Happy Leap Day & Update

Good afternoon on this "extra" Leap Year Day!

To take advantage of it, I decided today I  am all about getting back on track with my healthy living goals, life and work. I just want to get back to what's important and that includes being more mindful & becoming more of a minimalist. I'm finding when you have less clutter in your mind, home and body it's amazing what that "space" can do for you. I have de-cluttered quite a bit around our home but still need to do more. 

After a longer walk/run this morning I went grocery shopping so I can menu plan. I'm still following the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle and eating my Juice Plus everyday. My focus is on whole and minimally processed foods. I did gain a few pounds back the last few weeks and I want to lose them again ASAP. I want to continue to avoid gluten and dairy and have been trying to do so since I did The D14 back in December.  I plan to do another round very soon - stay tuned :)

Something else I added into our daily life last fall was essential oils. I still use them essential every day and am loving them with every use! I just ordered more of my favorite from Plant Therapy called Germ Destroyer from their KidSafe line. Between our Juice Plus and the essential oils I really feel that's why we've been staying as healthy as possible over the winter. 

Speaking of winter, I'm ready for it to come to a close and am very much looking forward to spring cleaning!

Enjoy the day!

~Carly

Recipe: DIY "Farmington Valley Salad" - THM (E)

Well helloooooo.

Yes, yes - I took another hiatus but I'm back and I promise you won't be disappointed with this recipe I've returned with! 

But first a quick update with where I'm at. I'm bouncing a bit weight-wise but still feeling really good. I'm taking my Juice Plus every day and using my Complete shakes sparingly as I'm going to do the D14 in a few weeks again! I'm staying as much gluten and dairy free as I can and I have to say it's keeping me feeling deflated most of the time which is great!! 

Ok enough about that. On to this new salad I'm obsessed with. Not sure I've mentioned this before but I grew up in Farmington, Connecticut. There's a bakery in the corner as you come into our town and it was called Ann Howard's. It's now called Truffles and they also have a location in Avon, CT which is where I first had the Farmington Valley Salad with my BFF, Dana.

It's delicious! And of course a salad made by anyone else but you always tastes better - am I right? Yes - it's just true. Since I live close to the area but not quite close enough to get this salad as often as I crave it I decided to experiment and create my own. 

Well, clearly certain ingredients aren't hard to re-create...ya know like lettuce. Heh. Sorry - I'm silly. However it's always the dressing that is the hardest to re-create. But thanks to the wonderful world of people on Pinterest I found a really great recipe for the balsamic dressing that I love!! Yay!

So here is the recipe for the dressing from Brianne at Cupcakes and Kale Chips.
 

I'm just going to tell you now to double the ingredients because you're going to be sad when it runs out. Trust me. Speaking from experience here :(

I used 0% plain greek yogurt and only had regular yellow mustard.  I added garlic powder to mine as well. I whipped mine up all in the food processor.

For the ingredients for the salad, you'll need:

1. Any kind of lettuce or greens you like.  Here I used romaine and baby spinach.  The salad at Truffle's comes with mixed greens so next time I will make sure I use those :)
2. Grilled chicken
3. A handful of red grapes sliced in half
4. A pinch of dried cranberries
5. A tablespoon or two of feta cheese or any other type of hard cheese (remember for THM it's an E setting so have to watch the fat grams!)
6. 1/4 to a half of a granny smith apple chopped
7. The delicious, glorious, creamy balsamic dressing recipe
Note: The original salad comes with sliced almonds but I omitted them because I had none and I kept the fat content down for the Trim Healthy Mama E meal.
 

Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl to toss

 

All tossed with the dressing - snapped the pic while eating!

This salad is colorful, crunchy and just so tasty.  I will definitely be making this quite often.

For THM it's an E with the added fruit and the lower fat dressing.  Be mindful of the honey in the dressing, too.  I tolerate it well but you can add any sweetener of your choice if you do not wish to use honey.

There you have it - let me know if you make it and what you think!
~Carly