Jump Around

Whoa. I think that title dates me. Do you know that I remember that song being the one that we rung the New Year in with during my Grade 12 year?  Get off your seats and jump around!

My super duper awesome friend Michelle lives in Northern California and sent me another mug for my Starbucks city collection…wooooo!  San Francisco!  (She already sent me Denver and San Jose!)

Using vanilla soy milk in my coffee is actually a no-no on the Jillian Michael’s Jump Start menu…but we don’t get the good coconut milk up in Canada yet (and I’m not sure it would be good in coffee anyway?). I think processed soy in the teeny amounts I use it won’t hurt me.

It’s impossible to get a good picture of bananas and yogurt.  All that white! The walnuts look good though. :)

Lunch was another yummy Jump Start recipe from Self Magazine.

Man, these gorgeous fresh veggies make for beautiful photos.  Such colour!!

Chicken and Zucchini Spaghetti (a la Jillian Michaels via Self magazine)

Ingredients:

• 4 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast (I seasoned mine with sea salt, fresh cracked pepper, and red pepper flakes)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 cups sliced zucchini (I cubed mine)
• 2 cups spinach
• 10 halved cherry tomatoes (I quartered mine)
• 1 chopped garlic clove
• 1 cup cooked whole wheat spaghetti (I used Smart pasta because it’s what I had on hand)
• 2 tsp chopped fresh basil  (I used 1 tsp rosemary, 1 tsp oregano, and 2 tbsp Italian parsley)

Directions:

1. First, cook the chicken in a pan coated with cooking spray over medium heat until cooked through, about 10 minutes (flipping half way). I covered my pan with a lid to help cook the centre.  Set chicken aside.
2. While the chicken is cooking, boil the spaghetti according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.
3. Using the chicken pan sauté zucchini in olive oil with spinach, tomatoes and garlic.  I also added the rosemary and oregano at this point.  Cook until zucchini is tender, about 10 minutes.  I stirred in the parsley for the last minute.  (The original recipe doesn’t have you cook the herbs…you just sprinkle it on the finished product).
4. Toss zucchini mixture with spaghetti and serve.  Slice chicken, serve on top of spaghetti mixture and sprinkle with more fresh herbs if desired.

Let me tell you something…  This made a MASSIVE plate of food.  That is a dinner plate and it’s FULL.  Two cups is A LOT of zucchini.

I did add a bit more salt and pepper to the dish but otherwise it was crazy delicious.  I love zucchini so the amount of it didn’t bother me but I can see how it might be a bit much for some people.  You could easily use only 1 cup and still have a very satisfying meal.

It’s hard to believe this clocks in at a lowly 450 calories (454 calories, 12 g fat (2 g saturated), 54 g carbs, 12 g fiber, 39 g protein).

It was too much for me…I ended up leaving about 1/4 of the veggies and noodles on my plate.

Needless to say that plate of food got me through the entire afternoon and into the evening.  I only just started to feel hungry again around 6pm as I was finishing work and heading to the gym.  I grabbed this Larabar to tide me over through my workout. (Jillian recommends these for snacks…suggesting to chose the flavours without peanuts. Conveniently I love them and have a cupboard full.)

Another excellent Jump Start workout!  I’m going to be very careful with the toning moves for the first while until I’m sure my old lady back can handle them…so just one set held for 15 seconds again.  Trust me, you can feel it!  After those I tackled cardio workout #2.  This is the treadmill workout made for me!  Walking and jogging intervals with varied inclines.  I modified it down to 30 minutes from 45 (because of my old lady back of course) but my lungs were burning, I pushed myself hard, and sweat my arse off.  Another win!

At home I finished off the last bit of green juice…

For dinner I ate the leftovers from lunch…with a bit of fresh grated parmesan…and the other half of the chicken breast (I used half of a larger breast for the recipe and just saved the rest).

I think I’ve had my fibre quota for a few days now. Whoa. ha.

For dessert I decided to tackle one of these crazy hybrid fruit I picked up a the grocery store the other day.  Mandarinquats!!  Which are exactly what they sound like…a marriage of mandarin orange and kumquat.

According to Google you can eat the skins of these but I don’t recommend it.  I found them a bit hard to bite through and slightly bitter.  The juice inside is really good but there are lots of seeds.  I think I’ll just cut the rest up and suck the juice out of them. :)

And here we are…midnight on a Friday night.  Guess I’d better go sort my laundry and head for bed.  It’s the weeeeeekend!!