Hello and happy New Year! Let’s start 2011 off with a fun giveaway! The nice folks over at iherb.com offered me a $50.00 shopping spree on their website! If you haven’t heard of iHerb before, they are an online company that carries close to 20,000 natural products. They carry vitamins and herbal supplements (vegan, vegetarian, raw and even gluten free), cosmetics and personal care items that are organic and/or cruelty-free as well as over 1000 natural and specialty grocery items. I had a blast shopping on the website! This made my day at work!

I got Navitas Naturals Yacon Power, Arrowhead Mills peanut butter and oatmeal, Chia seeds, NuNaturals Stevia, Eden Organic pumpkin seeds, and a Fit & Fresh salad shaker and chilled drink shaker. Amazing!

The pumpkin seeds make a wonderful afternoon snack. Now that I have a lifetime supply of Stevia, I use it every day in my coffee. I totally did not realize I was ordering 6 boxes at the time!

I’ve also been making fun oatmeal with the yacon slices and chia seeds! The yacon slices taste a bit like pineapple. They are delicious melted in oats.

iHerb offers a huge selection of healthy products at a reasonable price and has really great customer service! My order arrived super fast! I will definitely be ordering from iHerb in the future!

Giveaway!

iHerb is offering one of you a $50 shopping spree!

How to enter:

1) Head to iherb.com and let me know two products you would choose!

2) Follow iherb on Twitter and let me know below.

3) Tweet this giveaway. “Win a $50 @iherb shopping spree from @MissyMaintains! Enter here: http://bit.ly/enjoQm”

I will choose a winner on Monday, January 10. Good Luck!

This giveaway is open to US residents only.

Related posts:

1. Swanson Health $50 Gift Card Giveaway!
2. Saki Celebration and iHerb Winner!
3. Wolfgang Puck Soup Gift Basket Giveaway!

Happy Thursday! I am all energetic right now since I started my morning off with Core Fusion Cardio! I did it in the comfort of my own home courtesy of YogaVibes.com! It was just like being in class except I got to wear less and blast my own music! I seriously never sweat so much from any other exercise DVD at home! My neighbors below me probably hate me after all of the mountain climbers but they will have to get used to it! By the way, you can download a free class on YogaVibes by using the code, FBFREE. You must all try this class! Speaking of free, it is Thrifty Thursday! I will post some free samples and then talk about food!

• Free “A Little Bit of Philly” tote bag
• Free Saladworks T-shirt
• Free sample of O.N.E. organic all-in-one skin care
• Free Ready-to-Shine Gift Pack with Pledge wipes (1st 3000 entries)
• Equinox gym is free tonight for everyone! You can try intensati at the Union Square location!

Enjoy your freebies! I think my food from yesterday is worth sharing too so let’s move onto breakfast! I am still on a little oatmeal kick. It is cheap and fills me up all morning!

This bowl contained 1/4c plain oats, 1/2 of a banana, Tropical Traditions Coconut Peanut Butter, and Navitas Naturals Camu Power. Did you know Camu Camu fruit has more natural Vitamin C than any other food source on the planet? It gave my oatmeal a slight citrus flavor. Pretty good! 

For lunch, I picked up a quick sandwich from the health food store in the morning since I knew I would be spending the entire lunch hour getting my hair cut.

Hello hummus!

I snacked on some popchips later in the afternoon!

After work, I tried a class at Equinox called Rockin Models! I am going to save the review for next week since the instructor gave me her Rockin Models DVD to review as well! Let’s just say my legs are very sore today!

I made an easy dinner when I got home thanks to my good old microwave! I heated up some frozen veggies and a Dr. Praeger’s veggie burger. I crumbled the burger up over a big salad! I added some Riceworks chips on the side for something to munch on. Gotta love my 5-minute meals!

I had a Musselman’s Totally Fruit Mixed Berry applesauce for something sweet after dinner. I like to add chocolate to everything.

Musselman’s hooked me up with 2 new flavors of applesauce to try a few days ago. I also got a cute tote and calendar!

I got to try Healthy Picks Granny Smith and Totally Fruit Mixed Berry!

Disclaimer: Musselman’s provided me with the applesauce at no cost to review.

Official Description:

Our Healthy Picks apple sauce line is designed specifically for women with active, healthy lifestyles, while Totally Fruit offers a scrumptiously sweet taste without any high fructose corn syrup (naturally sweetened with fruit juice). Whether you’re just getting back from the gym or simply in need of an afternoon snack, treat yourself to a quick snack that won’t leave you feeling guilty.  These new flavors are packed with essential nutrients and they taste great.

Both flavors of applesauce were delicious and contain just 70 calories. I always need something sweet after dinner so I’ve been enjoying these almost every night for dessert! They also make a good pre-workout snack.

Since I am all about deals and samples today, here is a coupon if you would like to try either flavor of applesauce. I suggest trying it with some chocolate chips added in! Perfect fall treat!

What is your favorite fall dessert?
How do you use applesauce? Do you cook with it, eat it plain, add chocolate??

I am choosing the winner of the Body by Bethenny DVD tomorrow! Bye for now!

Related posts:

1. Winners and Thrifty Thursday!
2. Thrifty Thursday and 3 Winners!
3. Core Fusion Yoga DVD Winner and Thrifty Thursday!

Yesterday I was sitting at work thinking about how I would love to cook up a delicious dinner and post about it today! I have not cooked in ages and thought you guys would be so proud of me. I was thinking about all of the dinners I used to make:

Mexican Salads

Whole Wheat Pasta with Veggies

Homemade Pizza

Panko Breaded Chicken

Spiralized Zucchini Pasta

I guess I am pretty capable of cooking decent dinners! So…what happened between now and then? Laziness! Sometimes it just seems worth the extra couple of dollars to pick up dinner from somewhere else! I also find it hard to grocery shop and buy all of the ingredients because who knows what I will be in the mood for that particular night. Sometimes I end up spending more when I grocery shop because I don’t use half of the veggies I bought. I know the solution to this is to meal plan but I just don’t want to do that. Sometimes I get home from work and feel like going out to happy hour! I don’t want the stress of knowing I was supposed to cook that night! I’m sorry but I’m not sorry.

Instead of cooking my fancy meal last night, I got home and had Cheerios.

It was the best lazy dinner ever. I got home from the gym at 8:30 so the last thing I felt like doing was cooking! I also was not very hungry because I had a big lunch.

I got a turkey wrap from the Westside Market that ended up being big enough for 2 people. I ate the whole thing anyway just because it was good! I was secretly happy when they messed up and used mayo instead of mustard. I never use mayo for obvious reasons but I do love it every now and then! I was stuffed after my wrap but the Westside Market is across the street from The Lite Choice so I was forced to stare at the store while I was eating. I could not resist! 

Sometimes I feel guilty for having TLC after lunch even when I am already stuffed. Then I realize it is only 80 calories which is less than a glass of wine! Bring on the soft serve!

The only meal I really “cooked” this week was breakfast!

And it was heavenly! I cooked 1/2 cup oats with a white nectarine and Tropical Traditions Coconut Peanut Butter. See…I am a good cook!

One more reason I cook less than last year- there is a Whole Foods next door to both gyms I take intenSati at! It is very hard to leave Equinox, look at Whole Foods, hear my belly grumble after an intense workout, and not walk in! This occurs 3 nights a week. I made a promise to myself I would only walk in there once a week to save the dough. I gave in on Monday.  I made a giant salad and attempted to bring it home on the subway. I probably ate 1/4 of it while wandering Whole Foods but still ended up with this:

I bought some delicious new salad dressing while shopping around WF:

Nice, short ingredient list and only 14 calories!

I totally brought my salad home instead of eating it all at Whole Foods just so I could enjoy a glass of wine (or two) with dinner!

Much more enjoyable on a plate instead of in a cardboard box! The new salad dressing and wine helped too.  I feel like it is worth the $8.00 to get to choose from 50 salad bar ingredients and create an awesome dinner in 5 minutes or less. Maybe once it gets colder out I will start to cook more but for now, I will enjoy my take-out and prepared food!

Do you tend to cook more when it is colder outside?

Do you prefer to spend a few more dollars for convenience or do you enjoy taking the time to cook?

Don’t forget to enter my Live the Live You Love Ticket Giveaway!

Related posts:

1. Missy Cooks
2. Do Not Stick Plastic Spoons in Blenders!
3. Kale Salads and Yogurt Combos!

Happy Friday! It is time to announce the winner of the Bollywood Boogie Workout DVD!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random integers, generated with replacement:

 3

Timestamp: 2010-08-20 14:12:03 UTC

3- Erin from A Girl and Her Mutt! Congrats Erin! Please send me an email with your address and I will ship out your DVD!

Week in Review

Let’s start with some food talk. I am happy to say that I brought both breakfast and lunch every day this week! I only ate dinner at home once but a girl’s gotta start somewhere right? It’s been months since I’ve had oatmeal at work but it really is the most affordable breakfast. I forgot how much I missed it!

I added banana, Navita’s Naturals Trail Mix, and Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter. Thank you to Amie for sending me so many packets of this stuff! Amazing!

For lunch I brought turkey sandwiches, veggie burger wraps, and tuna in a pita! I also always brought some popchips to munch on.

Dinner included a wonderful Whole Foods salad:

Of course I went to Friday’s one night for cheap drinks! I got a usual salad for dinner so that I could enjoy this:

That thing is an entire day’s worth of calories but sometimes a dessert like that is just necessary. I had about half of it and enjoyed every single bite.  I don’t know how people can eat one bite of a real dessert and feel satisfied. If something is good, I’m not stopping after one taste! Props to anyone who can have a warm, soft cookie topped with ice cream, Oreo’s, hot fudge, and whipped cream and feel satisfied after a spoonful! That’s just not me. You only live once!

As far as exericse goes, I went to intenSati Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and today! I took a nice rest day on Wednesday since I hadn’t taken one in about 10 days! I told you I love Equinox. Today’s class was amazing. Patricia (the creator) is due to have her baby in 2 weeks and was there at 6:30 am to sub for Natalia! She was still able to do so many of the dance movements!! Love it!

Monday Announcement!

In other news, I have a really exciting Monday coming up! In the morning I am going to be filmed doing intenSati! Natalia (the teacher I mentioned above) is a Lululemon Ambassador and will be the star of their promotional musical! They will be filming her teaching intenSati so I get to be one of 10 people in the background! I also get this free Lululemon tank out of it!  

After that I will be heading to Philly for the Phillies game! My mom got invited to do Zumba with the Philly Phanatic at the game that night!! My mom got to choose a few Zumba instructors to dance with her.  I am going to learn the routine and dance too! Scary but exciting! I just want to meet Chase Utley and Cole Hamel (maybe sneak them kisses too). I will try to get some nice pictures and video!

1) Can you eat one bite of a dessert and feel satisfied?
2) What baseball player would you love to kiss?

Have a nice weekend!

Related posts:

1. Bollywood Boogie Workout Review & Giveaway!
2. Office Treat Temptations!
3. The Perfect Monday

Hey everyone. I thought I’d share some of my Passover meals with you from the past couple of days!

Passover started at sundown on Monday so I made sure to load up on some carbs during the day! I had a big bowl of oatmeal with baked apples and cottage cheese for breakfast.

I went to Amy’s Bread for lunch and got a delicious hummus salad. I had a freshly baked organic whole wheat roll on the side.

Hi Daisy! She found a new home

On Monday, I did not go to Passover Seder because I did not want to take 2 full days off of work. I decided to go on Tuesday instead. I made my own dinner at home after some Core Fusion Cardio.

I started off with Miso Soup.

I liked that this only had 25 calories but it also had no taste! I tried to be good and buy low sodium but I ended up having to add my own salt. Oh well.

I also made a big plate of veggies! I enjoyed my “Passover dinner.”

Yesterday I took the day off so I went to Core Fusion, the dentist, and dermatologist in the morning and to Passover Seder at night. I had a slice of matzoh before my wonderful Core Fusion Cardio class! My doctor appointments did not go so well…had to get a biopsy for a mole that looked funny and have 2 cavities! I’ve never had a cavity before! Wahhh  

I stopped for a yummy salad during my adventures in the pouring rain and wind.

Around 3:00, I headed into Long Island for dinner. It was at my brother in law’s house.  I did not take pictures but we had a ton of delicious food! Everything from matzoh ball soup to brisket to chicken to sweet potatoes, etc. There were probably about 15 different desserts! Yumm. It was a lot of fun.

This morning I made a mushroom and Laughing Cow omelet with some whole wheat  matzoh for breakfast!

Lunch was a quinoa salad with roasted broccoli, chickpeas, lemon & feta cheese. This was delicious! I was excited when my sister told me quinoa was kosher for Passover. It looks like a grain but technically is not!

That’s it! I remember Passover used to be so hard for me to keep but now I am enjoying it. It also keeps me from eating cereal at 11:00 at night for no reason! This is good timing since I will be on the beach in a few weeks!

1) Do you celebrate Passover? Do you keep it?

2) If you celebrate Lent, what did you give up? Did you keep it?

Related posts:

1. Sicky Eats!
2. Equinox Classes and Pre-Passover Sushi
3. Soup Craze!