Weekend Recap and Food Prep

I had a great weekend!!! In all aspects.  Personal and fitness.  Thrown in the mix was a personal training session, beach trip and a relaxing food prepping Sunday.

Friday was my personal training session. It was nice to finally be able to train after a few busy weeks of not being able to.  We met at the gym and concentrated mostly on weight training, which is what we always do.  I am doing my own cardio about 5-6x a week so we concentrate a lot on my upper body and legs.  Which is much appreciated!!! My arms are DEF my trouble spot and most hated part of my body so I love when we work them hard.

Me and Trish my trainer!
I <3 her!

Friday afternoon personal training session!
Weight training
End the week strong, start the weekend stronger! 

I love my one on one training sessions but I think they are going to become limited.  Unfortunately with the new car comes a car payment that I didn't have before. :(  I am going to try to train with Trish whenever I can but I know it won't be every week anymore...that makes me really sad.  Esp since she has given me the motivation to work my butt off these past few months.  I will still see her 2x a week for the body pulse & abs class and zumba which will be awesome.  I am going to try to get a friend to train with me some weeks to help with the cost so hopefully I can still do personal training 2x a month! Hopefully!!! Because it makes SUCH a difference in my drive and attitude! 

I knew that getting in a workout would be hard for me Saturday because I was going to the beach for the day with a bunch of friends.  We were leaving rather early so I didn't really have time in the morning to hit the gym. I mean...I guess I could have woken up at 5am to go...buttttt....yeah. I didn't.  So Saturday was a rest day that included a gloriously beautiful beach day with a lot of people I love.  Oh and a 600 calorie milkshake.  Ooops...that happened.  It was yummy so it's all good. 

Ummmm yeah. So Sunday was a GREAT day!  I woke up early to make it to the 9am zumba class!  I LOVE this zumba class and it's somewhat rare that I can make it.  I'm always out and about on the weekends and sometimes am not in NJ on Sundays to make it to this class.  It's one of the best zumba classes and is so much fun!  The Wednesday night kickboxing instructor teaches it and she is crazy and I love her. A lot.  So it was really fun and a great workout! I was feeling super motivated to have a kick ass workout so I put my all into it! I think my heart rate monitor stats confirm that it was a good workout! :)

Sunday Zumba
Awesome workout!
Look at that sweat baby!

After my gym session I headed to Wegmans to stock up on healthy food for the week.  I find that if I don't plan for the week I usually eat off track.  It has become very important for me to plan my nightly meals so that when I get home from the gym at 7-8pm that I have a meal already ready to go.  If I don't...it's just way to easy for me to grab something else that may not be a great choice. So food prepping and planning helps avoid that. 

I had an idea of what I wanted to food prep for the week so I stocked up on fresh veggies and ingredients.  One thing that I am currently obsessed with is the Chobani flips! SO GOOD.  They were on sale at Wegmans for $1 so I stocked up!  The key lime one is my fav...it's like dessert and a really great alternative to other desserts that may not be a super healthy.

Has anyone tried these flavors?
SO GOOD!

As soon as I got home from the grocery store I got everything ready to food prep an awesome meal!

Anyone that knows me knows about my obsession with Elena Delle Donne.  I can't remember if I wrote about it yet here but I am seriously obsessssssed with this girl.  For anyone who doesn't know who she is, she is a professional basketball player in the WNBA who was the #2 overall draft pick and now plays on the Chicago Sky.  Why am I so obsessed with her?  Well...She is from Delaware (like me) and I have been following her career since highschool.  I even played against her once when I was a senior in highschool and she was in 7th grade I think. My team was SO bad that their school put in the middle school players...yikes. Ha! Anyways, after highschool she was recruited to UCONN, one of the best girls basketball colleges in the country. She went there for a day and came back to Delaware because she was homesick. She ended up playing for the University of Delaware (where I went) and was able to lead the team into the NCAA finals 2 years in a row with them even making the sweet 16 this year!  They did lose but it was so exciting for Delaware to get there!  Needless to say she is a huge deal in Delaware and I am in love with her. 

Long story short, the reason I am writing about this is because ESPN posted a video of her making this Mediterranean pasta. HAHA! I know...random and I totally watched it one day.  It inspired me to make this pasta concoction.  It's not exactly the same as what EDD made but it's very similar. (I don't think I posted about this before, but if I have, I'm sorry!)

So here we go:

Ingredients:

• Olive Oil
• Garlic
• Sundried tomatoes
• Tomatoes
• Zucchini
• Roasted chicken
• Pasta
• Spinach
• Feta

I don't really have measurements for all of this stuff so it's pretty much whatever you want to do or how much you want to add.  There are actual measurements in the video if you really want them.

First I chopped everything up.  I took the zucchini and peeled it like pasta.  It's a trick that some other bloggers do to avoid using real pasta.  I didn't have a julienne peeler so mine is weird looking, a regular peeler still worked tho.  I don't eat a lot of pasta so I wasn't scared to use it in this recipe.  I tried to pick the veggie pasta or high fiber pasta.  If you have a suggestion, let me know!

Chopped up garlic, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes and zucchini "pasta"

I used half garden delight pasta and half smart taste pasta.
Are those good pasta choices? I'm clueless.

After all of your veggies are prepped it's time to cook!  I start with sauteing 2 cloves of garlic in olive oil.  I then added the sun dried tomatoes.  Once those are all coordinating with the evoo I add the tomatoes. After that I add shredded chicken (I bought an already cooked roasted chicken from the grocery store. So easy because it's already made and ready to go!  Just remember to remove the skin!).  Once you add the chicken and everything is blended, add the cooked pasta.  Mix everything around in the pot and add a heaping amount of fresh spinach!  I kept cooking until the spinach got soft and wilted.  When everything is well mixed and done cooking, scoop some out and sprinkle some feta cheese on top.  YUM!  Talk about a good dinner!  Even little Kirby was wanting some of that chicken! :) 

Please mom?
Of course he got a little chicken from me :)

Finished product.
SO GOOD!

I know that pasta is very heavy so I am going to try to eat this only every other night.  Esp since I'm not used to eating a lot of pasta...I don't want this to hurt my stomach or make me super bloated.  I figure since it is packed with veggies and healthy fats that it is ok?  Does anyone have any suggestions? I bet mushrooms would be good in this too!  Next time I am going to add more zucchini pasta and less carby pasta. Spaghetti squash is also an idea. Of course for the nights I don't eat this...I bought avocados! HA! Creature of habit...always.

If anyone ends up trying this recipe or anything like it, let me know! :)