A New Year with Protein Burgers

It's a new year! Happy belated new year to you all and hope you all had a wonderful holiday! :) I'm hoping for great things in 2014, one of them being able to blog more and continue this fascinating adventure I've taken in 2013 in search of a better and healthier lifestyle. I'm quite proud to say that I've lost tremendous weight being relatively average in size through making smarter choices in picking what I eat. Now that the holidays are over it's back to better eating healthier again! I've been feeling the full force of holiday dinners and parties for the last 31 days and they are not pretty. But it's back on track from here. :)

There are certain things I've learned in the last five months in taking control of what I ate and I have to say that eating healthy is really tough in this society. The fact that we have so much fast food chains every few steps it's tempting not to go in and order a large hamburger with fries and a soda, plus it's convenient for most consumers. People! There are great alternatives to eating such high calorie foods by swapping some of the ingredients out for something else. For me, since I love burgers I have them protein styled. Making them at home is so simple and easy with just a few ingredients it makes for a great meal.

Protein Burger
Ingredients:
90% and above lean ground beef is most desirable
Worchester Sauce
Salt & Pepper
Onion Powder
Romain Lettuce
Tomatoes
Onions

Many places that offer protein burgers usually wraps the burgers in Iceberg Lettuces. In all honesty, that is a big no-no in my book. Iceberg lettuce while shape works great in a lot of situations lacks flavor and texture, nutritional value, and overall sustainability in your fridge. Compared to iceberg, romaine has five times more vitamin C and a hundred times more beta carotene. I take the large leaves of romaine, wash them and cut them in half and use those as my buns.

As for the meat we use ground beef, before shaping them we drizzle Worchester sauce, I don't use a spoon, we eyeball when we cook. About three to four seconds of drizzling of the sauce should work for a medium sized bowl of ground meat. After we put in the salt and pepper and onion powder. We use grinder salt and pepper from Costco and we use about four turns when making our protein burgers. Then we shape them into balls the size of an average fist as the patty shrinks when cooked. The tomatoes and onions can be cut however you like them to be. Once the patty is cooked, place them on the lettuce, dab on the vegetables and voila! A hearty hamburger! I normally also eat them with yam fries on the side from time to time. :)

Eat smarter. Healthier life. Happy eating!
~Kitty

Change of Scenery

There was always this little hiking trail that I've passed by quite often on the way to school. It's located on Steep Canyon Road in Diamond Bar and there was a trail that lead to somewhere... I just didn't know where. Apparently, it lead to Sycamore Canyon Park! It was because Di and I decided to walk the dogs this evening and we walked from home to Sycamore Canyon Park, one that I had often visited when I was a child. It's dog friendly with plenty of dog bag posts all along the park and freshly filled with the scent of Mother Nature. :) It used to be filled with more trees and the creek ran all the way across the lower half of the park, but they've paved it and created a secondary playground for kids. A part of me was a little sad, but hey, more space for the kids to run around. The general hiking area is beautiful, just as gorgeous as I remembered it. Luscious green foliage covered by thick dark brown trunks and the sound of running water.

If you walk a little farther in, there's a place where you can walk down to a miniature waterfall. It's quite the scenic route to take if you're doing a after dinner walk with your husband or boyfriend. ;)

The dogs absolutely loved it, they were running around the baseball field and up the trail, it wasn't until we reached the steep stairs that our youngest baby, Adrian had trouble getting up the stairs, so just be wary of each of your pets, kids, and family members' ability to hike! The trail itself is a worthy exercise routine, from Di's house to the park to the trail and back was almost a total of four miles!

Happy Adrian! :D Hope you guys enjoy the park if anyone ever does decide to hop on by, it's definitely a hidden gem that should be preserved and visited! Until next time!

Ciao~
Kitty!

I wish...

I had this awesome piece of kitchen ware from Kitchen Aid... D: A fairy godmother would be nice right now to grant my wish...! :)

So beautiful and purposeful!