Black Bean Enchiladas

Happy Easter everyone! I forgot to post my foodie recipe on Friday, so here it is! This week's recipe is for black bean enchiladas. I made this last night because my friend is a vegetarian and can never enjoy my wonderful cooking when he comes over. The original recipe called for chicken broth, but I took that out and added other things that I think make it even better and vegetarian-friendly. Let's get to it.

What you will need:

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, rinsed and drained, divided
• 1-1/2 cups picante sauce, divided
• 12 flour tortillas (6 inches)
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 3 cups shredded lettuce
• 6 tablespoons fat-free sour cream

Here's how you make it:

• In a nonstick skillet, cook and stir onion and green pepper in water with cumin and salt
• for 2-3 minutes or until tender. Mash one can of black beans. Add to
• the skillet with 3/4 cup of picante sauce and other can of beans not mashed; heat
• through.
• Spoon 1/4 cup mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up and
• place, seam side down, in a 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish coated with
• cooking spray. Combine tomatoes and remaining picante sauce; spoon
• over enchiladas.
• Cover and bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with
• cheeses. Bake 5 minutes longer. To serve, place 1/2 cup lettuce on 
• each plate and top with two enchiladas. Garnish each serving with 1
• tablespoon sour cream. Yield: 6 servings.
• 
  

Easy huh? And because it yields 6 servings, you will definitely have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch. Try this out if you want to try a delicious vegetarian meal that even the manliest of mans that live off meat would devour. 

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Think Healthy Every Day

Hello! A nice 3 day weekend is upon us and I could not be happier. It will be a test for me to stay on path over a long weekend, as I will want to go out and be social. Today on Training Thursdays, I will talk about how you can keep your mind thinking healthy every day, even when you don't go to the gym. I will talk about activities to do on your days off and ways to avoid taking steps back.

Earlier in the year, when I started my health kick, I would tend to let days off be free days where I could do whatever I want because I know I was going to the gym the next day. This ended up making me lazy on days off and taking small steps back, forcing me to work harder on gym days and not advance as much as I would of liked. So what did I change? I would either take an early jog before work or go to the bike trail with the family after work for a nice 3 mile walk. Sometimes schedules get hectic and I can't do either of those. In this case, I would focus heavy on my diet.

When you aren't as active throughout the day, you don't need all the calories that you would intake on a normal exercise day. I usually shoot for around 3000 calories on active days, because I am a tall dude and need those calories, but on days off, I would shoot for around 2100 calories. I would also avoid bread as much as possible and absolutely no fast food of any kind. My typical off day diet would consist of:

• Breakfast: Apple, Orange, and big glass of water (very important in the morning)
• Lunch: Chicken breast, green veggie, and potatoes (leftovers from night before)
• Snack: Small candy bar (trick or treat size)
• Dinner: Pork Chops, green veggie, and corn

This is just a quick example, I usually make it a little more fun than that if I can. The key is to also drink a lot of water that day so you don't feel as hungry and snack a lot. On days you workout, snacking and getting hungry is perfectly fine because you need to replenish your body.

So on this long weekend, keep a conscious effort to stay in healthy mode. If you find yourself spending all of Saturday on the couch watching college basketball, drink water whenever you feel the need to eat a snack and get up during commercials or halftime and walk around a little bit. I'm not saying you can't have lazy days, you just have to make sure not to ruin your success by eating a whole pizza to yourself because you have been dormant all day, yes I have been guilty of this in the past. Stay healthy, stay fit, stay strong, and most importantly, stay happy.

* Although tomorrow is my day off, I will still post a recipe for Foodie Fridays. I know this is one of my more popular posts.

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Ingredients to Avoid

TGIF! I'm sure everyone is excited for Friday, except people who work on the weekends, and today on Foodie Fridays, I am going to talk about ingredients you need to avoid when choosing what to eat. I will cover both fast food and food you get at the grocery store. I won't make this too detailed since I know everyone has somewhere to go today. So here's a quick little list to keep in mind over the weekend when you are grocery shopping or eating out.

Avoid These When Eating Out
- Cheeses, unless locally made
- Condiments, except oils and vinegars
- Bread, unless made that day at the bakery
- Red Meat, unless local beef
- Chips and Salsa at Mexican Restaurants, I know this one is brutal for my Houston peeps.
- Only thing healthy at a Chinese Restaurant are the lettuce wraps.
- Sauces, unless homemade, Olive Garden sauces are horrible for you.

Avoid These at the Grocery Store
- If you need a chemistry degree to understand items on an ingredient list, you probably shouldn't eat or drink it.
- Avoid the middle aisles at the store as much as possible, this is where all the processed foods are located.
- "Enriched" or "bleached" listed on your bread is just not good for you.
- Low fat options of food are usually not better for you because they have more calories and sodium most of the time. Sodium and calories combined is a lot worse for you than fat that often is good for you.
- Soups. I have not found one soup that is remotely low in sodium.
- Cereal. Yup, all of them.
- Always get Whole Milk

That should be enough items to piss you off. LOL. This is a pretty strict list to follow, but if you can try to achieve them all, you will definitely notice your stomach getting flatter even without working out. Start off by following a few rules if you want and work yourself up to more.

Although you might feel that I have just taken the fun out of eating, I will tell you that I follow this list pretty strictly and I eat new and exciting meals everyday. Get creative and use Google to find millions of recipes and options for when you go out. Keep it local when choosing a restaurant. Have a good weekend!

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Chili Over Baked Potato

TGIF everyone! Time to share a yummy recipe with you all. This week I am sharing my Chili Over Baked Potato.This is great for many occasions and yields a lot of food. So let's get started!

First you will need:

• 1.5 lbs of ground beef
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 1 can (28oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (16oz) chili beans, undrained
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 4-6 baked potatoes

Once you have everything, get started:

•  In a dutch oven or big pot, cook the beef, onions, and green pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. 
• Drain the grease.
• Add tomatoes, beans, sugar, and seasonings.
• Bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes
• Serve on top of a hot baked potato.

Not too hard, right? This is a pretty healthy recipe for being something so delicious. You can also add butter to the baked potato before you pour the chili on. Have a great weekend and enjoy!

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