Work-outs & Eats

It was another gorgeous day in LA today...75 degrees and sunny made my outdoor work-out fly by with my 4 mile run and 6 sets of stairs.  And if my 2 hour work-out wasn't enough for one day, I decided to go to my first hour long Yoga Class of 2012.  I had an amazing practice at Yogaglo in Santa Monica!  The more I take actual classes versus watching them on FitTV helps me perfect my poses; it's awesome when you're in a pose or going through a vinyasa and the teacher tweaks one thing and you think, 'Well, wow, this is how it's supposed to feel!'  My goal is to take at least 2 Yoga Classes a month, and I'm really going to try for once a week!

After my calorie burning day, I needed to eat something healthy, and this is where the creative part of my day came into play.  This is the first of many recipes I hope to share with everyone.  Basically, I had a bunch of stuff in my fridge and decided to throw it all together to make a satisfying yet healthy meal, created on the fly.

I started off with an arugula salad with fresh roma tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms, and did a roasted red pepper dressing.  That was the easy part ;)

For the main course I started off with a little olive oil, some balsamic vinegar and fresh garlic.  One of the greatest kitchen utensils I've discovered is a garlic press, thank you Caleb!  I put all ingredients in a frying pan at a low heat to pull out the aroma of the garlic, then I added in a pesto sausage from Trader Joe's and some minced onion.  Then I added roma tomatoes and mushrooms (I had a lot in my fridge).  I let the sausage cook and onions soften, and once everything was heated, added in just a little Three Cheese pasta sauce to have some actual sauce.  You could just add in more tomatoes and a little water or red wine if you wanted to keep it completely fresh, and I didn't have to add any salt to anything!  I had already boiled some water and thrown in some cheese ravioli's and shell pasta.  After draining the water from the pasta I always toss the pasta in the sauce right on the stove to keep it warm.  I put a little parmesan cheese on top and voila, a very filling, but healthy meal.

I'm going to guess on the actual measurements but this is about what I used.

Almost 2 Cups loosely packed Arugula 

2 Tbsp Roasted Red Pepper Dressing

1 Roma Tomato, cut up

1 Cup White Button Mushrooms, cut up

About a 1/4 Cup of Onions

1/2 a Pesto Sausage

A dollop of Olive Oil

3 Circles of Balsamic Vinegar (circle the pan)  I get the jug of Balsamic Vinegar from Trader Joes for $4.99, super inexpensive and lasts forever.  I love getting creative with it!

3 Cloves of Garlic

About a 1/3 Cup of Three Cheese Pasta Sauce

1/2 Cup Shell Pasta

10 Ravioli's (I definitely could have used less, I was full after 6)

And that's everything you need for the salad and pasta dish!

The Finished Product!

Enjoy & Namaste.