{"id":4295,"date":"2012-01-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-17T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/?p=4295"},"modified":"2012-01-17T09:16:38","modified_gmt":"2012-01-17T14:16:38","slug":"staying-balanced-healthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/?p=4295","title":{"rendered":"Staying Balanced &amp; Healthy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wlWriterHeaderFooter\" style=\"float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 4px 0px;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; width: 450px; height: 80px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/widgets\/like.php?href=http:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/?p=4295\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Staying balanced &amp; healthy isn\u2019t always easy.\u00a0 Life happens.\u00a0 Meetings pop up or one of the kids always seems to need something last minute for a project, yet they neglect to share that until I am in my jammies.\u00a0 Staying balanced &amp; healthy to me means eating right 80 percent of the time and hitting the gym\/running 5-6 times per week.\u00a0 Even if I don\u2019t have time for a 60 minute workout, anything works.\u00a0 Yoga, a walk, stretching.\u00a0 Sometimes there is an added challenge having to follow the gluten-free diet, but I have learned over the past 6 years what foods to keep on hand for quick, healthy meals.<\/p>\n<p>When I write a weekly menu plan, it is with the best intentions.\u00a0 There are many times I make what is listed, but don\u2019t end up eating it myself for whatever reason.\u00a0 Sometimes it is simply due to the fact that I am feeding the kids early so they can get to their respective activities. When this happens, I will take 20 minutes to put together a healthy combination of foods that are usually naturally gluten-free.<\/p>\n<p>Foods I keep on hand for busy nights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Brown rice (I either cook over the weekend &amp; freeze or buy the pre-cooked frozen \u2013 I like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.traderjoes.com\/\">Trader Joe\u2019s<\/a>.)<\/li>\n<li>Canned beans \u2013 black, garbanzo, kidney<\/li>\n<li>Fresh vegetables for salads or roasting<\/li>\n<li>Corn tortillas for mini wraps or bake for homemade tortilla chips<\/li>\n<li>Tuna<\/li>\n<li>Chicken breast \u2013 I slice and freeze for fast cooking on busy nights.<\/li>\n<li>Quinoa \u2013 Cooks in 10-15 minutes and is a nutritional powerhouse.<\/li>\n<li>Burgers \u2013 I form ground turkey, bison or beef into patties &amp; freeze so they are ready to go.<\/li>\n<li>Nuts \u2013 Walnuts are my current favorite.<\/li>\n<li>Avocado \u2013 I love to spread avocado on gluten-free toast &amp; sprinkle sea salt on top.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I always have a large salad with dinner.\u00a0 My salad usually consists of 2-3 large handfuls of organic mixed greens, chopped tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, walnuts, goat or feta cheese, raisins or berries and a drizzle of pomegranate or balsamic vinaigrette.\u00a0 Here is an example of a large salad that I usually eat with my dinner.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0382.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"IMG_0382\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0382_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_0382\" width=\"500\" height=\"380\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If I have some extra time on the weekend, another thing I do to trim time off of my weeknight meals is to roast some veggies.\u00a0 I take what I have on hand \u2013 carrots, zucchini, okra, beets, etc and toss them with a little extra virgin olive oil and sea salt.\u00a0 Roasting then takes roughly 20-30 min in a 400 \u2013 425 degree oven.\u00a0 I flip them half way through and remove from the oven once they are soft, but not mushy.\u00a0 Once you have the veggies roasted, they can be stored in the fridge and used in rice bowls, salads or wraps.<\/p>\n<p>One of my favorite quick meals is a rice bowl.\u00a0 I use cooked brown rice, a protein of sorts \u2013 this night I used black beans -roasted or sauteed veggies and then warm everything up in a frying pan.\u00a0 The combo of choice for this bowl was brown rice, black beans, okra, snow peas and lite soy sauce (La Choy is gluten-free).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0384.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"IMG_0384\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0384_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_0384\" width=\"505\" height=\"388\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can really create any combination you want using brown rice or quinoa (or get crazy with millet, buckwheat or amaranth), a protein and then veggies of choice.\u00a0 Since I used cooked rice and protein, this took me less than 10 minutes to put together.\u00a0 Much healthier than the drive thru, for sure.<\/p>\n<p>This post is part of \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/balancedplatter.com\/balanced-healthy-gluten-free-in-2012\/\" target=\"_blank\">Balanced, Healthy &amp; Gluten-Free<\/a>\u201d that will be going on all month over at <a href=\"http:\/\/balancedplatter.com\/\">The Balanced Platter<\/a>.\u00a0 Make sure to check out the new site, founded by Amy Green (<a href=\"http:\/\/simplysugarandglutenfree.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Simply Sugar &amp; Gluten-Free<\/a>) &amp; Maggie Savage (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sheletthemeatcake.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">She Let Them Eat Cake<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/balancedplatter.com\/balanced-healthy-gluten-free-in-2012\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"Balanced Healthy and Gluten Free 250x250\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Balanced-Healthy-and-Gluten-Free-250x250.png\" alt=\"Balanced Healthy and Gluten Free 250x250\" width=\"244\" height=\"244\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Balanced Platter is on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/balancedplatter\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/balancedplatter\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>, so make sure to follow them so you don\u2019t miss any of the posts this month!<\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/?p=4295\"><\/div>\n<script><!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_div_class=\"linkwithin_hook\";\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 135270;\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts with Thumbnails\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Staying balanced &amp; healthy isn\u2019t always easy.\u00a0 Life happens.\u00a0 Meetings pop up or one of the kids always seems to need something last minute for a project, yet they neglect to share that until I am in my jammies.\u00a0 Staying &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/?p=4295\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n<script><!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_div_class=\"linkwithin_hook\";\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 135270;\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts with Thumbnails\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1R9ov-17h","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4295"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4298,"href":"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295\/revisions\/4298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glutenfreeislife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}