Butternut Squash Soup

First, yes I do drink soup out of a cup. If the broth is liquid enough I just like to sip on it. 

Second, this butternut squash has been sitting on top of my fridge for almost a week until I had time to slice and dice it. My mushroom soup was such a success that I just had to look up another recipe and dance in the kitchen. 

I found a simple recipe online and thought it was going to be amazing. Well simple is just that simple. There was no kick to the soup. No "Mmm Mmm Good" moment and, that made me very sad. But, perhaps it's because the soup was still hot. It was still on the burner and I had just turned it off. The consistency of the broth hadn't had enough time to thicken. So, I packed it away and came back to it the next day. 

And... yah. My taste pallets were right the first time around. This soup was missing something! Simple is not always good. I knew it wasn't going to be creamy because I avoided all the recipes that called out for heavy cream. I didn't have any cauliflower in the house to thicken it up either. Oh, well. I can't be a chef at all times and I am just gonna have to suck it up and eat this soup. 

But, I couldn't do that. My mind was racing with how I can make this soup creamier after it's already done cooking. Heavy cream was not an option, there was no more of that magical veggie called cauliflower, I ate all the greek yogurt. And, then it hit me - Cottage Cheese. Don't stop reading because you think it's nasty. The combination was perfect! 

Half a cup of my already made butternut soup + two tablespoons of cottage cheese = just the right amount of creaminess and kick to make my mind stop racing on why the soup wasn't creamy and full of kicks the first time. 

Enjoy! 

<3 Mariela 

Meal Prep Sunday 12.27.15

Sometimes we have to take a moment and thank God for how truly blessed we are. That's exactly what I did after I closed my fridge. All the food that was prepped is a blessing.

I prepped 5 breakfast, 5 lunches and, 5 dinners. And, although the main reason to prep food is so I can know what I will be consuming and have a heads up on my caloric intake and macros for the week - it feels nice to know there is food waiting at home. 

This week I told myself I wanted red meat. I'm not much of a red meat eater. I am the person who always orders chicken at a restaurant. And, I laid off red meats at the beginning of my weight-loss journey because red meats are more fatty. But, if I'm honest, I am just lazy and cooking chicken is a whole lot easier and quicker! 

I always concentrate on what I am going to eat for lunch. For me, this is my biggest meal of the day for several reasons: 

1. Because I have been sitting in a chair for almost 4 hours and deserve some good food to be able to finish the next 4 hours 
2. It's mid-day and even though I am sitting down, I am still more active than what I would be at home and my body can burn the meal throughout the day 
3. I usually workout in the evenings so, I tend to go for light dinner meals since it's so close to bedtime

So! With all that said, take a look at this weeks lunch menu: 

Monday: Salmon & Avocado Salad

Tuesday: Sweet peppers & Curry chicken with veggies and wild rice 

Wednesday: Round eye steak, yams and Sweet snap peas

Thursday: Sweet peppers & Curry chicken with veggies and wild rice (btw... Thursday is new years eve, so lets just assume a lot of alcohol will accompany all my meals!) 

Friday: Curry Chicken Salad 

I wasn't finished with the Butternut soup in this video yet. But, you can see it here. 

Have a healthy week! 

<3 Mariela 

Mary Kay Delivery

I absolutely love it when my Mary Kay order comes in. It makes me super happy. And, I love going through each and every product (like I don't already know what's in the box). 

I didn't expect this delivery until a week after Christmas so to my surprise I get a notification on Thursday from UPS that says my package was out for delivery early. I'm thinking, "Yes! Mary Kay Coorporate is awesome, thank you for sending my products so fast". I'm at work so I text my brother to keep an eye out for my package. Later on in the day I receive another notification saying my package was rescheduled for delivery the next day; Friday. Okay, not a problem. The next day I get a "sorry we missed you slip" from UPS stating that I could pick up my package at Zino's Convenience store. And now I'm like, wtf, who the hell is Zino?! Turns out Zino is a UPS access point but, they did not have my package. By now (Saturday) I was upset. Not so much that I hadn't received my package in the past two days but, more so that I had to put on real pants and leave my house to go to that damn convenience store. Sunday, no delivery. On Monday I get another notification that UPS "missed me" and will reschedule delivery for the next day. So I picked up the phone, called UPS and, was "politely" nasty to the customer rep on the other side. How many times are they going to try to redeliver the package when no one was home? Why didn't they leave it at the access point the first time? Who changed the re-delivery schedule? Why wasn't my request processed? Well, on Tuesday I finally got my package. I opened it up feeling like it's my birthday (I always get this feeling) and by Wednesday my customers orders where already shipped out. 

Take a look at a few of the orders in the video below! 

I mentioned the 3-in-1 cleanser in the video. It's my #1 cleanser. Like I said, I use the one with the pink strip which is formulated for Normal/Dry skin. My skin is very dry and keeping it moisturized is important! But during the summer I sweat like a pig and one thing I absolutely do not like is a breakout. So, during the summer, I switch back and forth between the pink strip and the purple strip (Oily/Combo skin). Your skin is the largest organ on your body! And, your perspiration changes with the season. You should change your skin regimen to match up to it!  

Every order was sealed with a flower and love!

Stay beautiful and blessed!
<3 Mariela

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

I went to three different markets before I finally found a head of cauliflower I could buy. And, all the while I kept thinking "who the hell is buying all the cauliflower in Sunset Park?!". Then, I freaked out a little because I thought cauliflower season might have ended. What? Wait, no. Cauliflower season is all year long. So then I went back to thinking, "who the hell is buying up all the damn cauliflower?!".

As you might of been able to tell, I had a craving. And I was going to be highly upset if I didn't end up finding any cauliflower because I wanted pizza. Yes, that is right pizza. It's one of my favorite sin foods. A sin food being a type of food that you know is not healthy, it's not going to help you loose weight, you'll absolutely love it while you're eating it and, then feel like shit when you enter it into your food diary and realize how many fucking burpees you have to do to burn it off. Sin food. 

But, I had remembered that my Big had made me a pizza once with a cauliflower crust. So that's what I intended to do. I already knew what toppings I was adding and everything. I was really simply tasting the deliciousness in my mouth. A healthy pizza!


Ingredients 

• One cauliflower head
• 1/2 cup shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese 
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley 
• 1 egg 
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic 
• Salt & Pepper to taste 

Directions 

Okay, so this recipe is suuupeerrrr easy. The hardest part is just dealing with the cauliflower. I take the head and chop up the florets. The pieces I make a a bit big and coarse. It makes dealing with the cauliflower a lot easier. I take the chopped cauliflower and I steam it. If you don't have a steamer you can boil and drain it. However, the less water content that's in the cauliflower the crispier it will get. After steaming the vegetable I place it in the blender. This is the part where having a food processor would be ideal but, I don't have one. Anyways, I pulse the mixer so the consistency of the puree isn't too smooth. After its done I dump the puree of cauliflower in a bowl and mix the rest of the ingredients. Mix, mix, mix. That's it! Prep time is done. I place my prepped cauliflower crust in a flat tray (I use a cookie tray!) and place a thin layer on it. Leave it in the oven for 15min at 450*F. Done. Simple! If it's still a bit mushy lower the heat to 350*F and leave for a little while longer.

I topped my pizza with chipotle chicken, sweet peppers and tons of mushrooms. I pre-cook all the ingredients because I don't want to leave the cauliflower in the oven for too long. So, I sauteed the chicken in chipotle sauce on the stove and grilled the mushrooms and peppers on the George Foreman grill. I sprinkled a bit more cheese on top so it can melt while in the oven. But, really it didn't need it. The cauliflower crust had a nice taste with the cheese it already had. 

Funny story 

I introduced my little brother to an amazing app called MyFitnessPal. I use it religiously and it's helped me be conscience of my eating and exercise habits. As I know he wants to loose weight I told him to insert what he eats and when he goes to the gym in the app. He downloads it, says he'll use it, cool. One day I see that he walks into the apartment with a box of pizza. He had ordered Dominos pizza at 10:30 pm! When he came out of his room, like the sister I am, I go up to him and ask, "Do you know how many calories are in one slice?". No, he didn't (and neither did I). I took his phone, opened up MyFitnessPal and started adding to his food log: 

Dominos medium pizza 

Pepperoni topping 

Bacon topping 

Extra cheese topping 

One slice (one itty bitty slice) was 320 calories. And I told him One itty bitty slice. When I told him this, the little brat kindly remarks, "oh that's a lot. Put down that I ate four slices." 

Ha! Oh goodness.
Well, I hope you guys enjoy this healthy alternative.




Buen provecho.
<3 Mariela 

Central Park Classic Holiday 10K

Live, Love, Run!
Words to live by.

After my last race last month I was feeling so energized that I wanted to keep on running.
So, I signed up for another race - NATURALLY!

I decided to sign up for the Central Park Classic Holiday 10K. That's right, a 10K! That's 6.25 miles and twice as long as my last race. Up until this point all I've participated in are 5k's. So, I was a bit scared that I wouldn't be able to finish the race. I clocked my last 5k at about 33 minutes; and I thought I was running pretty slow. So, I almost tripled my last time allotting myself 1.5hrs to finish.

In the end however, I was impressed with myself. I finished the 10k in less time than I thought I would; 61 minutes! That's amazing to me! I had stopped twice during the race. Once at 3.2 miles (5k mark!) because my pants were falling! They kept sliding down through out the entire race. But, it's crazy how they don't actually fit me anymore. I don't know about you but, that is definitely a Non Scale Victory. hahaha! My weight-loss journey has been nothing but an amazing success. But, anyways back to the race. The second time I stopped was around mile 5. Yes, this was what I was worried about; I wasn't used to running long distances, I was getting tired, at that point my knee started ti hurt so I slowed down! I just kept telling myself that I couldn't give up. And, I did not. I beat my own running pace and my running time is now 9'54" per mile.

I swear I'll get better with each run, every therapeutic session, every step and, every beat.

I didn't take many videos or pictures of my mile marks like I did the last time.

   1) I didn't want my phone to die 

   2) I was really trying to pace myself and run consistently without stopping 

Hopefully you still enjoy the video below!

Listen to this cool mix that I jammed to while running!


Run to the beat! 
<3 Mariela 

Mushroom Cream & Wild Rice Soup

A plate of mushroom soup!
Sorry! Not the best lighting nor photographer over here!

I have always been a fan of thick creamy soups. I never grew up on them (unless you count sancocho as a creamy soup). My mom always did the clear liquid type of soups- maybe that's why I stear away from them? Lol

Well, one of my favorite soups is mushroom soup. You're either a mushroom person and agree with me that this soup is amazing or you're not a mushroom person and aren't picking this off the menu. Well, there hasn't been a mushroom soup I've tasted that I didn't ask for another serving. When I first started working at AKS/NYDA I would have lunch at this cute place a block away named Pecan. They had great sandwich and soup combos. Of course lunch will ring me at about $15 but, their mushroom brie soup was too good to pass up. Eventually they switched ownership, the store changed names and changed its menu. Mushroom brie soup was no longer an option! So I just stopped going there. It saved me money but I was sad! So I did a little googling to find a recipe. It was no surprise that the creaminess of the soup came from a creamer (woah fat calories!) and sour cream (more calories!). 

On this new lifestyle change (yes lifestyle change; it's certainly not a fad for me) I have been trying to stay away from "bad", "high calorie", "empty calorie" type of foods. It's been a bit harder to avoid these kind of foods when I am outside having dinner with friends but, it's definitively doable in my kitchen. So again I went to google and typed "HEALTHY mushroom soup" in the search box. 

And BOOM! There it was, a simple (no crazy ingredient needed) recipe that did sound appetizing. No creamer added for richness; the secret ingredient was cauliflower. Huh? What? The white broccoli? Umm yes. Cauliflower. The blogger went on to state how cauliflower is a ✨magical✨ vegetable. I'm going to have to look more into this magic but, it DID give the soup that nice rich thickness I like! I'll be using cauliflower as a base for many more soups. 

Another ingredient I want to bring up is Wild Rice. On the contrary to the name, it's not really rice but, a type of grass originally grown in North America. The way it looks took me completely by surprise; I was expecting a white/brown colored grain and instead I see that it's black! However, you cook it just as you'd cook any rice; boil it in a saucepan with salt and water. Simplicity is appreciated. It's packed with vitamins, minerals, rich in fiber and, super high in protein. Wild rice does have the traditional carbs associated with grains but, low in fat. It's taste is a bit earthy/woodsy/smoky. 

This recipe yielded quite the amount of soup so, I incorporated the soup into my meal prep plan for the week. I've been eating it all week and I'm still not tired; it's delicious. I am definitively writing this into my recipe book and making it again! 

See the recipe below. 

Per one cup serving: 93 calories, 0.2g fat, 14.2g carbs, 2.5g fiber, 3.1g sugar, 7.9g protein,.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/3 cup uncooked wild rice
• 7 cups water, divided
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 head cauliflower, coarsely chopped
• 1½ tsp salt, divided
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2lb mushrooms, chopped rather finely
• 1 cup plain low fat Greek Yogurt
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Boil Cauliflower: Place cauliflower to boil with water and salt. When done boiling (20 minutes) drain water. 
2. Cook wild rice: add 1/3 cup wild rice, 2 cups of water and ½ tsp salt to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer until water is almost completely absorbed and rice is tender, about 20-25 minutes.
3. Add onions, garlic, celery, 1 tsp salt and black pepper to a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat for one or two minutes, just to soften up the veggies a little bit.
4. Throw the cauliflower in and continue cooking for a minute or two. 
5. Add 4 cups of water, Dijon mustard, onion powder and half the chopped mushrooms. Bring to the boil then reduce heat, cover loosely and simmer until the cauliflower is fork tender, about 5-7 minutes.
6. Transfer the mixture into your blender and process on high speed until super smooth and silky in consistency. You might have to work in several batches
7. Return the liquid to the saucepan and add the cooked wild rice and the rest of the mushrooms. Bring back to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the mushrooms are cooked, about 3-4 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, mix the remaining cup of water, yogurt and flour together in a small mixing bowl. Add that to the soup and stir until well incorporated; bring back to a simmer once more then turn off the heat and serve.

P.S. After the soup is done, I like to let it sit in the pot for a while before serving. One, because right now it's really hot and two, because after the mixture begins to cool the ingredients begin to expand and the consistency of the soup thickens. Just a bit of kitchen science.


Buen provecho!
<3 Mariela 

A Full Lunch Bag

I am currently in the middle of exams. Waking up early and going to sleep late is nothing new to me. The problem with it now is that I literally want to eat everything! I am a stress eater. I diagnosed myself a few years ago. I just don't know why but, when ever I need to study I think about food and what I could possibly eat. I seriously cannot study without food! I think it's a low key procrastination technique.

Either way, I needed to control it. Suppressing hunger is never the way to go when you're trying to loose weight. When they tell you that you can't have it, it makes you want it more. So I decided that I will just give in to my cravings and that way I can study peacefully.

I am all for meal-prepping food. Secretly, it's a bit of a highlight when my kitchen is a mess with different meats and vegetables all over the place. And, it's okay because in the end I have everything related to food figured out. Usually, when I meal-prep I pack two meals; either breakfast and lunch or, lunch and a snack. This week (finals week) I have meal prepped and packed five meals each day! That's 5 breakfast meals, 5 lunches, 5 dinners and, a whole lot of healthy snacks. Talk about awesome healthy organizational skills! (insert applause please).

Today I packed a full days worth of food in my lunch bag. How everything fit is beyond me. All I knew is that today was the day before my final exam for electrical science and it was going to be a loooong day. I still had to show up to work and I needed to fit a little gym magic in there. And, I did not want to crave crazy things while I was trying to calculate the current of a circuit.

Here's the menu
Breakfast: Protein shake, turkey bacon and, boiled eggs
Mid-morning Snack: Yogurt
Lunch: Mashed yams, mushroom cream & wild rice soup (seriously this recipe is delicious!)
Mid-Afternoon Snack: Bosc pear and string cheese
Dinner: Grilled chicken with vegetables and avocado
Evening Snack: Blueberries and protein bar (a delicious and healthy studying snack!)

Now, I am sorry for anyone on a mobile site that can't view the video above. But here's the magic that overloaded my lunch bag today. Meal prepping is a bit time consuming because you're cooking meals for the entire week in one day. But, you save money (lunching out in TriBeCa is not cheap!) and for those of us who want to eat a bit healthier it stops us from making bad choices; like ordering Chinese food because you were to tired to cook dinner (been there, done that, multiple times).


Stay healthy!
<3 Mariela

Meal Prep Sunday

The key to any weigh-loss journey is PLANNING!
If you plan to win, you will win!
If you fail to plan, you will fail!

A healthy and successful weigh-loss starts in the kitchen. Cannot stress that enough! Yes, going to the gym and pushing it to your limit then showing off a sweaty pic post workout rocks! I am soooo guilty of that. But, going to the gym takes super dedication and commitment. Lets be honest, we do not all have the time. It is super important to cook fresh, nutritious and yummy food in your kitchen. That is the real workout for your body. When your body stops trying to breakdown all the trans fat that you are consuming, when the sodium you take in doesn't make you feel bloated and, when nutrients are utilized to the max... well your body will amaze you!

You do not have to get on a crazy diet. Everyone used to ask me (and still do) what diet am I on. I'm not on a diet- I am eating healthy and I eat everything to moderation. Once you learn how to moderate what you consume you'll learn the right portions for your body and best of all, you will not over indulge on a craving! It takes time guys. But, I believe in you.

It's a simple saying: if I can do it, you can do it!

Take a look at my meal prep for the upcoming week! I love Sundays!

Kiss the chef!
<3 Mariela

Honey Grilled Salmon

I had so much fun snapchatting about my meal prep process yesterday. What if it became a regular thing? I LOVE to cook. However, I do not enjoy doing the dishes afterwards. And I really do LOVE food shopping (it's second after shopping for school supplies), I just don't like waiting in line at the register to pay. Lol so let's just say that cooking is a love-hate experience for me.

Well there is one recipe that I just wanted to share with you guys because it was BOMB! I made honey grilled salmon and yes, I shall be making this again. I'm not a big fan of seafood person; I do enjoy calamari but the majority of the time at restaurants the dish is fried, so that's a no with my current lifestyle change (healthy & fit baby!). Next in line is salmon. I can eat a well prepared salmon any way you lay it on me; it's usually what I order at restaurants because it's full of good nutrients, low in calories and I am trying to be fancy on the low-low.

Honey Grilled Salmon

• One 5oz salmon fillet (1 inch thick)
• 1 teaspoon of Adobo
• 1 tablespoon of garlic power 
• 1 tablespoon of raw honey 
• 1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil 

Okay this recipe is simple, simple! Sprinkle the adobo and garlic powder on the salmon and rub the herbs in. Next pour the raw honey on top of the fillet and spread. Let it marinate for 15 minutes. The honey should still be visibly sticky - do not let it go dry! Next, spread the coconut oil on the hot grill and place the salmon. You should hear a very romantic sizzling that would be the honey on the grill; cook salmon for 8 minutes. I used my George Foreman grill so, it didn't matter what side of the filler touched the grill because they both did! But, if you're using a regular grill place the salmon skin side up to cook. 

I paired this delicious fish with a fresh avocado lettuce. What will you pair it with? 

And below is that awesome snapchat video. Buen Provecho!