Lynbrook | New Hyde Park | NY

motivation

Recipe of the Week: QUINOA CHILI VERDE

 

Green is good! This vegan Quinoa Chili Verde is filled with tomatillos, poblanos and mildly spiced, and a nice change from the usual chili routine! Bonus – this recipe is vegan!

Prep Time: 10 min          Cook Time: 25 min          Total Time: 35 minutes                Yield: Serves 4 – 6

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil or 3 tablespoons water
  • 1 large white onion, diced
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 heaping teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1 1b. tomatillos, diced or quartered or 1 can (15 oz) crushed
  • 2 poblano or Anaheim peppers, deseeded and diced
  • 1 cup corn (fresh off the cob, frozen or canned)
  • 1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans or pinto beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 cup dry quinoa
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Optional Garnish:

  • avocado, diced
  • bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
  • cashew sour cream

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Saute: In a large pot or dutch oven, heat oil/water over medium heat and saute onions until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic powder, oregano, cumin and chili powder, cook for 1 minute more stirring frequently, or just until spices and herbs become fragrant.
  2. Simmer: Add tomatillos, poblanos, corn, beans, quinoa and vegetable broth, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 – 25 minutes. Remove from heat, uncover and let rest a few minutes before serving.
  3. Serve in individual bowls topped with garnish of choice.

NOTES:

  • Add in a package of organic tempeh for added hardiness. Three Grain Tempeh is my favorite flavor wise.
  • Adjust the spices to your taste. If using broth, you may like it as is, if using water, you may like to add more.
  • Slow-Cooker: This can also be made in the crock pot/slow cooker, add all the ingredients, cover with the vegetable broth and cook on medium or medium-low for 4 hours.

 

Recipe of the Week: Creamy Chicken One-Pot Pasta

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces whole-wheat linguine or spaghetti
  • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 4 cups sliced mushrooms
  • 2 cups sliced Brussels sprouts
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons Boursin cheese
  • 1¼ teaspoons dried thyme
  • ¾ teaspoon dried rosemary
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Directions:
Prep: 35 m
Ready In: 40 m

  1. Combine pasta, chicken, mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, onion, garlic, Boursin cheese, thyme, rosemary and salt in a large pot. Stir in water. Bring to a boil over high heat.
  2. Boil, stirring frequently, until the pasta is cooked and the water has almost evaporated, 10 to 12 minutes.
  3. Remove from heat and let stand, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Serve sprinkled with chives.

 

Nutrition:
Serving size: about 1½ cups each
Per serving: 353 calories; 10 g fat, 42 g carbohydrates, 27 g protein

 

Original recipe can be found here!

Recipe of the Week: Pumpkin Spice Superhero Muffins

“Superhero Muffins” are a staple from the cookbook Run Fast, Eat Slow written by elite runner, Shalane Flanagan, and chef & nutrition coach, Elyse Kopecky. This week, Shalane announced her retirement from professional running; so to celebrate her career, we are sharing this fall ready version of their famous muffins. (Learn more about Shalane here!)

Since it is Turkey Trot Training season here at Peak Performance, this week’s recipe is ready to fuel your body for a long training run on a Saturday morning (or Sunday if that’s your preference).

Makes 1 dozen

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups almond meal
  • 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
  • 6 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup raisins, walnuts or chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper muffin cups.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the almond meal, oats, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt.
  3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree, butter, maple syrup and vanilla.
  4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until completely combined. If using raisins or chocolate chips, fold them in.
  5. Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin cups, filling them to the top.
  6. Bake for 32-35 minutes, until cooked through in the center and browned on top.

 

 

Recipe adapted from “Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow.” by Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky.

Set the Tone with Dynamic Stretching

When walking into the arena to begin exercise, whether that arena is in the gym or the great outdoors, it is important that you set the tone for the day. Your workout needs to begin with a warm-up that compliments the intensity of your exercise. The greatest threat to performance is the lack of preparation or a poor warm-up routine.  When going for a run or walk many people have a routine before they begin exercise: whether that routine is swinging their legs back and forth to create motion around the hips or twisting to the left and right to loosen up their lower back: Whatever it may be, are you consciously thinking about the activity you are about to engage in, the intensity you are about to give, the time in which you plan on exercising for and the current injuries or ailments you are battling at the time?  So much goes in to planning a workout therefore it is essential that equal thought is placed on planning your warm-up resulting in ultimately crushing your planned workout while minimizing injury or local muscle fatigue.

A large part of a dynamic warm-up is neurological in the sense that you are making a mind-to-muscle connection. The dynamic warm-up gives your body ample time to understand and process the stress you are about to place on your body so it can respond with the correct rate of force by recruiting select muscle fibers.  Take the guessing out of the equation and allow your body to go through a 15 minute dynamic warm-up to maximize efficiency.  If you’re going for a run ask yourself, what specific deficits do i have?  When you go for a run do you start to develop tightness around the ankles?  Adding in some ankle mobility would be a good idea with the objective to loosen up the ankles and get them tracking properly to disperse energy into the appropriate areas via tendons and ligaments.  Try performing walking heel raises to improve the elasticity in your calves, butt kicks to wake up the hamstrings, or work on mobility with deep squats to open the ankles and hips.

Everyone’s warm-up will be different and tailored to their specific needs required for the workout. Setting the tone with dynamic stretching  will help prevent injuries and keep your body working at maximal efficiency.

 

-Brandon Ayala, CSCS

Planning Healthy Meals for the Week

We asked Peak Performance’s own Exercise Physiologists about how they have created routine in their lives. From working out, to meal prepping to staying hydrated, read on for their best tips!

 

  1. Create a menu for the week by working around your schedule.

Which meals are going to be eaten at work/school? Are there any events where you may be home too late to cook? Any mornings where breakfast will be on-the-go? I try to pick one recipe for breakfast, maybe two for snacks, and three or four to cycle through for lunch and dinner. This helps create variety in my menu so I’m not bored of salads by Tuesday at dinnertime.

  1. Make a shopping list (and stick to it).

Once you have a menu of meals to prepare, it’s time to hit the grocery store. Do your food shopping from a specific list based on the recipe you are cooking and stick to that list – this will help avoid ice cream from ‘magically jumping’ in your cart. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the average American ends up wasting 25% of the food and beverages they purchase. By making that shopping list specific, you purchase just what you need to cook for the week based on your meal plan.

  1. Prepare your meals ahead of time to save time.

Ever hear of ‘Meal Prep Sunday’? Give yourself an hour or two over the weekend to cook in bulk so you have food prepared for a few days. Start by prepping all of the ingredients together, i.e. if two recipes call for chopped onion, chop it all at once; this will save time instead of going back to chop another 1/2 cup of something. When it’s time to get cooking, look at the recipes and stagger how they are going to be cooked in order to multitask. See what’s going to take the longest in the oven and get that going while work on another dish.

  1. Pack snacks (just in case).

I am a big fan of the second breakfast and always make sure I have something for the ‘witching hours’ between lunch and dinner. When packing your lunch box, add a healthy snack just in case that late morning or afternoon hunger strikes. If you have meals prepared, you will be less likely to reach for treats in the break room at work or head straight for the kitchen when you get home.

 

By Louise Mills-Strasser, MS

Tips for Sticking with Your Exercise Routine

We asked Peak Performance’s own Exercise Physiologists about how they have created routine in their lives. From working out, to meal prepping to staying hydrated, read on for their best tips!

Summer is over it’s back to school and work. Whether you had a break or not, the start of a new (school) year presents a great opportunity to get into a new fitness routine! For everyone who forgot about fitness over the summer, here are a few tips for getting back on track this fall.

  1. Make a plan: “A failure to plan, is a plan to fail!” Take a look at your class/work schedule at the beginning of each week and make a plan to get in some form of exercise at least 3 times throughout the week. Make appointments with reminders on your calendars so you don’t “conveniently forget”, and remember your health is just as important for your future as work and school.
  2. Find a friend: Try to find a workout partner. Working out with a partner is a great way to challenge yourself and can be more fun than working out alone. A partner can help to motivate you to push beyond what you would normally do on your own, as well as hold you accountable on days when you are slacking.
  3. Have a goal: Make short term and long term goals. Long term goals can be losing a certain amount of pounds by the end of the year, or maybe participating in a race like the Massapequa Turkey Trot 5k we do every November here at Peak (wink wink nudge nudge cough cough). Short term goals can be even more helpful if the long term goals seem overwhelming. Making it to the gym 3 times in a week, or trying a yoga/spin/kickboxing class are some short term goals that are easy to accomplish and can get you on the right track.
  4. Keep it short: Days are already packed with school, work, homework, family and social obligations, no need to spend hours in the gym. As long as you stay consistent throughout the week, you can get great results from shorter (15-30 mins) workouts. Have an idea of what you want to do before you get to the gym. Walk in, be efficient, stay focused on your workout, and keep up the intensity.
  5. Eat and Sleep: Eat and Sleep. That’s it. Try to maintain a balanced diet, and make sure your drinking enough water. Plan rest days throughout the week and try get a healthy amount sleep each night (at least 6-8 hours). Recovery is key for achieving your fitness goals!

 

By David McCalla

Recipe of the Week: Herbed Lentil Quinoa Burgers

Big thanks to Peak Performance Fitness member, Barbara W., for sharing her recipe!

A great way to enjoy BBQ season and have a vegan meal that tags all your micro nutrient needs!

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 15 oz can red lentils
  • 1 cup Cooked Quinoa
  • 1 Small Carrot
  • ½ Bell Pepper, minced
  • 1 Scallion, Chopped
  • 2 TBSP Cilantro, Chopped
  • 2 TBSP Parsley, Chopped
  • ¼ TSP Salt
  • Fresh Ground Black Pepper
  • ½ Cup Cornmeal
  • 2 TBSP Olive Oil

Directions:

  1. Pulse the lentils and quinoa in a food blender until it holds together, if the mixture is too dry, add a tsp of water
  2. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and stir in the carrot, bell pepper, scallion, cilantro and salt and pepper
  3. Shape the mixture into 4 patties, refrigerate for an hour
  4. Spread the cornmeal into a shallow dish and dredge the burgers to coat
  5. Add the olive oil to a heated nonstick skillet
  6. Cook burgers until golden, about 5 minutes each side
  7. Serve however you like, on buns, over salad or plain as is!

Nutrition Facts:
Serving Size: 1 patty

  • 282 calories
  • 9g Fat
  • 42g Carbs
  • 12g protein

 

Tips for Making a Habit of Drinking Water

We asked Peak Performance’s own Exercise Physiologists about how they have created routine in their lives. From working out, to meal prepping to staying hydrated, read on for their best tips!

Developing a routine with hydration should be as essential as brushing your teeth in the morning or washing your face at night.  Too many people don’t hydrate their bodies enough on a day to day basis; this is why it’s one of the very first things we address when beginning an exercise program at Peak. Many times I will ask a client “how many cups on average do you think you have a day?” Many people will answer with “3 bottles a day” and point to the water bottle they have in their hand, whether it be an 8oz Poland spring or a giant Yeti 36oz.  Many people will admit they don’t get enough water, but somehow struggle with remembering to drink.  Others even claim they don’t want to be burdened with going to the restroom more frequently, but when I pry I find many of them are going to the restroom frequently at night but not during the day.  That is due to the body slowing down at night and renal function may to, but what about the waking hours?  Those missed opportunities to nourish your body, shouldn’t we focus on that? My general recommendation to new clients starting out is 8 x 8 oz cups per day; this is commonly more than they are used to. However, there are no actual hard and fast guidelines due to the fact that number depends on many factors such as body mass, the rate at which you sweat, heat and humidity, exercise intensity and duration.  Regardless of your water intake, since everyone’s is different, developing a routine in order to hit that mark every day is the key piece.

Reminders can be very helpful when developing a new habit.  I love setting a reminder in my phone, whether it’s for a meeting, remembering to wish my cousin good luck, and yes, drinking water. Each reminder has its significance in my life. Many times it’s the little things in life we take for granted; our bodies will continue to run even if we neglect it, but how can we increase its efficiency? What we don’t realize is that these unique systems that make up the human body are all integrated by the vast circulation that is dependent upon water.  Physiologically nothing would happen without the presence of water; therefore shouldn’t it be a higher priority?  Many of us drink a cup of coffee before we even have a cup of water in the morning.  Make hydration a priority in your life; add it as a reminder in your phone every hour to drink.

If you are utilizing a reusable water bottle, try this tip for holding yourself accountable: each time you drink your entire water bottle, place a rubber band around it.  This is a simple way to track your fluid intake throughout the day.  This will also give you an idea of how much water you normally drink on days when you are exercising light or hard and days when you are busy vs. days you are not busy.  Find out what’s holding you back from drinking more water because we all can use the extra hydration.

Brandon Ayala, CSCS