MUST TRY: Cheap, yummy, & healthy recipe.

What uuup?

Even though I'm super busy, I'm kinda, sorta finding a bit time to blog. :D
I'm sure you're just excited as I am! :P hahah

Since I decided I want to help my readers make healthy, and cheap food choices (including myself), I came up with this super yummy soup recipe! Well, actually it was one of my teachers recipe that I modified it adding more stuff or substituting ingredients. :) So it turned out waaay yummier!

If you don't like soup (just like Auston) then give this recipe a try! It will change your mind. It has plenty of different veggies (different colors and textures which is super important in preparing meals), meat (skip it if you're vegetarian), low in fat and calories, and best part: it's super cheap, can last you for the whole week, freezes well and doesn't take long to make!!

                                               Pumpkin veggies and meat soup

Ingredients:

• 1 can (14oz) pure pumpkin puree (substitute pumpkin for tomatoes if you don't like it)
• 1 can (14oz) chicken broth 
• 1/4 cup small shell pasta (I use whole wheat because it's healthier)
• 1/2 lbs ground chicken, turkey, or beef (as well as some oregano, basil, parsley and salt sprinkled on it when the meat is cooking)**  I double this recipe when I make it, and both Auston & I have enough of it for the rest of the week.
• 1/4 cup finely chopped spinach
• half zucchini cubed
• 2-3 large carrots pealed and chopped
• 2-3 celery sticks finely chopped
• half a small onion chopped
• 2 garlic cloves chopped
• 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 2Tbsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 3 Tbsp fresh Parmesan or whatever cheese you have. Feta and goat won't work ;) (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions: 

1. Heat oil in a pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and garlic and cook until the onion is soft. Make sure to stir often so they don't burn or stick. 
2. Add chicken brother, pumpkin, parsley, basil, and oregano. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 mins covered. 
3. Meanwhile that's simmering for 10 mins you prepare the meat. In a saucepan add the meat, no need to use oil as it has enough fat to not stick to the pan. While it's cooking sprinkle some salt, and additional  parsley, basil and oregano as desired. Cook it all through.

•  We used beef as that's what we had to prepare first as it was in the fridge for longer. 

     4. To the pot add the cooked meat, spinach, celery, carrots, and pasta. Cook 10 mins covered at a low boil. Add zucchini and cook for 7 more mins. *Note you will need to add water while it's cooking so it's not thick and doesn't stick to the pot/ burn. Make sure to stir once in a while.



    5. Check for your veggies and pasta to see if they're tender. If not add 2-3 more minutes and check again.

When it's ready scoop it out in a bowl, and sprinkle some salt, pepper, as well as the pre measured cheese if you so desire.

Also, this freezes really well. After you see if you like it, make it a double recipe and freeze it in servings.
I decided I wanted my serving to be 2 cups and that came out to 178 calories for my serving. Very yummy, healthy, and filling. If you don't care about the calories, and just want to eat something healthy and yummy don't measure the calories haha. I only did that to see how low/high my serving for this recipe was. 

I made this recipe, this past Sunday and we had yummy toasted sour dough bread with butter on the side.
As a dessert we had this freaking amazing frozen yogurt  that Auston bought last weekend. Very healthy and suuuuper amazing!

So there you go, a healthy, yummy, and pretty cheap recipe. 

Let me know if you try it out and what you think! :) Or how'd you make it better!

xxx Disola

Instagram: albanianicandy

For your entertainment:

The broccoli must die.

Hi everyone!

Once more I got lost among school work, my job, internship, working out and now *drum roll please* wedding planning! It's been a pretty tough few weeks, not gonna lie. Seeing the fiancé about twice a week was a little hard at first. Now we're managing our time pretty well I'd say-- that way we get to at least see each other more, even if it's going to the gym together.

Since we haven't had much free time, hardly at all to be honest, and being healthy is still a priority for us we're making sure we're giving our bodies the best nutrition, rest, as well as staying active even in our busiest days. I've talked to a few people and it seems to be challenging for most people to give themselves the good, healthy food, rest, as well as exercise.

Let me tell ya a few tricks that work for me, and could possibly work for you as well. The biggest one is PLANNING. Funny, huh? We'll let me tell ya that it works! Just try it out before you judge me/ what I say. ;) Here's everything broken down about Nutrition. STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO (REST & EXERCISE). WILL BE PUBLISHED ON FRIDAY.

Nutrition:

• Plan your meals ahead.

  Plan your grocery store trips, what you'll buy, what you'll make, and when everything is happening. That way you save a ton of time wondering around what you'll buy, what you'll make, as well as don't buy things you don't need etc.The great thing about meal planning is that you also don't have any food gone bad as you're planning on using everything at a certain time. Who doesn't want that??! We've all been through the fridge scene "Ohh, I bought that?!?! Oh. Well. It's gone bad now... Oops. I forgot... Next time I won't let anything go bad!". And the scene almost always happens to repeat itself, and you've wasted a bunch of money. Again. If you're like me, in a tight budget, trying to make everything work then you don't want that happening!

Since I'm pretty busy I try and have my grocery store trips on the weekends/ typically Saturdays. Then Sundays is the fun part of it! I cook for the whole week, prep my veggies, etc. If you're like me and love the kitchen then you'll have a blast preparing everything! I make sure to have some music playing, or talking to my parents, and other family members.Sometimes Auston (the fiancé :D) joins me and we have a real party in the kitchen prepping yummy, healthy food and enjoy each others company <3. 

Grocery shopping Saturday night with Auston.

As I said earlier, prepping your food ahead will 1. save you money 2. save you time and 3. will help you stick to your healthy eating.

• Stick to what you planned!!!

It'll be hard the first few times but slowly, slowly your body will get used to eating the healthy foods and stop craving the junk that you might currently be eating. And no. The cravings won't completely go away-- unless you have some super magical power and yours go away. Honestly, we're human and we have those types of cravings. You just have to learn how to deal with them the correct way. And that requires time and dedication. Honestly if I'm craving something I'll eat it! However I don't go crazy on it... Everything on moderation (don't ask me about my bag of M&Ms that I've been eating for the past week while I do my Math HW though). I figured if I'm always eating healthy and crave something yummy and not healthy i.e.  ice cream (I like this triple chocolate ice cream from Smiths-- seriously death by chocolate. There's so much of it in there you cannot imagine! Never seen a more chocolaty ice cream. Ever.) I will still eat it. Uh huh. Again, everything in moderation. That's the key!

That's Auston's fridge. :) Most of the food is pretty healthy there. Super organized, you know where everything is/ stuff is easy to find, therefore no food wasted/ gone bad. The fridge got more stuffed on Sunday when we made yummy food/prepared meals with what we bought Saturday night.

• Drink your water ladies! (And gents if you're reading this, it applies to you as well.)

Make sure you're hydrated. Even if it's freezing like it's here in Utah you still need your water! Maybe not as much as in the summer but you still need it.  I drink about 2 liters of water every day. And yes. I go to use the restroom every 10 mins. Thanks for asking. :) haha If you have a hard time having water try having always a water bottle with you. Sip water every now and then and you'll eventually finish your daily water intake. :) That's what works for me-- trust me I hated drinking water before. One or two glasses was how much water I'd have a day. That's really bad! Now I need my water. :)

• Skip the soda.

By that I mean all soda! Even the diet ones. They're horrible for you! Yes, they might have zero calories but have you seen the ingredients?!?! They're substituting the sugar with ingredients that your body has a hard time breaking down or cannot break down, and that's bad for you. Plus they still spike your blood sugar and you'll want/ crave more sweets afterwards. Then you're trapped into the junk food circle again. If you're craving a soda, have fruit juice instead. Make sure there's no sugar added as if it is, it will have the same effect on you as soda. Now, at the ingredients list you'll still find the sugar at the juice and that's because fruits are high in sugar, but it's better for you to have sugar from natural sources than artificial ones.

• Eat plenty of fruits and veggies each day. 

This is actually pretty important and a lot of people just skip this just because they hate veggies, or because fruit is high in sugar. Your body still needs them! Remember that. The best way I've found to help myself eat my veggies (no problem with fruits-- they're YUMMY haha), is prepping the veggies I like and try and skip on the ones I hate, or have them with something else so I can somewhat hide their flavor. i.e. I love carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, cauliflower but hate celery. In order to have my celery I blend it out with whatever snack that I'm having. This was actually Auston's idea. What a genius! You can even have celery with some natural peanut butter. That works great as well! Oh and remember to have fruits and veggies in different colors. It's okay if you feel like this: