Hungry Dancer: Goat Cheese and Arugula Pizza

I eat fresher and healthier by default during the warmer months. When it's sweltering hot, the last thing I want is to feel heavy and bloaty, so I bypass the fried foods for fresh fruits and veggies without much thought. I also want things that can be prepared quickly and that require turning on the stove or oven as little as possible. The temps haven't been too warm yet, but I'm already transitioning to wanting fresh and healthy grub.

I had a craving for goat cheese last Saturday night and my first thought was salad, but Boyfriend and I needed something with more sustenance. Why not goat cheese on pizza?

First I sauteed red onions in some olive oil, just enough so they began to turn translucent and their sweetness started to come out. I drizzled olive oil over two personal sized pre-cooked pizza crusts. I topped them with the onions, as well as tomato slices, walnuts and goat cheese. I drizzled a little more olive oil over the toppings and then popped them into a 450-degree oven for about 10-12 minutes. That's a rough estimate - I just watched them and decided they were done when they were hot. Out they came and I topped them with fresh arugula and balsamic vinegar and voila! Dinner was served.

(If we hadn't been so ravenous, I would have remembered to take pics of each step so y'all could see the process... Oops. Eating asap took precedence over photography. Next time!)

Oh! Can't forget the sangria I threw together. I tossed together sliced oranges, lemons, limes, pineapple chunks and fresh raspberries into a pitcher. I then poured a bottle of moscato over the fruit and chilled it. Served it with ice and chunks of the fruit. Yum!

Not to toot my own horn, y'all, but dinner was amazeballs. Fresh and healthy but satisfying and the wine was light and refreshing. And it was crazy easy and quick! Just the way I like it.

What kind of quick but healthy meals do you love?

Bon appetit!

xoxo

J

Introducing: Hungry Dancer

Happy Memorial Day Monday!

I hope you got to enjoy a long weekend filled with fun, friends and family. I worked, per usual - gotta love retail! Despite working today, though, I did enjoy some rockin' barbecue. Grilled food is a summer fave and if I could, I'd grill dinner out every night all summer long. I'll get Boyfriend to work on that... :)

In the meantime, and speaking of food, I'd like to introduce the latest and greatest regular feature on le blog: Hungry Dancer, a weekly food and recipe post (biweekly maybe? I haven't decided quite yet...).

I am a hungry dancer, y'all. Dancers are all about food but we strive to eat well for obvious reasons. Besides the need for legit fuel to push us through many hours of class, rehearsals and performances, there is the body-conscious thing, too. I mean, rocking the 'tard 'n tights or wearing shorty shorts on stage makes you very self-conscious very quickly. But I also feel strongly about finding balance. Good food is a pleasure I let myself enjoy. There is no way I'm going to turn down a salted caramel brownie; that's just sacrilege. But I am on a constant quest to eat in a way that fuels my body, maintains my dancer figure, AND satisfies the soul. I think I do well most of the time, so I'd like to contribute to the healthy eating conversation, sharing my perspective and experience as a dancer and athlete... and real-life person with real-life cravings :)

Enter Hungry Dancer! Posts will feature fresh and healthy recipes that I either concocted or borrowed, with naughty-but-good-for-the-soul recipes tossed in to spice things up, along with my opinions and a few pictures to make it pretty (please judge kindly, a photog I am not!).

A sneak peak of tomorrow...

Happy Monday!

xoxo

J

Five After 5: Summer Dreams

Time for another installment of Five After 5. Since I'm impatiently plugging away at my Ballet Pedagogy paper because I do not want this to turn into a summer-long project, today's theme is all about summer dreaming. Or more specifically, what I would do this summer if I had all the time and money in the world...

Read lots and lots of books. At the pool. Wearing lots of SPF.

Unlike my usual summer to-read list, I'm not interested in anything light 'n fluffy. Rather, I'm craving some literary meat and potatoes. I'm talking Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, and Moby Dick. I want to don a huge floppy hat, some serious SPF (I'm pale and proud, y'all!) and a cute bikini while I delve into some serious lit. A copy of Don Quixote is sitting next to my bed right now, just waiting to be taken to the pool...

Juice.

Weird? I want to buy a juicer, stock up on produce and go to town with all kinds of good-for-me concoctions. Maybe I have some kind of vitamin deficiency as I can't get enough fruits or veggies lately, but I guess that's an improvement from my usual cravings (Five Guys burgers, for example). Oh, and! The other night I was perusing the mags at the grocery store while I waited for a prescription to be filled, and I read this: "Some 4,000 new food agents have entered our food supply since 1970" (Self magazine, June issue). Not food, y'all, food agents. Ew. I'm guilty of indulging in things like Doritos and Skittles, but that weirded me out and now I want a juicer.

Get certified.

I still have not taken my group fitness instructor certification exam and this greatly irritates me. Frankly the only thing holding me back is the $250 exam fee. I miss teaching cardio kickboxing. I also have ideas for creating new class formats, fusing dance with cardio and strength training... Because in my humble opinion, dancers have top-tier fitness and physiques. Want to be strong and bendy and fit? Get thee to a dance class.

Overhaul the wardrobe.

I have been drooling over some new fashions a la Nike and H&M. There is zero wiggle room in my budget right now, but if I did have some extra cash, I'd acquire more pairs of my go-to Eclipse kicks and pretty much the entire collection of H&M's gorgeous new blues. 

Attend a summer dance intensive.

It kind of kills me that I neither have the time nor the money to attend an intensive this summer.  If you were with me a few summers ago (check out the July 2009 archives), you know I ventured off to Chicago for a month to dance and learn with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater. That adventure was epic. Not only did it technically and physically kick my butt, but it it taught me so much about myself as a person... Most significantly that I am beautiful, that I do have a voice that deserves to be shared, and that I am much stronger and more capable than I ever give myself credit for. (And you know what? So are YOU.)

LE SIGH.

xoxo

J

I passed!

Well ladies and gents, I passed the oral performance half of my Ballet Pedagogy certification exam!

As soon as I finish the written portion of the exam, I will hold the certificate in hand and be qualified to teach the First Year Vaganova (Russian) Syllabus. The paper is in progress, but the scarier half of the exam is done and I am so relieved.

I can't get too distracted (I'd prefer not turn the paper into a summer project!), but at least now I feel free to get back to the gym, back to planning the move to Pittsburgh and very important things like working on my summer wardrobe (umm, H&M's latest in-stores-now is killing me...) :)

Other than that, there is nothing else to report at the moment... Happy weekend everyone!

xoxo

J

Be back soon!

I miss the gym, cooking and eating a real meal, and kickin' it here in Blogland, but my pedagogy oral presentation exam is top o' the list right now. Next Wednesday is the day. Wish me luck, say a prayer, light a candle, do a little dance - any and all are appreciated.

Via Pinterest

I'll be back next week... hopefully with good, "I passed!" news ;)

xoxo

J