Tag: wellness

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

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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.

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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

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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.

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.  

Chakra Balancing and Aura Repair….Just Goin’ In for a Tune-up

The Appalachian Barbie3 Comments

So this week I did something a little different.

I’ve been feeling really down in the dumps lately and can’t seem to pull out of it.  I am a firm believer in the power of positive thinking and usually when I get in these funks I can just take a moment to count all my blessings and pull right on out. 
But over the past month or two I’ve just felt like I’m poisoned inside my head and no matter what I do I can’t shake this negative energy.  I have been dealing with what I can only guess is anxiety, as in, there is a constant weight on my chest that makes me feel like something bad is going to happen or something is wrong.  I also have felt extremely lonely.  I attribute this to busy, conflicting schedules with Mitch and my friends.  I exist within a strange paradox in my life–in my job, I live the life and hours of the bar, which means my typical work-week is Friday through Tuesday, 9pm-4am.  However, my morals and extracurriculars no longer reflect that schedule and has become quite a bit more boring and traditional.  So the people I now share common interest with tend to live in a Monday through Friday, 8am-5pm world.  Because of that and Mitch’s new school schedule, I spend most of my days alone, only having personal interaction with people when I go into work and they are under the influence.  Sometimes it gets a little depressing. 

So with all that being said, I’ve just been down lately.  I am firmly against prescription medications like anti-depressants and mood elevators, and refuse to go that route.  (no offense to those who do take these, this is just my opinion and personal choice.)  On a whim and also as a sort of last resort, I paid a visit to a local shop downtown that sells a lot of holistic items and also is home to it’s own ‘spiritual center’ where they conduct everything from tarot readings to yoga classes.  On this particular day, they had a healer in the shop who was skilled in aura repair and balancing chakras. 

Well…..why not.  I decided to give it a whirl, even if I’m not a firm believer in all this stuff. 

I will stop here and kind of explain my religious and spiritual beliefs.  I usually do not speak about this sort of thing because I feel like your spiritual habits should be something personal for you and no one should be able to tell you you’re right or wrong.  But in the interest of this blog making sense, I suppose I should just briefly fill you in on my line of thinking.

I am not a religious person, so much as I am spiritual.  I believe there is a greater power out there, that there is a meaning to all this, this life, but I do not know what it is so I will not judge anyone on what THEY believe the meaning is.  What I DO know, is that energy is tangible.  You can use a device to measure the wavelength of my heartbeat, thus measuring my ENERGY.  So for me, if that energy gets imbalanced or tainted from being around more bad energy than good, then that’s probably gonna throw me out of whack.  And this is precisely why I decided to let a middle aged bald man in capri pants, covered in wiccan tattoos, conduct a chakra balance and aura repair on me.

(If you are unfamiliar with the term ‘chakra’ please familiarize yourself with the 7 basic chakras here . )

The reverend, ordained by the Church of Divine Light, was a very nice man, who spent no less than 45 minutes explaining his techniques to me, from the tools he was going to use, (everything from chimes and bells to oils and rocks and music.) to the placement of his hands so I could be as comfortable as possible.  Considering that I’m no idiot, being in a closed room with an unfamiliar man who is attempting to put me in a meditative trance and perhaps touch my chakras, you can go ahead and guess that during this session I never fully let my guard down, as I was ready at a moments notice to issue a swift kick to the family jewels if he tried any funny business.  After a lengthy introduction, I laid down on my back on a massage table.  He then placed various precious gems, crystals and minerals around and on my body and turned on some soothing music.  He then walked around my body with a bell and chanting a mantra while counting backward from 10, trying to guide me into a meditative state.  After I was relaxed (somewhat) he then went into his own head, placing his hands on or several inches above various areas of my body. 

Ok, I don’t wanna sound like a crazy person.  But either this guy really has something going on as far as transferring energy, OR he just has a medical condition that makes his hands boiling hot.  Because even at 6″ away from my body, I could feel the heat from his hands, like he was holding a space heater over me or something!

This went on for about 35 minutes before he slowly asked me to come back to the world of the living.  For homework, he recommended I get a small bundle of sage and start smudging all the negative energy off of me every time I leave work.  I left the building a skeptic, but only $25 poorer so I wasn’t too upset. 

Cut to yesterday morning when I woke up.  The first thing I noticed is that I was SORE. I have been at a stand-still in the gym for like 2 months and no matter what I do I can’t get sore.  Before I went to my chakra balancing session, I had done the same glute workout I’ve done for the past 2 months so it was nothing new.  But when I got out of bed I could hardly walk to the bathroom I was so sore.  Also, my honey and I actually had some intimate times early that morning, which I could count on one hand the number of times that has happened.  And overall I was just in a gee-golly terrific mood. 

Now maybe this is all mental.  Maybe the soreness is just a matter of coincidence.  Or maybe there’s something to this energy thing.  All I know is, I feel lighter, more positive.  Work wasn’t an act of torture last night.  So I’m gonna go back.  Maybe take advantage of some yoga classes at my gym.  I don’t see any harm in taking an hour of relaxation and reflection for myself each week.  And if there is some positive benefits to this aura repair and chakra balancing, then all the better.

On that note, I hope you all have a blessed and wonderful weekend. And get out and try something new!  You never know, it might just change your life.

Dog Day Fashion for Indian Summer

The Appalachian BarbieLeave a comment

So here in the south, September can be a tough time for fashion.  For everyone else it seems September is the kickoff to fall–Things start to cool down and the switch to jeans and boots is eminent.  For us, it’s the hottest part of the year.  And humid.  And sticky.  But no one wants to miss out on the cute fall fashions.  Rejoice, I have found the perfect weekend outfit to take you out of Labor Day and into autumn, even on those 90 degree days.

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The perfect mix of boho and country, a 3/4 sleeve billowy top balances out a classic blue jean short on the bottom for just the right amount of skin for September.  Pair it with your favorite broken-in boots and a fringey leather bag in a warm color scheme and you’ll be ready for wherever the weekend takes you. 

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I personally took this look to the county fair with my hunky honey and it couldn’t have worked out better.  The boots were perfect for stomping around the barnyards and I didn’t have to worry about losing my shoes on the rides!

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Side note, is there anything more small town and nostalgic than a county fair? The smell of deep fried goodies mingles with hay from the stables, the music and screams from the rides fills your ears, and don’t forget getting stopped at the top of the ferris wheel is the perfect place to smooch with your honey.  It’s also the perfect goodbye to summer.

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So from fairs to football games, this outfit has you covered.  Don’t forget to top your look off with some boho braids and fun accessories!