Pumpkin Pie Yogurt!

Just came up with this to give my boys something yummy and healthy as a snack!  It was a hit!!

Vanilla Yogurt* (maybe 1/2 cup)
Canned Pumpkin (1-2 Tbls)
Pumpkin Pie Spice (try a couple of dashes)

(adjust everything to your taste)
Mix together and enjoy!!

*Remember to watch for sugar in the yogurt!  There is WAY too much in most of them!!  Try the brand Nancy's from WinCo.

If you close your eyes and pretend, maybe you can imagine this is pumpkin pie?  ;o)  Try it and see!  I actually think it's not TOO bad of a replacement and it's healthier!!  I hope this helps you get creative and find delicious AND healthy things to eat this holiday!

Phase 1 Spaghetti

So the hardest part of Phase 1 for me was not being able to have the carbs (breads & pastas especially!).
We started Isagenix in the fall so it was perfect timing for all the yummy fresh produce!! I had never actually made spaghetti out of spaghetti squash before but it was the perfect time to try it out so I did!

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti  (watch how hard this is, are you ready?....)  ;o)

• Cook the spaghetti squash.  (Don't know how?  Get help here.  ps.  I blew one up in the microwave.  Pretty cool.  At least until I had to clean it up.....)  ;o)
• Scrape out seeds and discard.
• Scrape 'strands' (the squash, aka part you eat) out of its skin and put on a plate.
• Cover with spaghetti sauce* & zap it in the microwave (just long enough to warm up the sauce).
• Enjoy!

Fast, easy, healthy, delicious!  Those are the BEST kind of meals!!  :o)

*There are a couple of different options for spaghetti sauce without sugar.  Hunt's has a No Sugar Added one.  This is your best bet when it comes to finding a sauce in most stores and it'll probably be the cheapest too.  There are some 'fancy' brands (probably most of them are ones that are organic too) with no sugar but they are more expensive.  And not all of them are missing sugar like you'd think so make sure you read the ingredients label!!  (ps. You all know what I mean by 'fancy' right??  lol.)

Note:  Spaghetti Squash is really sweet so even when you aren't using much sauce on it you won't miss it since you can eat the squash without sauce and it still tastes good!  (Although I guess you do have to like squash to begin with....lol.)

But wait!!  If you want to get a little more creative, ;o) I've also tried adding:

• Ground turkey!  It's a great way to make it more like 'real' spaghetti and get your protein.  You could even go one step farther and make meatballs out of it!!  Just so you know, the turkey is a little 'off' if you're used to using ground hamburger.  It's kind of sweeter than you expect it to be.
• Italian sausage!  (Look at the ingredients to see which brand is healthiest!  There are ones made from ground turkey or even chicken!)

I actually have all the calorie count for this written down but I can't find my notebook with the info in it so I'll edit this when I find it!  For now, I'd say to use about 1/2 a spaghetti squash and maybe 1 cup of spaghetti sauce and about a 1/2 cup of ground turkey.

Don't forget your raw veggies!  Have a side salad with this or some veggies & dip for an appetizer while you're waiting for your squash to cook.  :o)

Happy Lunches!!

Looking for salad dressings?

Here are some of the salad dressings we've bought since starting Isagenix.  In the beginning it was discouraging to find hardly any dressings with sugar listed as the 5th or lower ingredient!  (Remember, you're looking for sugar to not be in the first 5 ingredients of anything you're eating!!)  :o(  I couldn't believe it!!  But we hunted at a bunch of stores and have since found plenty!  :o)  They may be more pricey than the ones you're used to but remember that you and your health are worth it!!

Note:  Almost all of these we found over in the refrigerated section by the produce/salad and not down the dressing aisle!!   Not to say that other stores wouldn't have them but we found almost all of these at Target and WinCo if you're having a hard time finding them.

Bolthouse Farms has a FANTASTIC selection of dressings and they are ALL 45 calories or less per serving with no added sugar (they use fruit juice instead, awesome!)!!  (Thank you Bolthouse Farms!)  That link will send you to their site to see their yogurt dressings and their vinaigrettes.  My favorites from them are the Raspberry Merlot Vinaigrette & Tropical Mango Vinaigrette.  We also tried their Thousand Island Yogurt, Honey Mustard Yogurt (it's got that mustard-y spicy kick to it, which you probably either like or don't like so be away of that), and Caesar Parmigiano Yogurt (had high hopes for this one but it isn't my most fav.  Bummer).

My hubby's favorite dressing is Wishbone's Light Blue Cheese

Makoto makes a Honey Ginger dressing but it is not my fav either.  :o(  The flavor is good and it has lots of ginger, which is fine, but there is hardly any "sauce".  It's mainly finely chopped pieces of ginger that you're putting on your salad instead of a dressing.  :o(  I wouldn't recommend it for a salad but it could be yummy to marinate chicken of something maybe?  I'll have to try it with the rest of ours.  (We got this one at Smith's.)

And last but not least, Kraft makes a Greek Vinaigrette and my absolute favorite right now is their Classic Balsamic!!  Yum!!

ps.  You can always get the Hidden Valley Ranch packets and make your own ranch dressing with your Kraft Olive Oil Mayo too but this is probably the least healthy one by far (even the ingredients in the mix aren't good for you).  :o(

So head to the store and see if you can find some of these dressings to use on your next salad!  :o)

Grandma B's Veggie Dip Isagenix-ized :o)

This is the Isagenix version of my Grandma B's Veggie Dip.  :o)  It's a family fav of ours and is SUPER easy to make!!

1 cup sour cream (I use Nancy's Organic from WinCo)
1 cup mayo (I use Kraft's Olive Oil mayo)
1 Tbls dried dill weed (if you want to use fresh, you'll have to adjust this amount to about 3 Tbls)
1 Tbls McCormick Bon Appetit Seasoning
1 Tbls chives (optional)

Mix, put in fridge for a while to let flavors blend and enjoy!!

You can also use this and salsa in place of salad dressing on a salad.   Watch for a future post with a recipe for this!  :o)

Cottage Cheese Tip

Want your 2T of salad dressing to go a little farther?  Try adding cottage cheese!!

Since starting Isagenix, we've been buying Nancy's brand from WinCo.  It's organic and I recognize all the short list of ingredients! ;o)  They also make the yogurt and sour cream we've been buying.  I will tell you though that the yogurt is VERY tangy and the cottage cheese is too!!  I don't really eat the cottage cheese plain because of that (it's an acquired taste and I think 'if that's what it's SUPPOSED to taste like, how many not-good-for-you-things have been added to the stuff I've been used to'??!) but you can't really tell when it's mixed into your salad.  :o)  And it's pretty runny (other brands might not be) which helps with your dressing.

Keep an eye on calories but I add maybe 1/8-1/4 cup of it to my salad.  :o)

Omelets

We do a lot of omelets because they are fast and easy, don't take much thought, and I always have the ingredients already on hand.  AND you can adjust these to each of your family members' tastes really easily so everybody's happy!  :o)  Here's what we do at our house:

• 3-4 eggs  (1 egg = about 70 calories  It's a LOT of food!)  :o) 
• 1" cubed of cheese, shredded = about 100 calories (check on your cheese package to see if yours is different)

• deli meats (turkey and ham are our favorites.  Check the packaging for the calories and make sure there isn't any sugar or many other ingredients you don't recognize in the ingredients!  Deli meats are NOT created equal so pick the healthiest one!)
• turkey sausage (check packaging for calories/ingredients)

Then go wild with any veggies!!  For the most part I'm not a big stickler on the calories coming from vegetables. We like a combination of these but again, add what YOU like!  And the more fresh veggies , the better! (if you don't mind them raw, do that to get those live digestive enzymes!):

• sauteed onions
• sauteed mushrooms
• sliced zucchini
• spinach (throw that on at the very end just to wilt it)
• tomatoes (I throw these on at the end too because they are yummiest fresh!)
• peppers (green, red, yellow, spicy...whatever!)

• fresh salsa
• hot sauce (check the ingredients for sugars, etc.)

Enjoy!