The following recipe has been adapted from a June 2005 issue of Vegetarian Times. I've made it for several family members that are hardcore meat eaters and they all love it and I hope you do too. It is one of my all time favorite recipes. It looks like a burger and tastes like a sweet & spicy meatloaf. Feel free to share your thoughts if you try it. Enjoy! *You can find many other delicious recipes in my food board at http://pinterest.com/BlissWorks
Jamaican Patties
3 tbs vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbs jerk seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups grated carrots
2 cups frozen peas, thawed
1 1/2 cups plain breadcrumbs
Egg Beaters, equivalent of 3 lrg eggs
1/2 cup vanilla rice milk
Heat 1 tbs oil over med-high heat in non-stick skillet, add onion and stir often, cook 2-3 minutes, until softened. Add garlic, jerk seasoning, and salt. Cook 30-60 seconds. Stir in carrots, cover, and reduce to medium heat. Cook 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in peas and cook 1 minute. Transfer to a large bowl and fold in breadcrumbs. Whisk together Egg Beaters and milk in separate bowl, then stir into mixture. Form into 12 3/4 inch thick patties using approx 1/3 cup for each. Heat 1 tbs oil over med heat in large non-stick skillet. Add patties and cook 5 minutes on each side until golden. Repeat, adding more oil if necessary.
Pineapple Salsa
2 cups diced pineapple
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
4 green onions, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded & minced
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
pinch of salt
Combine all ingredients & mix well.
Serve with patties.
1 serving = 2 patties and 1/2 cup salsa. Approx 230 calories per serving.
Getting stronger and feeling good! Another week down of doing JV workouts 6 days a week, plus others. Still counting calories and (mostly) keeping in my range; I had two days this week I went over when we ate out.
Next week I plan on upping my weights, walking or dancing 5 days, and doing Strong Knees on 3 days.
This morning after I finished my daily JV workout, I decided to do some of the exercises from Strong Knees.
It reminded me very much of Winsor Pilates Bun & Thigh workout. Which in the past has been very effective for slimming down my hips, bum, and thighs. I'm hoping if I do it every few days, my knees will get stronger so I can do tougher/higher impact workouts without any knee pain.
After that I did Shapely Girl Let's Get Moving.
I've had this workout for awhile and have done it before & like it. It is low impact, runs 30 minutes, and has decent instrumental dance music. The instructor is Debra Mazda, who used to be 310lbs. There are 4 background exercisers all of which are shapely. Debra's motto is that fitness comes in all sizes. She is very encouraging and tells you to take time to celebrate you every day, to workout, and love your body no matter what size, shape, age you are. The workout consists of marching, side steps, V steps, cha chas, heel digs, kicks, side lunges, side taps, most with arm movements, then ends with stretching.
In addition to doing my daily JV workout today, I also did a new workout; Walkout by Jane Fonda.
The other day Mary had it on sale as the deal of the day, so I ordered it since I enjoy walking workouts and it was my reward for reaching my goals the past week. I did level 1 today and enjoyed it. While this is geared for people over 50, I appreciated the spot on cueing, slower transitions, and joint friendly low impact of it. Level 1 ran a total of 26 minutes, with some feel good stretches at the end. During the aerobic section she does marching, side steps, heel digs, side taps, side lunges, bob and weaves, hamstring curls, grapevines, and knee lifts, most with arm movements. It is only Jane doing the workout on a "family room" looking set, with some low volume generic instrumental music. This workout uses a chair & towel for some of the stretches.
Not only is this perfect for seniors, but also a beginner of any age, it is very non-intimidating & doable. Jane says she is 72yrs old when she filmed this in 2010 (she also said she had a knee & hip replacement) and she looks amazing! This DVD also has a preview of her other 2010 DVD Fit & Strong and another section of Kegel exercises to prevent incontinence.
Despite major time constraints, TMJ/dental issues, and family drama I managed to still workout 6 days this week, following all of JV's book workouts and Planet Motion Dance Your Journey. Part of me feels I need to do more and I will gradually build up my workouts, but I feel really good about establishing a habit of working out 6 days a week and sticking with it no matter what.
There is something that feels so good in doing Planet Motion. I guess it appeals to the part of me that enjoys qi gong, yoga, reiki, dance, and NIA. She does call it moving meditation. I like the music (tribal, middle eastern, new age), that I can do it barefoot, there is no impact so it is kind to the joints, it doesn't require alot of room, and it just brings me joy. I know some people are turned off by Kendra's singing, chanting, and headband. I like that she incorporates qi gong moves and talk of energy & chakras, but I can totally understand how odd it may come across to someone unfamiliar with mind-body & energy work. You can view a clip of it here.
Monday through Saturday I did the daily workouts from Joyce Vedral's 12 Minute Total Body Workout (book). Although she says it is only 12 minutes a day, it always takes me at least 25 minutes to complete. I'm skipping Sunday beacuse I want a day off and I've been sick.
I highly recommend this workout for anyone in bad shape, new to working out, or just someone who doesn't have a lot of time. It really is non-intimidating and I love that I can do it in my PJs without shoes, I don't have to follow an instructor on TV, listen to any music, and there is zero impact. You work each major muscle group twice a week (abs & butt 3 times if you do Sundays), with 6 exercises a day, 3 sets of 10 reps. You never use higher than 3lb weights. Instead you use isometric & dynamic tension - squeezing each muscle as hard as you can while you work it. Trust me, this can still give you DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). Your muscles quickly become firm and tight, without any bulk and you start to burn fat around those muscles. I lost 50 pounds in the past doing this workout.
I remember I first saw Joyce Vedral on The Phil Donahue Show. OMG does that show my age? LOL! She was so funny & quirky with her NY accent, jokes, and silly antics. She made it seem like getting fit was easily obtainable, so I bought this book and followed the routine. I have since bought many of her other books and DVDs, but this one was the one I stuck to longest and had great results with. And I much prefer the book to the DVD - she moves way to fast in the DVD and doesn't do the reps evenly for each side. I can easily convince myself no matter how cruddy I feel that it is only 12 minutes (even though it takes at least 25). I also like that if I work a muscle one day, I don't do that one again for a couple days, so each muscle group has ample time to rest & repair.
Next week I am going to continue to do JV's workout, but will add in walking or other cardio.
I read a new fitness book this week. Tracy Anderson's 30 Day Method, which comes with a DVD that demos the moves. Hmmm, not sure what to think on this one, will have to try it out sometime. I keep reading about all these amazing results with her programs, but frankly her cardio turns me off since it is so high impact.
I also bought her mat workout since it received rave reviews and seems like a great way to try her method without spending alot of money. I've previewed it and it looks quite different than anything out there. I'll report back after I try it out.
Ok, so after doing BBL on Monday, about two hours afterward I started having very sharp pains in my right knee. I read about BBL not being knee friendly and I made a point to follow the modifiers and to not go as deep in my lunges and to keep my weight in my heels. Having said that, I did do the moves where you raise up on the ball of your foot, so I'm assuming this is what injured my knee. The pain kept getting worse and it was very difficult for me to get up or sit down and I couldn't sleep at night. It swelled up and the pain was below, to the side, and behind the knee cap. My other muscles were sore, but not as bad as I was expecting. I did feel some burn in my inner thighs, butt, and hips - but I like the burn that says you worked out! Since I do not want to risk injury, for now I'm going to shelf BBL and pick it up again once I can build up my leg/knee/thigh muscles and then I will do the moves with a flat foot and not raise my heels. I think I will also pad the rotation as I did with Slim Series - put a rest day or walking or Qi Gong in between days and only do the plan 3 days a week.
I'm considering doing Joyce Vedral's 12 Minute Total Body Workout (book) since it worked for me in the past (I lost 50 pounds without really changing my diet) and it is so quick and easy to do.
I'll figure it out by next week. For today since my knee is still sore, I'm not doing any lunges, squats, or anything else to hurt it more. I did some light stretching yesterday and today I did some...
Walk It Out
Just Dance 3
and Burlesque
So today I worked out with Beachbody's Brazil Butt Lift. I ordered the basic set from Mary, which included 8 workouts (Bum Bum, High & Tight, Tummy Tuck, Sculpt, Cardio Axe, Bum Bum Rapido, Bum Bum Live, and as a bonus; Secret Weapon Workout) plus Booty Basics (demo of signature moves) on 4 DVDs, a calendar, nutrition guide, tape measure, pencil, measurement tracker, travel workout cards, resistance band, and 6 Day Supermodel Slim Down Plan. I'm not following any food plan, but am counting calories & keeping them in my range to lose weight (1500-1800) and eating fruits & veggies daily. In the Booty Makeover Guide you determine what type of butt you have and then follow the designated workout plan for that type. While I am a pear shape, I decided to follow the Slim & Lift rotation.
So today I did Booty Basics, which isn't a workout, but more of a demo of the moves you will be doing in the upcoming workouts. It runs 14 minutes and does not do the exercises evenly for each side. Then as per the calendar, I did Bum Bum which is a 29 minute non-stop workout consisting of many squats & lunges. I followed the moderators to avoid any high impact and since I haven't done any major exercise other than walking, dance, and qi gong for 2 years. I found the music to be rather generic (latin instrumental), the (male) instructor was upbeat and ok, the set was indoors with some cuts to a sunny beach. It was a no non-sense workout, nothing really fun or exciting. I'm hoping the other workouts will have a higher fun factor, or I won't be doing these often.
I read that to avoid lactic acid build-up in your muscles you should take a Glutamine supplement to avoid soreness, so I did take 1 with breakfast, lunch, and will take another with dinner. I did the workout hours earlier, and feel only a little tightness in my thighs and bum.
