meal planning mania

This past weekend, Mark and I had planned another long hike; however, due to the weather, we had to cancel. The rainy season of Southern California, which I really had no idea existed, is upon us. We chose instead to spend the whole weekend hanging out at home which lead me to doing one thing: meal planning. I've learned that it is one of my favorite hobbies. I found so many recipes that I want to try which led me to planning out dinner for the whole month of February. I enjoyed that so much that I continue on and planned out breakfast for the whole month...I think I'm a little obsessed... little might be an understatement. I then thought why not share it with everyone. During the month of February, my goal is to have weekly postings on Fridays about the upcoming weeks meal plan. Each plan will include breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks (all healthy and clean). I will also be posting a weekly healthy sweet-treat. 

Questions: Do you usually meal plan for the week? Would you find someone meal planning for you helpful?

semi-homemade calzones

I said in my last blog that I was going to be trying a new recipe for dinner last night, and if all went well, I said I would post the recipe. Thankfully everything turned out as I hoped; my husband even gave it two thumbs up! 

The recipe is for semi-homemade calzones. I calling it semi-homemade because the recipe calls for store-bought pizza crust. I have a recipe for homemade pizza crust, but sometimes you just need something quick. Here's my version of the recipe:

Semi-Homemade Calzones (adapted from Iowa Girl Eats):

Ingredients:

• 1 package of whole-wheat pizza dough 
• 1/2 cup pesto
• 1/2 pound Italian chicken sausage 
• 1/2 cup mushrooms
• 1/4 cup artichokes 
• 1/4 sun dried tomatoes 
• 1/4-1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees 
• On a floured surface roll out the pizza dough until is about 1/8 inch thick 

• Spread the pesto evenly on the dough 

• Place the chicken sausage, mushrooms, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, and cheese on of half of the circular-shaped dough

• Fold the non-topping side of the dough over the side with toppings and press down on the edges and twist up in order to keep the toppings in
• Place calzone on a baking sheet. I sprayed mine just to prevent sticking
• Transfer to oven for 25 minutes  

(as you can see I'm not the perfect calzone-maker)

Remove from oven and enjoy!

oats

I tried something new (for me) for breakfast this morning, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out and tasted. I have been searching for healthy breakfast recipes that contained oats, but I haven't really found any that I liked. Oats are so good for you, but to be honest, I'm really not of fan of having little flavor in my oats. I've tried adding fruit and other things , but it still just tastes so bland to me. I've also tried the flavored pre-packaged oats which I really like, but I don't like the fact that I may be consuming added sugar from eating it. I'm trying to eat more clean, but it can be hard.at times especially when you could live on sugar like me.

The recipe I tried today is an inspiration from a sparkpeople recipe. I changed what they said a little. Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Quick Oats 
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1 banana
• 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp. natural peanut butter

Directions:

• Slice banana
• Combine oats, soy milk, and banana. Microwave for 2 minutes 
• Remove from microwave and stir in cocoa powder and peanut butter 

I didn't even have to add Truvia or honey; it was sweet enough just like this! Finally a way I can a enjoy oats without all the extra. The cocoa gives me the chocolate taste I think I need, and it also provides an extra little bonus because it's full of antioxidants and a few other benefits! 

My workout today included P90x's Kenpo and a Leaner Legs workout from the Nike Training app. I downloaded this FREE app yesterday and am very pleased with it. It provides several goal options such as get lean, get toned, get strong, or get focused. It also allows you to choose your level, and it then provides you with several workouts to choose from. 

For lunch today I had garlic naan bread with eggplant hummus, 1/2 cup of mango, 1 cup baby carrots, 1 boiled egg, and a string cheese. I call that a well-balanced meal. I'm so addicted to Naan bread. I went grocery shopping at Trader Joe's with a friend once and she told me about it. So, I bought some, and now I buy it every time I go! Thankfully Trader Joe's has cheap produce otherwise I would be making a trip just for the naan. 

I'm trying a new recipe for dinner tonight. If all goes well, I'll be posting the recipe soon! 

Question of the day: 

What is your favorite healthy breakfast? 

what a weekend.

This weekend was quite the weekend. On Friday night Mark and I had made plans to go to dinner and a movie. Both of us have been wanting to see Zero Dark Thirty which is about the death of Osama bin Laden. Recently we have been sucked into watching the tv series Homeland (if you haven't watched it, you should) which made me want to see this movie even more. We also went and ate Chinese that night. We got home pretty late considering we wanted to be up early to go on a hike the next day.

On Saturday was our biggest hike yet. Mark and I have really taken up the hobby of hiking; our goal is to hike 12 mountains this year, and so far we have conquered four. Here are some pictures from our previous three hikes..

Mt. Woodson, 2881 ft.

Cowles Mountain, 1594 ft.

Iron Mountain, 2696 ft.

 I enjoy hiking because it is great exercise and brings a sort of accomplishment. I also like the fact that it humbles me. It's crazy just to look out and think God created all this, and it's huge. It makes me and all my problems seem so small. The hike we completed on Saturday was called Mt. Santiago. It's located in Orange County which is north of where we live. This hike was 15 miles total with a 4,000+ ft elevation gain. We took our sweet babies with us, and surprisingly they both did well. We were not concerned a bit about Maxwell, but I had doubts about Jude. He persevered just as we did  which made me so proud of him. Once we got closer to the top, we had to go through snow. This was exciting to us though because our dogs have never seen snow. They didn't seem to mind it...actually, Jude plopped  right down on it. He also enjoyed eating it (the dog eats everything). It took us about 4.5 hours to reach the summit; this time included several breaks. Once we reached the top, we were able to see LA way off in a distance. I was pretty excited about that. We took a few snapshots while up at the top, ate a snack, and then headed down. On the way up, there is an optional path that leads you directly to a waterfall. We opted to see it on our way down to ensure that we had plenty of time to reach the top and get down before it became dark. We were running behind schedule a bit which meant that we had to keep a brisk pace going down. Thankfully we made it in time to see the waterfall and get back to our car with enough light from sunset. I knew I was hurting on this trip, but it really hit me when we got home and later that evening. I'm not joking when I say that it took all I had to roll over in bed.

Here are some pictures from Mt. Santiago, 5689 ft,

For the hike Mark did packed some food for us. We both knew we were going to need to fuel throughout the day to have enough energy. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of our food bags, but I didn't. Our bags each included two cliff bars, two bags of trail mix, two string-cheese, a bag of fresh mango, a bag of grapes, a bag of carrots, and a a bag of turkey jerky. This seems like a lot of food, but we managed to eat most of it. I didn't eat some of mine.

On Sunday, we went to church, then grabbed a sandwich at Jersey Mikes before heading to Mission Bay in San Diego where we were to meet up with Todd and Amy Neibel. They were in the area with Todd's company (FS), and they invited us to go on a whale watching tour with them. It was great to see some  familiar faces. After the tour, they took us out to dinner at one of our favorites: Hash House A Go Go. This place has southern-style food with a twist, and the portions are HUGE. It was nice to catch up with them and visit for the amount of time we had.

On Monday, Mark had the day off. I spent the day menu-planning, grocery shopping, and cleaning. Mark and I also watched the movie Into the Wild which was actually based on a true-story. It was slow but good. For dinner, we had my leftovers from Hash-House...yes, I actually had enough leftovers for Mark and I to each have a meal for dinner.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

and so it begins.

Well last time I started blogging, I didn't really ever stick with it. I wish I had...I had ideas, but just never felt like writing. Maybe it just wasn't God's timing yet. Now after having some much needed motivation, I'm going to start again. Originally I wanted to write about God and what I learned about Him in life. I also wanted to use my blog as a way to remember my time in California. I still want to write about these topics because God is my life, and this experience in California is definitely worth remembering, but I feel as though I could use this blog more to encourage others and love them. My plans are to write about of course what I said above, but also about life in general, food, and exercise. Who knows what else will come along with this whole blogging thing, but that's a start as to what you can expect.

So you may be asking why I named my blog Joy Junkie? What type of name is that? I chose to give it this title for a couple of reasons. The first reason being that God gives us joy, and I really like when he does. It seems to make life look different when God becomes our greatest delight. I like what Sam Storms said about joy at the 2010 Desiring God Conference for Pastors. He described joy as "a deep, durable delight in God that ruins you for anything else. Everything [else] becomes sour. It ruins your taste buds for all other pursuits of pleasure." I don't know about you, but I really wish I had more joy. Where did the idea for Joy Junkie come from? My favorite word used to be  joy. During the time joy was my favorite word, I really dreamed of having my own bakery (I still do). I used to think of what I would name it, and one day the name Joy Junkie came into my mind, and so that's why I chose this particular name.

I want to leave you with my ultimate goals for this blog as a way to keep myself focused on what's really important. They are to bring glory to God and to encourage others in life. I hope you will see it as that.

"You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine." Psalm 4:7

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31