Category: health

Spaghetti Squash Marinara with Turkey Meatballs

This lower calorie version of the classic spaghetti and meatballs won’t leave you wanting more.

The Appalachian BarbieLeave a comment

This hearty and filling meal won’t leave you missing the standard pasta and pork at half the calories.

For the Spaghetti squash:

Preheat oven to 400. Cut the ends off a medium spaghetti squash, set it upright and carefully cut down the middle. Remove seeds and strings from middle, rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grease a foil covered cookie sheet with nonstick spray and place squash cut side down. Bake for 50mins or until fork tender. Remove from oven, set aside to cool. When cooled, use tines of a fork to scrape “spaghetti strands” into bowl.

For the marinara sauce:

Heat large deep saucepan over medium heat. Add 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil. Dice 1 green bell pepper (after removing ribs and seeds) and 1 small onion. Add to pan. Next, mince 2 cloves of garlic and add to pan, stirring to combine veggies. Add 3/4 container of fresh sliced baby Bella mushrooms and season salt/pepper/garlic powder/Italian seasoning to taste. Stir all and cook until onion and peppers are softened. Next add one jar of marinara sauce. (I used my go-to jarred marinara, Kroger’s Simple Truth Organic brand.) Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer 15 mins or so, until mushrooms are tender and all flavors have married. Set aside to cool.

For the meatballs:

Preheat oven to 400. In a large bowl, add 1 lb of 93/7 lean ground turkey and 1 large egg. In a small baggie, mix 1/4C breadcrumbs, 1/4C grated Parmesan cheese, 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning, 3/4tsp salt, 3/4tsp pepper and 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Shake to combine then add to bowl with meat and egg. Using hands, thoroughly mix. Grease a foil covered cookie sheet, and begin rolling out 1″ diameter balls. Bake for 12 mins, then flip meatballs and bake for another 10 mins.

After all ingredients are prepared, layer squash, marinara sauce and meatballs in a bowl and ENJOY!! 🍝

Southwestern breakfast quesadilla

The Appalachian BarbieLeave a comment

Not the best photography but trust me when I tell you this is one amazing #breakfast. I’ve had a lot of people ask me for the recipe for my breakfast quesadillas. The good thing about these are that you can mix them up a million different ways. This southwestern style one in particular is a little heavier than my usual breakfast due to the steak, so I just lightened up my other meals. Basically I always make sure I hit my 3 essentials- CARBS (super important in the AM, but try to eliminate them as the day goes on) the whole wheat wrap, PROTEIN: 1/3C egg whites, 1 whole egg and some type of meat (today I used leftover sirloin steak but you can do sausage, bacon, turkey bacon, ham, whatever) and HEALTHY FATS: avocado today, u could do a drizzle of olive oil, butter, etc.

*

*

Preparation:

Heat a skillet big enough to hold a whole wheat tortilla lying flat over medium heat. Spray with nonstick. When heated, put your tortilla in, browning both sides but not to the point it’s stiff. Remove and set aside on a plate. Next I added a handful of spinach, because it’s always good to get your leafy green veggies in where you can. Sauté the spinach for a minute, while u whisk together 1/3C egg whites, 1 whole egg, salt and pepper to taste and 1-2 Tbsp of salsa. Add that to pan with spinach. DO NOT SCRAMBLE. You want the eggs to cook in a solid circle, being careful not to burn. Carefully flip and cook briefly to finish the eggs then remove them and lay them atop the tortilla. (The round eggs should be basically the same size as your wrap) Sprinkle a small amount of shredded cheddar cheese. Dice up leftover steak (1-2oz) or whatever meat you’re using and cook in the skillet until it’s heated or cooked through. Place it atop eggs. I thinly sliced tomatoes and avocado, sprinkled with a bit more salt and pepper. Then fold over in half. Place the whole folded quesadilla in the skillet finishing browning the wrap on both sides and melting together all the goodness inside. Enjoy!

Fajita steak salad

The Appalachian BarbieLeave a comment

Made a fantastic fajita steak salad for dinner tonight. Rubbed a sirloin with lots of fajita seasoning, salt and pepper and seared it in the cast iron. Next, tossed in lots of green bell pepper, onion and minced garlic with the same seasoning I used for the steak as well as a spoonful of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for some heat. Built the salad with spinach, diced tomato, fajita veggies, 4oz of steak, a spoonful each of corn and black beans and topped with 1/4 avocado. To make a southwestern dressing, I mixed some adobo sauce with 2Tbsp of 45 calorie Greek yogurt ranch to taste. Not gonna brag but this is one of the best dinners I’ve made in awhile.

Cheers!! 🎉🍾🥂

The Appalachian BarbieLeave a comment

I hope this post finds each of you in blessed, uplifted spirits for the year to come! While I may have turned in embarrassingly early, it felt good to wake up refreshed and sans headache for the 1st day of the year. It’s a good omen for only positive things to come. However you may find yourself at this time, know that now is always the right time for a fresh start. I hope to get some time this week to post about some fun travel and fabulous home decor. Here’s hoping! Until then, have an amazing week ! 

Healthy, delicious egg sammich

The Appalachian BarbieLeave a comment

Breakfast is, of course, the most important meal of the day, and this filling, well-rounded sandwich has all the ingredients needed to give you the energy to slay the day! Did I mention it’s sitting right at 400 calories? 

2 slices lite wheat bread, toasted 

1 tbsp lite mayonnaise (optional)

Nonstick spray

1/3C egg whites

1 whole egg

Handful baby spinach

1/8C shredded cheddar cheese 

1 slice turkey bacon , cut in 2

Tomato slices

1/4 avocado, thinly slices 

Salt/pepper

Spray pan with nonstick. When heated, add baby spinach and let wilt down some. Combine whole egg and egg whites, then pour over spinach in pan. Cook to done, top with a light sprinkle of cheddar cheese. Spread mayo on toast. When cheese is melted, add to toast. If needed, re-spray hot pan and add slice of turkey bacon. Heat until done. Add to sandwich, then top with tomato and avocado slices. Salt and pepper to taste. Finish with top slice of toast, saw into 2 pieces and voila! 

Calories: 401

Healthy Fats: 20g

Protein: 24g

Carbs: 21

Fiber: 8g

Sir Isaac Newton-A 15th Century Karma Chameleon 

The Appalachian BarbieLeave a comment

When Sir Isaac Newton was developing his 3rd law of motion, I wonder if he was intending to explain only physical movement or if he was including the forces of karma as well? Either intentionally or unintentionally, applying the 3rd Law of Motion to one’s own life is one of the greatest lessons to be learned from his teachings. 


What a statement. Just as is taught in “The Secret,” what we are putting out into the world is affecting everything around us. 

A negative frame of mind can do more damage than any other physical force. A person wouldn’t willingly wake up every morning and open a can of toxic gas and expel it everywhere they go. Feeding negativity is the same thing. Focusing on negative energy is only going to propel that outward into the universe.  

So wake up with a great attitude. Don’t focus on all the things that are going wrong in your life.  Be thankful for the things that you have! Visualize your goals so they eventually manifest into your reality. One positive thought or action will propel itself into the universe, creating a chain of events that will change the shape of your entire life. 

I am a firm believer in karma and manifesting energies, because it is tangible. It can be measured. You can physically see the changes in your life and I have experienced it firsthand. The time is always right to make a change, but New Years especially seems to bring about a universal feeling of metamorphosis. Trust me, that one tiny first step of changing your way of thinking will have THE biggest effect on your life. 

Kathie Jayne

The Appalachian Barbie3 Comments

Quick lil’ face-spiration for ya!  

The other day at Sephora I cashed in my points for a mini-lipstick from Bite Beauty (shade is “Radish.”). It was the most fierce shade of fuchsia and, while I was drawn to it, I couldn’t help but think “I am never going to be able to wear this.”  Well, like a sign from the gay makeup gods above, I was watching “Watch What Happens Live” Tuesday night and my new favorite Housewife/spirit animal Erika Jayne was a guest and just what  did she have dancing across her lips??   A gorgeous fuchsia of course!  So taking my inspiration from her head to toe (minus the bubbies) I totally killed this glam look for work the next day.  

My not-so-professional opinion for making this look trendy and not tacky, is pairing it with a played-down ensemble.  I went with a basic black, office-appropriate Ralph Lauren dress, Coach pointy toes, and kept my jewelry at a minimum with some black diamond studs and a watch.  I also went lighter on my eyes because the lip is so bold, but I think for night time, a smoky eye might work.  Maybe.  

 

Twinning obviously.  

Ok, face breakdown:

Mac studio sculpt concealer, Mac blush (sorry, can’t remember which one), Mac blush “Blunt” for contour AND as my shadow for my crease (I use my makeup all over.  Just because it says blush doesn’t mean it’s for your cheeks alone.), eyelids, inner corner and highlight from “naked 2” palette, brows are a rimmel pencil that I swear by in “hazel,” eyeliner is stila stay all day in black, mascara is too faced “better than sex” plus a pair of drugstore falsies (Demiwispies) oh and a little black shadow from the same pallette in my bottom lash line .  

And of course, Radish from Bite Beauty on my lips.  I will say, I prepped my lips like I always do, with a base of concealer, followed by a nude liner to define the edges and fill in, then a dusting of translucent to set.  Topped with the lipstick, I only reapplied one time after lunch and it didn’t budge. Not even during a rigorous sweat sesh at the gym.  As a matter of fact, I had to scrub that ish off at the end of the night.  So I give this stick an A+++!!  

Y’all try this and let me see your inner “Jayne” alter ego!

Life Changes and Yummy Grub

The Appalachian Barbie5 Comments

Over the past month and a half I have been trying to get acclimated to a new schedule and a totally new lifestyle.  That’s right folks, the Appalachian Barbie has hung up her bar towel and joined the forces in the 9-5 grind.  I love it.  Do I love the pay cut I took doing this?  No way!  But I never believed the old saying “You can’t put a price on happiness” until I was forced out of my comfort zone  and had to do it.  My life within the service industry became like living in an abusive relationship.  The good shifts seemed REALLY good, but that was only because they were far outweighed by the crappy ones and, like most abusive relationships, I didn’t realize just how miserable I was until I was finally out.  I am by no means knocking jobs within the service industry.  It is KILLER money, there are great people who do it, the hours are flexible and your job is never boring.  But for me personally I couldn’t take it anymore.  I could no longer work at a job where I had to be “on” the entire time.  In my defense, I have a natural resting bitch face, and it is 10x worse when I am actually in a bad mood. I am a person who cannot hide their emotions, and if one more person said to me “WHY DONT YOU SMILE?  YOUD BE A REAL PURTY GIRL IF YOU SMILED MORE,” when all I was doing was pouring a beer and thinking, I was going to pull my hair out.  Realistically people don’t just walk around smiling for no reason. They would look crazy! Anyway, I digress, it was a case of right place right time, and now I have my own cute little office and no one bothers me and, as of right now, not one person has asked me to smile more.  And that alone is enough to make me smile more 🙂

Along with this new job comes a totally different lifestyle.  Tending bar meant going IN to work at 9p and getting home at 4a.  I would sleep until noon then have all day to run errands, gym and cook.  Even in my last job where we closed at 10p, I wouldn’t get home til midnight and most days didn’t have to be back until 4p. These days I wake up at 5:45a, get ready, take dogs out, cook breakfast and STILL am 5 mins late for my 8a call time.  I finally have weekends off and I have been filling them by joining as many charitable causes as time will allow. The entire month of May is filled with galas and benefits and spending my free time doing things that are making a difference makes me feel good.  I’ve also had to re-learn how to interact with people.  When dealing with inebriated people or people who are out to have a good time in general, you’re allowed to be a little more edgy with your conversation topics.  Not so much when you walk into an office full of women.  “Hey bitches what’s crappenin?” Is, for some reason, not an appropriate way to greet your co-workers.  

Out of all the changes, trying to get my health and fitness on track is proving to be the most difficult.  Although my schedule is the same every day, trying to get to the gym by 5:30, home by 7:30, food on the table by 8:30 and bed at 10 kind of sucks.  I hate going to bed that soon after eating.  There is no chill time.  And worst of all, I am going from almost 15 years working jobs where I was on my feet, constantly running around for 8-12 hours at a time, to now spending all day sitting behind a desk.  My body physically aches and I am gaining weight.  I have gained back 10lbs since this time last year and am thoroughly disgusted with myself. But I will triumph over these obstacles.  thankfully I still eat healthy, whole foods.  I shudder to think where I would be right now if I let myself fall back into old habits.  I still don’t eat fast food.  I don’t eat pork or red meat, and consume less than 1 1/2 cups of dairy each week.  My problem has been sweets and potatoes.  Every night for a week Mitch and I were unwinding with a brownie and a glass (or 2) of wine.  That adds up, no matter how good the rest of your diet is.  So basically, I need to get off my ass and watch my carbs.  So here are some meals I’ve been especially pleased with as of late.  Theyre not only healthy and low in calories, but also quick and easy to make! Enjoy!  

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

  

Hearty Savory Breakfast Bowl

I eat this probably 3-4 days a week. It is so delish, and you can change the meat out to bacon or ham if you’re so inclined.  

1/4 C steel cut oats

1C water

1C baby spinach

1/3C liquid egg whites

1 whole egg

1.5oz ground turkey breakfast sausage

Salt and pepper

Texas Pete hot sauce (optional)

Combine the oats and water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer and cook until done, around 10 mins.  While that is cooking , put baby spinach in a skillet coated with nonstick.  When spinach begins to wilt, add egg whites and scramble.  Put scrambled eggs and spinach in bowl.  In same pan, crack egg and fry to over easy.  Add it to bowl.  In same pan, cook breakfast sausage, crumbling.  When meat is cooked through and no longer pink, add to bowl.  Top with cooked oats.  Shake on salt and pepper to taste, hot sauce and stir well, breaking yolk from over easy egg and combing everything throughout.  

Calories 320

Fat 9 grams

Carbs 29.5 grams

Protein 28 grams

  

Good, Old Fashioned, Low Country Boil

Does it get any better than this?  If you can boil water, you can make this dish.  It’s stupid tasty, feeds a crowd, and is fun to eat with your hands!

3lbs small red potatoes

1 pk frozen corn on the cob, or 6 mini-ears

2-3lbs frozen raw shrimp, deveined,shell and tail-on, thawed

14oz smoked turkey sausage, cut into 1/2″ rounds

4T old bay seasoning

2 lemons cut in half

Bring a large stock pot of water to a boil.  Add old bay and squeezed lemons. CAREFULLY add your potatoes *note: If potatoes are large, cut them to a smaller uniform size.  You want them to be small enough to cook quickly and at the same rate of time.* After potatoes begin to soften, around 10 mins, add corn and sausage. Bring water back to a boil.  When all is cooked through, add dethawed shrimp last.  Cook for around 5 minutes, until shrimp is pink and no longer translucent.  Drain liquid and serve on newspaper or a large platter.  

   
 
Kathie’s Hawaiian YumYum Chicken

I literally came up with this on a whim, using ingredients I had in the fridge.  It was amazing and totally cured my craving for pineapples. Serve with brown rice and a little teriyaki sauce.

1 red bell pepper, julienned

1 medium onion, sliced

1lb of asparagus, cut into 2″ pieces

1/2 of a whole pineapple, cored and cut into chunks

1 1/2lbs of skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into chunks

Jerk seasoning, salt and pepper, to taste

Coconut oil or olive oil

Add all ingredients to a large bowl or bag, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with seasonings.  Shake to coat evenly.  Distribute to a foil lined baking sheet and roast for 30 mins on 375 degrees.  

Garlicy Tomato Shrimp

The Appalachian Barbie2 Comments

Last night I made the most amazing dinner in less than 20 minutes!  Totally worthy of date night, this dish would have cost at LEAST $15- $20 each at a restaurant.  Between the cost of the wedding and the upcoming holidays the hubby and I are pretty strapped for cash, so enjoying each other’s company at home at a fraction of the cost is a great alternative to a night on the town!  I stole this recipe from the “Relish” insert in my local paper.   It sounded amazing and thank goodness the taste lived up to my expectations, actually even exceeded them!!  I paired mine with butternut squash rissoto and a crisp romaine salad topped with cucumbers, blue cheese crumbles and balsamic.  The risotto was the perfect partner to this dish, soaking up all that delicious white wine sauce.  And the best part about it was how quickly it was prepared.  Well, actually the BEST part was that we had an excuse to drink the wine that was left over in the bottle.  Below is the recipe, tweaked a little to my own personal preference.

3 tbsp olive oil

4 garlic cloves sliced thinly, crosswise

2 shallots sliced thinly, crosswise

1 pint grape tomatoes, sliced in half, lengthwise

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1 tsp italian seasoning

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 Cup dry white wine

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 lb medium-large shrimp, shelled and deveined, tails on (I bought the kind that are already cooked and frozen so I had to de-thaw them before cooking)

Heat olive oil in deep sauce pan over medium heat.  Add garlic and shallots and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Add tomatoes and cook until softened, about 4-5 minutes.  Add spices, wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil.  Simmer and cook until reduced by almost half, about 3 minutes.  Add shrimp and cook until heated through, about 3 more minutes.  
And that’s it!  You could even do this with pasta or plain rice.  I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

  

Cut Out the Crap!

The Appalachian Barbie4 Comments

Hey guys!  Hope you’re all staying cozy and warm during this nasty winter storm.  I was just sitting here enjoying a warm bowl of oats and watching the snow fall and got to thinking about the American diet and the struggle for the average person to get fit in a world so heavily influenced by “fast” food and “convenient” boxed and frozen dinners.  One of the biggest challenges in the journey to a healthy lifestyle is learning how to eat correctly.  Re-teaching your mind -and body- to not just consume, but also enjoy, whole nutritious meals can seem like a daunting task.  Well I’m not going to sugar coat it–

YOU.  HAVE.  TO CUT.  THE CRAP.

I mean that literally and figuratively.

I don’t want to sound mean in the following paragraphs.  But it’s time to get real and stop making excuses.  I hate excuses.  Everyone has one and all it is is another version of lazy.  I’m sorry to tell you but we’re all busy.  We’re all tired.  We all have outside circumstances that could influence our schedules.  But the answer is to MAKE YOURSELF A PRIORITY.  Human nature is to make time for the things that are important.  I can guarantee that you make time in your busy schedule to watch your favorite tv show, or get your nails done, or go to the bar for a drink after a stressful day.  So these are the things that are important to you.  It’s time to make yourself and your health your most important priority, because at the end of the day, why would you put that other stuff first??  That tv show, or your nail appointment, or that cocktail have never done anything for you and in the grand scheme of things what is it going to matter?  The things you are fueling your body with are going to have much more of an influence on your life in the long run than missing an episode of Real Housewives.

Along with getting real, it’s time to starting eating real.  No good can come from living on a diet filled with processed, preservative rich, mystery crap that comes from a drive-thru window or a box in the microwave.  It’s disgusting.  For god’s sake, pick up a box of hamburger helper and try to decode the nutrition information.  If you can’t pronounce it, don’t flippin eat it.  I am not trying to toot my own horn or be obnoxious, but one of the things I am most proud of is conquering the addiction to fast food. I’ve probably eaten fast food 4 times in the past 2 years and I felt disgusting each and every time. Anything that is sold so cheaply and to such a mass quantity of people can’t be good.  Not even subway! Their lettuce comes in a vacuum sealed bag, filled with preservatives so it can survive the distribution process without turning brown.  You’re ingesting that.  Lean Cuisines, Weight Watchers Meals….even most “protein bars” are full of awful crap that the human body should not be trying to break down!  It’s high time to stop eating for convenience and start eating for your health.

With all that being said, there is good news!  You don’t have to spend all day every day planning meals and thinking about workouts.  (Although for some of us, that sounds like a good time.)  With a little bit of scheduling, a healthy, nutritious diet can be just as convenient as hitting a drive thru on your lunch break.  The biggest step you can take to getting healthier is setting a schedule and sticking to it.  Scheduling out time to meal plan, a day to hit the store for the week, and time to prep your meals will soon become second nature if you just stick to it for a month.  This type of lifestyle will also be hugely beneficial to your budget.  I allow myself $75/wk for groceries and I only go to the store once a week.  That means that I better get what I need and if I run out, it’s tough titty said the kitty.  Make do with other stuff until the next trip to the store.  When you think about it, $75 is less than 3 average trips to a restaurant.

So here is a sample of how I schedule my diet planning:

-On Monday evening, I discuss with Mitch what he wants to eat for the upcoming week.  (The only meals we actually cook every day are breakfast and dinner.  The rest of our meals are already prepped.)

-On Tuesday afternoon we go to the grocery store with our list.  This process usually takes an hour from start to finish.  Always on the list-skinless boneless chicken breast, tuna, spinach, brown rice/quinoa, almond milk, steel cut oats, egg whites, fruit…..

-Tuesday evening or Wednesday, we put 6 lbs of chicken in the crock pot to cook.  You can do this before you go to work, or before you go to run errands. ( This is where I get annoyed with people who say they have no time to meal prep.  Really??  You don’t have time to open a pack of chicken and put it in a slow cooker with some  water?  )  I also cook up my rice/quinoa for the week.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Prepping things this way makes meals as easy as grabbing a handful of shredded chicken and weighing it to your specifications.  Or grabbing a 2/3C measuring cup and scooping out your grains.  Throw those in a tupperware together with a big handful of spinach.  When it’s time to eat, throw on a splash of teriyaki and microwave for a minute and a half.  Done.  There is lunch.

It also is helpful to get in the habit of eating basically the same thing every day except for dinner.  I know it sounds boring, but once your body gets used to it, it starts to crave these meals.

Weaning your body off of these processed, sugar and preservative filled crap foods is going to physically be a challenge as well.  Just like a heroin addict, your body is going to detox off sugar.  I promise.  You will feel like crap.  You’re going to feel off.  Maybe get headaches.  Maybe even sick.  this is your body withdrawing from the unnatural junk it’s been used to.  But don’t despair.  It only lasts a few days.  And then your body is going to start rejecting the bad stuff.  These days, if I eat things I’m not supposed to, my body physically rejects it.  I can’t eat red meat more than 3 times a month.  Dairy makes me violently ill.  If I eat pasta I will bloat to the point that my pants don’t fit.  I am completely, physically miserable.

This doesn’t mean you have to eat boring, bland brown rice and chicken every day.  It just means educating yourself on healthy substitutions!  For example–

Say you heat up a packet of microwave quaker oats every morning.  INSTEAD, scoop out 1/4C of steel cut organic oats into a small pot with 1C of water.  Once it starts to boil, it only takes around 10 mins to cook.  In that time you can be cooking a healthy egg scramble, making your coffee or even blowdrying your hair.  Add a spoonful of vanilla greek yogurt, 1 packet of stevia and 1/4C of fresh blueberries for berries and cream flavored.  Or a dash of cinnamon sugar and a drizzle of maple syrup for maple brown sugar flavored.

OR

If it’s burgers you crave–prep a 1lb pack of 93% lean ground turkey into 4 4oz patties.  I like to mix up my meat with a few dashes of low sodium Dale’s and a tablespoon of burger seasoning (seasoned salt, pepper, garlic powder).  Throw them on the grill or skillet with some nonstick and serve them on a toasted whole wheat english muffin or high fiber bread loaded with greens and tomatoes

French fries- don’t buy a bag of frozen crap.  Slice a potato, toss in olive oil, sea salt, pepper.  bake for 20 mins on 425 degrees.  finish off under the broiler for a couple minutes to get that crisp outside layer.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

The goal for changing the way you eat is to eliminate all the unneeded fillers and crap and stick to minimal wholesome ingredients.  When eating, less is more.  Give it a shot.  I promise you’ll feel better and look better!