The Fit Girl's Kitchen

Welcome, Fall. This is my new favorite breakfast jam.


It's warm, it's hearty, and it's easy. I want to be *over* pumpkin but I'm just not. Sorry Buzzfeed.

I made this up the other week, and it smelled SOOOO amazing - but tasted pretty terrible. The secret was a little bit of sweet and a little bit of salt.  (Warning - if you are anti sugar and refuse to use honey or a sweetener, this will probably not taste that awesome. Pumpkin itself is pretty blah.)


I threw in some honey after it heated up (amazing) and some salted pepitas just for picture taking purposes, and they just MADE it come together. So yum.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

1/2 - 2/3 cup Bob's Red Mill Oat Bran Hot Cereal (also have used steel cut oats)
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 Tbs canned pumpkin
1 tsp pumpkin spice (nutmeg or cinnamon also work well)
Drizzled honey
Salted pepitas (aka roasted pumpkin seeds)
1 banana
*as always, these are guesstimates. Play with your portions, you aren't baking anything.


Mix the oats and milk first, then add the canned pumpkin. Add pumpkin spice and finish stirring.



Heat for 2 minutes, then stir, heat 1 minute more.


Drizzle in honey, stir and top with pepitas and sliced bananas.



Pumpkin is a great source of dietary fiber, as well as Vitamin A and beta-carotene (for those peepers). For some extra protein, I sometimes also add in hemp seeds.

Enjoy & happy Autumnal Equinox!

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So I am one of those people who likes cold food. Cold pizza, cold pasta, cold sandwiches. I've even been known to order iced coffee in the winter. I know, I'm crazy.

One of my favorite summer foods that gets me jazzed is cold soup. I always forget about the existence of gazpacho (mainly since we spend half of our year in the midwest in denial that we live in a tundra) and I get so excited when I remember that it is a thing.


This is my first time actually making it myself, and it was SUPER easy. Everything goes right into the blender. I also let it chill in the fridge for a few hours before we had it for dinner.

For those who follow my Instagram feed and warned me that my mint would take over - well played. It has gone WILD.


Be prepared for several mint-based posts in the coming weeks while I try to use some of this up. I also wanted to put cucumber in this recipe but didn't have one on hand (the onslaught of zucchini in my fridge fooled me) and I am definitely going to incorporate that next time. Enjoy!

Watermelon and Mint Gazpacho Soup

4 cups cubed watermelon
12 mint leaves, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
3 tablespoons honey
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp worcester sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste


So you may be asking, why am I chopping all of this stuff if its just going in a blender? I like my soups a little chunkier, so I didn't want my blender to have to work too hard. Plus, the blender isn't that large so the stuff needs to fit in nicely.


Start with blending the watermelon first. I reserved about a cup or so to put in at the very end to make it chunky again. The watermelon juice will also help pull the harder vegetables into the blades. (I have blending techniques DOWN. See here).


After the watermelon is blended, add the mint. (I used the lower settings on my blender/food processor for all - puree to start, then slowly worked my way down to mix, only for about 15 seconds at a time.)

Chop the mint to start to release the herb flavor BEFORE it goes in.


Add the rest of the ingredients, working in batches. I added mine in the order shown, raw vegetables separately. (Red pepper, onion, olive oil, ginger, honey, garlic salt, red pepper, worcester sauce)


Once all is blended, add the remaining watermelon and mix on low to give the soup some texture.


Stick er in the fridge to chill for an hour or so, then garnish with fresh mint and serve.



So yum.

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My weekly yoga teaching schedule is updated each week on the FGK Facebook page, and will be available soon on my FitGirl Wellness site!
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We joined a CSA again this year and I am SO excited about it. We received our first box last night and I was pleasantly surprised and the large quantities we received, since we are so late this year in our growing season.

What is a CSA?

Community-supported agriculture (or CSA; sometimes known as community-shared agriculture) is a locally-based economic model of agriculture and food distribution. Members buy or "pledge" to support one or more local farms, with growers and consumers sharing the risks and benefits of food production.

As a member of a particular farm, I paid a flat rate at the onset of growing season for a share of the anticipated harvest; once harvesting begins, I receive weekly shares of fruits and vegetables. My farm also does weekly egg shares.

This year I chose to split my share with a friend, since the quantities given are more than enough to feed the two people in my household.

Why I LOVE my CSA

I went with the same CSA as last year, Rare Earth Farm out of Belgium, Wisconsin. The farm is only about 40 minutes or so from my house, and they have 12 different pick up locations.

There is one less than 10 minutes from my house, so every Thursday starting this week all the way until the end of NOVEMBER (yes, November!) I go to the house, pick up my box of fresh, beautiful, just harvested vegetables and go home to cook.


Every week my farm puts out a newsletter with what is contained in that week's box, how to best store the produce and recipes that use the items together! It's like Chopped, but not so random, and from a farm down the road. Amazingness.

Why Join a CSA

After supporting local farmers (thumbs up!) it's great to get fresh produce every week. I love hitting up local farmers markets, but there is something extra - a sense of community, belonging - that I like from our CSA. Not to mention, its fun to see what you get every week.


A CSA forces you to cook with new things and expand your boundaries. I had never eaten a turnip in my entire life and had no idea what kohlrabi was until I joined my CSA last year. Every week, I try to make meals from what is given to me - rather than picking and choosing. It's a fun challenge.

A CSA is cost-effective. Last summer, I only went to the grocery store for protein - meats, fish, eggs and grains. I paid $290 for my half share that goes for 21 weeks. So for $13 a week, I get an entire week's worth of produce.

A CSA is FRESH. Sustainable. Organic. LOCAL. My spinach I had last night didn't get picked on a farm in California three weeks ago, and was then shocked, processed/bagged, stored, shipped, stored again and shelved. It was picked less than 48 hours ago and then it went right into my stomach. Believe me when I tell you - you can TASTE it.

It also keeps for WEEKS because, well, it didn't do all the other stuff I mentioned above.


Why not just have a garden and grown your own?

Because I have black thumb. I kill everything. (kidding but not really, I did not inherit my mom's green thumb). I also don't have the knowledge, skills or time that these guys do.

I have an herb garden that works great for now; maybe in the next several years I'll give it a harder try.

So last night I made one of the freshest salads of my life. It was so good I almost cried. (I think I was also very very tired.) It wasn't anything crazy - just stuff from the CSA box - but I decided to make another version for lunch today.


Our farm gave us a recipe for spinach-basil pesto this week, and I decided - why not make a deconstructed pesto salad with the remainder of my farro? (I heart farro right now)

So alas, I give you the simple, delectable...

Deconstructed Pesto Salad 

2 handfuls fresh, torn spinach leaves
Torn fresh basil leaves (to taste; I used about 6 large ones)
3/4 cup cooked farro
Zest from 1/2 a lemon
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1-2 tbs pine nuts
Salt & pepper to taste
Basil infused olive oil found here (or make your own by sticking some basil leaves into an olive oil pourer)
Grated Parmesan (I used Trader Joes shaved cheese blend)


Combine all fresh ingredients in a large bowl.




Mix in olive oil, lemon juice. Mix in cheese. Season with salt & pepper. EAT.



So good. Happy cooking!

xo,

My husband surprised me last night by coming home with a brand new bag of chia seeds - and then saying they were for him and not me. He told me had overheard on a podcast you could make a type of pudding or porridge with them.

"You mean overnight oats?"


Yes something like that. Well I was blown away that he would even want to try this himself and of course went on a long excited chia seed rant about the amazing health benefits of chia (Omega 3s! Antioxidants! Vitamins! Fiber!) and followed him around the kitchen testing new combos in mason jars.

I may have scared him.


The nutritionista in me obviously can't talk enough about the health benefits of chia, but you may be wondering, what are they really and what are "overnight oats"?

What are Chia Seeds?

Chia are edible seeds that come from a desert plant. You can eat them raw, crushed or blended but when you put them in liquid overnight - say with almond milk or yogurt - they expand into this yummy gooey type of pudding.

Sweat Guru posted a fabulous expose on chia this week which highlights its various health benefits. My favorites:

• They aid in weight loss! Chia seeds are known to control your appetite because you will feel fuller, longer, as they expand. 
• Research shows they also slow down the conversion of carbohydrates into sugar, making them a beneficial food for diabetics
• They contain nine percent of the daily value for protein; 13 percent fat (57 percent of which is ALA); and 42 percent dietary fiber. 
• Last but not least, Chia seeds bind to toxins in your intestines, encouraging the bad stuff to pass through!

Banana Chia Overnight Oat Pudding

This is an easy, quick breakfast dish you can prep the night before and grab as you go out the door. It's very simple and you can play around with tons of variations.

Updated Amounts*
I eyeball everything, so when I actually measured ingredients upon request, I had to modify a few times to get it where I wanted it to be. Experiment and combine ingredient amounts to your taste level. Remember the chia will expand.

1/2 a banana
2-3 tablespoons chia seeds
1/3 cup steel cut oats (or oat bran)
1/3-1/2 cup of almond milk (or soy/coconut milk)

*for chunky chia like the one pictured, I used ~3 tbs of chia seeds. I was very full afterwards!



You can sub things like Ezekiel flax in for the oats, soy milk for almond, or even add a little greek yogurt. The chia just needs something liquid to expand it overnight.

Combine in a jar, stir, cover, and refrigerate.


In the morning, top with fresh berries, honey, whatever you please! This was actually sweet enough on its own.





Have you experimented with any other combos? Leave me a note below and maybe it will be featured on FGK!
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