocher like me to make?! I don’t think so!

I let it veg (ha – punny) overnight in the fridge. I also didn’t try it before I served it. Yes, I like to live on the edge! Or…that thought didn’t even occur to me. I am NOT used to cooking, I told you!

The results though? Everyone LOVED the dish. There was barely any left but I’m honestly glad there was some because I was able to finish it off at dinner last night 🙂 mixed with extra green beans, edamame, black beans, marinara sauce, and turkey meatballs! It was what I like to call a hodge-podge of leftovers.

Thank you so much to Lisa for providing such an easy, healthy, tasty recipe for me to make and share with family and friends!

How often do you cook? Are you a “fraud” aka a food blogger that doesn’t cook, like me?

What are your favorite healthy dishes to bring to parties?

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!

What an amazing weekend! They seem to keep piling up one after the other, which is never a bad thing. I have plenty to recap later on as usual, but for now please head over to the amazing Bethany’s blog, More Fruit Please, to check out her post on the brunch she hosted and so kindly invited me to yesterday. It was just beyond amazing! I can’t wait to share my post on it.

NOTE: This post features a recipe I used in a post last week, but has many new photos, so you may want to tune in!

It’s time for another cookie swap – the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap to be exact! Unlike last week’s Virtual Cookie Swap, this one involved the actual exchange of the cookies with other bloggers. Each participant baked three dozen of one cookie, and sent one dozen each to three other bloggers. Love that concept – spreading the love to more bloggers, and I get three different cookies in my mailbox!

My cookies, ready to ship out the door.

This swap was organized by Julie of The Little Kitchen and Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil (can I just say that I’m in LOVE with that name). They did such a great job keeping participants updated regularly via email, creating a Facebook page, and spreading the word about the #fbcookieswap hashtag.

Since the Virtual Cookie Swap did not involve sending any physical cookies, I used the same recipe that I did for that swap, from Luisa of The Wednesday Chef. Only now, bloggers were actually going to get to taste my baking! Remember, this recipe is Luisa’s property, not mine, so please visit her blog to check it out! I simply doubled all the ingredients to ensure that I would have enough cookies to send out – and taste test.

First, I mixed my brown sugar, butter (the real stuff!), eggs, and vanilla extract in a big bowl. I’m sure you could use imitation vanilla extract, but I didn’t realize that at the grocery store (my mom informed me later) so just like the butter, the vanilla extract was the real stuff. I did not use the almond extract that the recipe calls for because I couldn’t find it at the store!

Secondly, I mixed my salt, baking soda, buckwheat groats (courtesy of Tara, my November foodie pen pal), and whole wheat flour in a separate bowl…

…and then slowly combined the dry mixture, little by little, into the wet ingredients.

This took a bit of arm strength – and with a rubbery bendy spoon too! Oops.

Third, I broke a bunch of Whole Foods dark chocolate squares into chunks by hand.

I liked the idea of using dark chocolate instead of semisweet, and chunks instead of chips, because I think this made for a heartier cookie!

It took a lot of willpower not to eat this.

Fourth, I lined the cookies up on some special silver cookie baking trays we have. Only one tray could go in the oven at a time (top rack only), so while one tray was baking, I worked on prepping the next tray. Thank goodness we had multiples!

Fifth, it’s bake time! Instead of baking the cookies for 6 minutes, flipping the pan, and then cooking for another 6 minutes, I did 5 minutes. Every oven is different! Always check on baked goods before the time on the box/recipe is up, just in case.

Sixth, I removed them from the trays fairly soon after taking them out of the oven – otherwise the trays continue to cook the cookies, and they get too hard. Another Mom-tip!

I packaged the cookies by putting each dozen in a holiday-themed plastic bag, and then putting the bag in a cookie tin!

I also wrote each blogger a note to send off with my cookies, letting them know they could find the recipe at The Wednesday Chef.

I sent my cookies to Sarah of Both Sides Now, Talida of Talida Bakes, and Susan of Happy Hippie. Another pro of this swap, aside from the obvious receipt of COOKIES, is learning about blogs I otherwise might never have found!

Soon I will be posting about the three different cookies I received, so be on the lookout for that! Thanks to Julie and Lindsay for doing such a wonderful job on this!

Virtual Cookie Swap

When Rachel mentioned a Virtual Cookie Swap, I volunteered immediately. Then I started getting a little nervous. I mean, I love eating. Obviously. But I’m still living with my parents…hence, I don’t cook. Ever! It’s not that I’m one of those people who can’t boil water without messing it up. It’s just that I don’t ever have a need to cook, so I don’t. And there are plenty of amazing, ridiculously talented cooks, bakers, etc in the blog world that I am certain could out-bake me any day.

But then I decided to end my pity party and turn to one of those fabulous baking bloggers to help me decide what to bake! I knew I wanted to use two items I had acquired in the past couple of months, but hadn’t gotten a chance to use yet.

I got the above dark chocolate squares from my local Whole Foods – for FREE! They posted on their Facebook page that the first “X” number of people to like the status could come in that weekend and pick up a free bag of candy that didn’t get sold for Halloween. Waste not! I was all over that.

I also wanted to utilize the buckwheat groats that Tara got me for November’s foodie pen pal exchange. So, I turned to my old friend Google, and that’s how I found Luisa of The Wednesday Chef and her chocolate chip cookies with buckwheat groats. Please visit her website for this recipe – it is her property! The only change I made was using dark chocolate instead of semisweet, and I did not use almond extract (because I couldn’t find it at the store).

First, I mixed my brown sugar, butter (the real stuff!), eggs, and vanilla extract in a big bowl.

Secondly, I mixed my salt, baking soda, buckwheat groats, and whole wheat flour into the wet ingredients.

This took a bit of arm strength – and with a rubbery bendy spoon too! Oops.

Third, I broke a bunch of the dark chocolate squares into chunks by hand. Is it weird that it was a bit fun? Kinda therapeutic!

Fourth, I lined the cookies up on some special silver cookie baking trays we have. They honestly make a big difference whenever my mom makes cookies on those pans instead of regular ones!

Here’s where another recipe difference comes in – instead of baking the cookies for 6 minutes, flipping the pan, and then cooking for another 6 minutes, I did 5 minutes. Every oven is different!

And voila! I removed them from the trays fairly soon after taking them out of the oven – otherwise the trays continue to cook the cookies, and they get too hard.

My family and I did some taste testing of course. Our household approves – these taste indulgent, despite the healthy whole wheat flour and buckwheat used in the recipe. Maybe it was that real butter and Splenda-less brown sugar? 😉

Thanks to Rachel for putting on such a fun virtual blogger event, and to Luisa for an inspired recipe!

What’s your favorite “healthified” cookie type?

Same Old Breakfast, Brand New Lasagna

Hola! I hope everyone had an awesome weekend. I know I did – if you follow me on Twitter, you already know I spent lots of time studying at Daybreak Coffee Roasters, did a free wine tasting at a liquor store, got some sweet samples at Whole Foods, had two delicious Groupon meals, and just got back from seeing “Moneyball“. The movie, as well as the rest of the nice weekend at home, was excellent. What’d you do?

I’m still getting used to the whole not-taking-phone pictures thing, but I did manage to snap a shot of my favorite breakfast and wanted to share. One may call it the same old breakfast, because I eat it about 75% of mornings (the other 25% are mornings I don’t have time to make it), but my love for it never ceases. This breakfast would be a toasted whole wheat english muffin with banana slices and peanut butter (whatever PB jar I have open at the time, currently PB&Co Cinnamon-Raisin Swirl), and the remaining banana on the side, with MORE peanut butter (of course).

Forgive the paper plate, I don't like to deal with dishes.

Another highlight of this past week was a brand new take on lasagna – the recipe given to me by the talented Stephanie aka the Cookin’ Fanatic. My mom was actually the one who made it, and she threw in some soy crumbles for added protein, but other than that she followed Stephanie’s recipe. And funny enough, my mom’s name is Stephanie!

Printed off and ready to go.

My mom and I both really LOVED the way the recipe turned out! This take on lasagna was so interesting. I’ve never considered using chickpeas as a source of protein in a lasagna, and they were excellent! The leftovers are in the fridge waiting for us to devour them later on.

The lasagna, totally ready to eat and in fact, already broken into.

I topped mine with some leftover roasted brussell sprouts (my favorite roasted veggie of all time) for some added bulk. And obviously went back for seconds of the lasagna after. The chickpeas mixed with the feta were my favorite part!

My bowl ready for devouring.

I’ve gotta run, my dad just finished grilling dinner and I am so ready to dive in. Turkey burgers, turkey sausage, black beans, and baked potatoes with salsa! I love my home dinners 🙂

Tried any good recipes lately?

Meet Caitlin

I’m a 28 year old full-time working girl living in Boston (previously lived in Connecticut). I’m passionate about food/drink, restaurants, self-love, fitness, and the ever-present search for balance. I write about that journey on this blog – I hope you enjoy!

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Design Credit

My header was originally designed by Mai Le and later tweaked by Chris Roggi to match this theme, which he helped me customize. He also moved me over to self-hosting! Both can be contacted through their sites for design & development work!

Disclaimer

I am not an RD and do not have any official training, certifications, or degrees in nutrition or fitness. This blog is a way to write about my life. Any views I express are mine alone, based on what works for me, and should never be taken as medical advice. Always talk to your doctor or a trained professional before starting a new diet or fitness plan. In addition, this blog and its content are in no way affiliated with Kate Gosselin, “Kate Plus 8”, TLC, or any related affiliates.

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