Tzatziki Chicken Salad

June 3rd, 2014

Tzatziki Chicken Salad

Ingredients

2 cups Chobani Non-fat Plain greek yogurt

2 Lb chicken breast cooked, chilled

2 large cucumbers

3/4 cup red onion

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves

2 tsp fresh garlic

1/4 cup light mayonnaise

Salt and pepper to taste

12 small leaves red leaf lettuce

12 tomato slices

6 pita pockets cut in half

Do this before you start the steps!: 

Either cook and chill a 2 lb chicken breast or buy a precooked package of chicken strips.

Prep time: 30 - 40 minutes

Number of steps: 14
Servings: 12 pita pockets

Step 1: Take your cucumbers and peel them

Step 2: Cut the cucumbers in half so we can de-seed them

Step 3: De-seed the cucumbers, I just used a spoon and scooped the seeds out

Step 4: Dice the cucumbers and place them into a colander

Step 5: toss the cucumbers with 1/4 tsp of salt to drain for 10 minutes,
when the time is up squeeze excess water out by pressing on the cucumbers
then add to a medium sized mixing bowl

 Step 6: Chop 1/4 cup of fresh mint leaves, add to the mixing bowl

Step 7: Dice 3/4 cup of red onion, add to mixing bowl

Step 8: Mince 2 tsp of fresh garlic, add to mixing bowl

Step 9: Mix together above ingredients as well as: 2 cups of Chobani Yogurt,
2 lb Chicken breast (Cooked, chilled), 1/4 cup of light mayonnaise, salt and pepper to taste
Refrigerate until ready to serve

 Step 10: Slice a tomato into 12 slices

Step 11: Wash the head of lettuce

Step 12: tear off 12 lettuce leaves and put those and the tomato slices on a plate for easy serving

Step 13: Buy either 6 pita pockets and cut in half 

or buy something similar to what is pictured below but make sure you will have 12

Step 14: Place some of the chicken mix into your pita as well as a 

slice of tomato and a lettuce leaf.

Enjoy! 

I hope you enjoy this recipe!
Keep creating,
Elena

Ballet Workout 1

June 3rd, 2014

Ballet Workout 1

Level: Moderate
Time: 5 to unlimited minutes

Source: Pinterest.com (Original Source Unknown)

Warnings: If you haven't taken any ballet then do not push yourself on the grande battements (do not try to kick higher than is comfortable or you may cause yourself injury)

The music that I used during this workout was 'Beethoven: Violin Concerto In D, Op. 61 - 3. Rondo' 

     I followed this workout pretty closely but I did make a few modifications as I had limited space to exercise in. For the Grand Battement's I started in 5th position: 

1. I did two front battements
2. pivoted to face my "barre" 
3. followed by two side battements (on the same leg that I started with) 
4. ending with that leg in the back of my 5th position
5. pivoted once more to face the opposite side of where I started 
6. finished with two back battements 
7. repeating with the other foot.

This workout says to do 20 on each leg but since I was doing patterns of 6 battements (2 front, 2 side, 2 back) I simply did 4 reps of that on each side for a total of 24 grand battements on each leg. 

Tutorials:
Note - none of the material below belongs to me

If you do not know the positions of ballet this video by the Royal Opera House shows the positions and how to correctly transition from one position to the next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fSa3ESmA1s

This next video is a tutorial on plies. She does a very good job of explaining and demonstrating both a demi and a grande plie so go check it out! http://youtu.be/GyV5Dr7p19c?t=2m6s

Next is another Royal Opera House video. This video is from the series Insight, a ballet glossary, which is very helpful for those who don't know the different ballet steps. Here is a demonstration of grand battements:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVM8AP3luyI&index=18&list=PL7E40E6E2DAB561B5

(Grand battements can be at whatever height is best for you, do not push yourself past your limit or you may injure yourself)

Finally the releve's look like this (another video from the Royal Opera House): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dim7AaoQrC8&list=PL7E40E6E2DAB561B5&index=14

However since it is going to be in parallel it should actually look more like the picture in this article, which has good tips if you have never done barre work before: http://www.fitsugar.com/Tips-Barre-Exercise-Classes-24951417

If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave me a message down below! I hope you liked this workout, let me know if you try it out!

Keep dancing my friends,
Elena

     

Schedule for the Week of June 2nd

The Schedule for this Week:

Monday - Start this blog! Build my work space (an Ikea desk, that was my workout today)

Tuesday - Upload Chicken Tzatziki Salad (see picture below) recipe, Ballet workout

Wednesday - Upload beginning tap tutorial, Upload Dance to Pharell's "Happy"

Thursday - Upload Choreography explanation, Beginning arm workout

Friday - Warming up/leg stretches, feet exercises, another introduction blog post that's more in depth 

This week's theme is: A little bit of everything!

Introducing: Dance, Learn, Create

Introducing:

Dance, Learn, Create

     

     So, this is my very first blog! I have started a few others and just completely forgotten about those but I am determined that I will not do that with this blog. My problem is I tend to start projects and then stop them either due to laziness or I simply forget. My hope is that this blog will help me stick to the projects I have started and help me to finish them. I also hope to actually start to join the blogger community as it is something that I am interested in! 

     The name for this blog actually has somewhat of a double meaning that I will explain in a later post. For now I will just give the basic idea. My goals for this blog can be clearly seen in the name:

• Dance - To re-introduce myself to dance, create original pieces of choreography, teach readers dance and the pieces of choreography, use dance as a steady form of exercise
• Learn - To provide tips that I have learned in college, to help get myself and others organized in terms of classes and managing schedules, to talk about subjects that I am passionate about
• Create - As said earlier create choreography, share some fun DIY's that I have done, share delicious recipes

In conclusion...welcome to my blog!!