Thanksgiving Loaf

My daughter was craving some Thanksgiving food in the spring…Thanksgiving Loaf challenge accepted!

This is absolutely delicious comfort food! She absolutely loved the Thanksgiving Loaf (and I did too!!)

Ingredients

4 slices of bread
6 oz chicken broth, low sodium
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1/4 cup Egg Whites
2T Poultry Seasoning (1 T for bread , 1 T for turkey)
1/2 tsp rosemary
2 lbs ground turkey
1/2 cup Cranberry sauce (Jellied)

Directions

Heat over to 350 degrees F. Chop up bread into cubes. Pour broth in a medium saucepan. Add bread and 1 T poultry seasoning and rosemary to pan. Cover with lid and heat on medium-low heat until the bread becomes soft, stirring so it mixes and doesn’t stick. In a large bowl, pour in egg whites and 1 T poultry spices. Mix together with a whisk. Add raw turkey to large bowl and mix together well. Add bread mixture to large bowl and mix well. Add cranberries and mix well. Place in sprayed loaf pan. Bake at 350 F for 50-55 minutes then cover lightly with foil, increase oven to 400 degrees F and cook an additional 15 minutes. Make sure it is cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degree F.

Top each serving with 2 tsp of turkey gravy and chow down!!

Serving: 4

Sound yummy??? Want more like this?? Click HERE!

Get Fit. Be Fierce. Have No Limits!

~Nicole

What To Do With Leftover Halloween Candy

By Nicole Simonin Leave a Comment

You have just finished trick or treating with the kids… or maybe you are like my house and have a bowl of candy but get no trick or treaters…Don’t worry I am not offended with the absence of costumed kids. We live in the country and most people go “into town” where there are sidewalks for their Halloween stash.

So once Halloween is through and you have hopefully only eating few of your favorite candies (because come on it’s not like you can’t get more Reese’s Pieces at the store next week…)

Before I dive into what to do with leftover Halloween candy…I have to say I don’t really like some of the options because I feel like we all could do with a little less candy in our lives…just laying that out there…now on to…

What To Do with Leftover Halloween Candy

Freeze It
You can throw the candy in a freezer bag and when you want one you can pull it out and eat it.
- Beware of the Creepers…I am talking about slipping into eating more than you intended to.. read more by clicking here.
Donate it.
You can google in your area at different drop off points whether it be a senior center, shelter or overseas programs for our troops. There are also dental offices that are accepting Halloween candy donation and they forward the candy to charities.
- Here’s link to New Jersey participating groups. Click here for NJ link.
Bring It Into the Office
Put it in a candy dish in the lunch room and I guarantee it will be gone by 1 pm that day.
Throw It OUT!
- That might seem harsh or wasteful but it comes down to this…if you eat it you will be adding more pounds which is only going to make your fitness journey longer.

You can enjoy Halloween candy and still stay on track with your fat-loss goals. You can find out more ways to find better alternative Trick or Treat Sweets by clicking here.

What ways do you deal With Leftover Halloween Candy? Comment below.

Beware of the Creepers!

By Nicole Simonin Leave a Comment

Beware of the Creepers….

No not the Halloween spooks!

The food creepers!

Have you ever noticed you’ll be very focused and on course with your fitness goals…seeing progress and then it starts…..

“Well, I’ll just add a teaspoon of sugar to my coffee”…..”what’s an extra slice of cheese”….”Hmmm a few cookies won’t hurt”….extra foods start creeping their way back into your life.
This would be fine if it was once in awhile but sometimes it has a snowball effect and will send you in a downward spiral back to your former habits….ya know those habits that got you the current physique you don’t want.

Have your treats but in moderation and keep an eye on the Creepers!

Have a Happy and safe Halloween!!

Will Halloween be a Trick or a Treat for you and your fitness goals?

Click here to read more…

Trick or Treat Sweets

By Nicole Simonin Leave a Comment

Will Halloween be a Trick or a Treat for you and your fitness goals?

Halloween marks the beginning of the three biggest holidays of the year this time of season.

Upcoming holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are filled with fun, family and food.

The really scary part is how much food is consumed over the next two months!
“Fun” sized Halloween trick or treat sweets which are perfect for calorie control…unless you eat too many. And raise your hand if you can stop at just one or two trick or treat sweets?? Most Halloween treats are more like tricks for your waistline.

How many calories are you really eating?

A wide variety of different candies make up the Halloween Trick or Treat bags.

Chocolate candies can average 100 calories a pop. Yes that tiny little unassuming morsel may do you in if you eat a handful of them.

Six unassuming little chocolates can add up to 600 calories in a matter of seconds.

If you are not paying close attention to how many goodies you are eating those calories can really add up.

Better Alternative Trick or Treat Sweets

Better alternatives are Twizzlers or small peppermint patties. They have half the calories as their “fun friends”.

Here are some other “better bad” choices:

Musketeers Bar – fun size 1 piece –> 70 calories, 2 grams of fat & 11 grams of sugar
Candy Corn – 11 pieces–> 70 calories, 0 grams of fat & 14 grams sugar
Caramels – 2 small pieces–> 80 calories, 2.25 grams of fat & 8 grams sugar
Taffy- 1 piece–> 55 calories, 0.5 grams of fat & 12 grams of sugar

Other Fall Choices Which May Hinder Your Fitness Goals

Take advantage of this time of year’s bounty.

Pumpkins are a great choice with high vitamin A and fiber but add that to sugar, butter and pie shell and you are gonna feel like you look like a pumpkin!

Don’t be misled! Those pumpkin muffins and pumpkin breads that are in the local coffee shops are high calorie foods and are far from healthy.

Read your nutritional labels to find out what the real scoop is on what you are putting into your body.

Here’s a run down on some common Trick or Treat Sweets:

Dunkin’ Donuts Pumpkin Donut is 300 calories, 16 grams of fat and 18 grams of sugar.
Starbucks Pumpkin Scone is a whopping 480 calories, 17 grams of fat and 43 grams of sugar.
For those coffee lovers, a Starbuck medium pumpkin spice latte with whole milk is 410 calories.

If you really feel the need to indulge order the smallest version of your coffee or split your donut with someone or save it for later.

Some Healthier Options:

Healthy Treats would include apples…plain apples. Those caramel apples are seemingly “healthy” but that caramel on top adds an extra 300 calories to this treat….Or pre-portion your caramel and dip/smear caramel on top of your apple slice. container.

Personally, I love cooked apples with some cinnamon and pecans with a squirt of whipped cream on top.

So does that mean you can’t enjoy any Halloween treats this year?

Absolutely not!

Everything in moderation. Plan ahead. Think about all the treats you have to choose from. Decide how many calories you want to blow on treats. Then pick the one treat that you absolutely must have this Halloween year.

Eat it. Enjoy it. Then walk away from the rest.

Have a Happy “Healthy” Halloween!