Wednesday, November 19, 2008

It's cold outside

Man, it is cold outside! I had to stay at work later (plan on doing this until the end of the year) which meant that I had to get home on my own since my husband wasn't going to stay at work later just so he could pick me up :) I was planning on taking the train home, but then after realizing that it would actually be quicker to walk, decided to brave the cold weather. All I have to say is "wow, I don't know how you runners do it!" My face was freezing! I also didn't have gloves on so I had my hands in my pockets the entire time which made for a pretty awkward walk... I was afraid I was going to fall flat on my face! Thankfully I didn't, but I do know I have to get those gloves out of storage asap! Moving on to...

BREAKFAST

Today's breakfast was based on a new purchase. I bought these babies at Whole Foods the other day:



So now, even though this looks like a breakfast I've had a million times before, actually it's completely different :D Ok, not really. It was quick and delicious though, as always! 2 Nature's Path waffles, 1 barney butter packet, 1/2 banana + coffee:



The waffles had seeds in them (flaxseeds?) which was kind of interesting. These are quite tasty, although the seeds didn't really do much for me. I didn't hate them but could definitely do without them. Plus if they're flaxseeds, I believe your body can't absorb them whole so really there's no benefit to them. Maybe they're fig seeds, since these are supposedly with figs. I couldn't taste the figs. Ok, I'm done :) So far, I think the TJ's blueberry waffles are my favorite. Unfortunately they also happened to be the most caloric.

PRE-WORKOUT SNACK

I brought a sweet treat to work (more on that later) which I wanted to have with an afternoon tea. To balance it out, I thought a savory snack pre-lunch was a good idea. I found some leftover veggie pancakes I made the other day, and these became my snack. Sorry they look kind of scary... they were delicious though and served as good workout fuel.



WORKOUT

I took one of my favorite spinning classes during lunch today. The instructor is kind of crazy and sings along to most of the songs. Today he played his "worst songs mix". People actually voted last week for their most hated songs and the songs that got most votes made it to the mix. It was kind of fun actually, because the music was super diverse and it was interesting to see that some of the songs that people really hated were others' favorites. And most importantly, it was an awesome workout!

LUNCH

I was in the mood for a sweet potato recently, probably because I've been seeing them all over the blog world. For some reason I knew the exact combo I wanted too, despite never baking a sweet potato in my life (I made sweet potato fries once but that's different). So, I'm guessing that I've seen this combo recently somewhere but after a search of potential suspects, I could only find this blog post by Caitlin and this post by K. So if you're reading this and recently enjoyed this exact combo, come tell me about it and give yourself credit for this creation. Until then, I'll just say I combined those 2 in my head to come up with this very delicious combo :D I present to you the "baked" sweet potato with cottage cheese and black beans.



And one more upclose:



I brought this sweet potato to work, stabbed it with a fork a few times and microwaved it for 4 minutes. It came out absolutely perfect! I also microwaved 1/4 c of black beans for a minute just to get them warm and used a 2% cottage cheese single pod for this. Perfect lunch!

For "dessert" I ate 1/2 of this orange, which I finished a few hours later.



AFTERNOON SNACK


This was the part I was looking forward to the most today: trying the white chocolate cranberry bar I made last night. I followed this recipe by Katie from Good Things Catered. Like I mentioned in last night's post, I've been dreaming of making this recipe since I saw it on Katie's post, and let me tell you, it was amazing! Totally worth waiting for! :)

The only "changes" I made was using Smart Balance Omega 3 butter instead of regular butter (making it just slightly better for you), substituted 1/2 c of ww pastry flour for white and I used an 8.5 x 8.5" pan instead of an 11x7, which probably made my bars a little taller.

Here is the pan fresh out of the oven. It took all of my will power not to dig in right away, and especially not to have a little taste when I finally cut a few pieces to pack for future snacks.



Here is the big guy I took to work. Ok, he wasn't big at all, quite small actually but he was very big on taste. This "bar" is 1/16 of the whole pan, making it a guilt-free treat :)



I am considering making more of these for Thanksgiving dinner next week. I think I'll bring some to work to taste test, although honestly at my office anything disappears in minutes so I don't know what kind of feedback I'll really get. Hmm, I may just have to keep tasting these myself... you know, for research :D

DINNER

Dinner tonight was something my husband requested: burgers. He picked up some 93% lean ground beef tonight and when I came home I made 2 burger patties for us. I used 8 oz of meat, mixed with 1/4 tsp of salt, 3/4 tsp of Worchester sauce + a squirt of ketchup for 2 servings. I sprinkled the beef patties with some black pepper and garlic powder (actually I thought of adding garlic after I already made the patties and that's why the powder was on top, otherwise I'd just add some minced garlic into the mixture next time) and grilled them on a cast iron grill pan for about 4 minutes on each side. Don't forget to spray the grill pan or these guys will definitely stick and make a mess. I also did not squish them with a spatula so the juices would stay in and that's why they kind of puffed up. These were the best burgers I've ever had! I was a proud burger mama :)

Here is my plate: 4 oz beef burger with 1/2 oz white american cheese on ezekiel english muffin with ketchup and 2 little carrots. Muy delicioso!



I can't not post a close-up of the beauty :)



For "dessert" I had a few tiny handfuls of these pomegranate seeds. They are so sweet! I love natural sugars!!



Total calories for the day (assuming I stop digging into the pomegranate bowl): 1484

And finally the Superior Scribbler Badge!!!! Thanks again Lara for awarding me with this lovely badge. I am super honored!

Here it is... so cute!



And here are the rules:
1. Post the award on your blog
2. Link those who gave it to you
3. Link the original posts
4. Pass it on to five deserving people
5. Post these rules for your recipients

I don't know what #3 means, so I'll just go ahead and award this to some of my favorite bloggers. Each one of them inspires me in their own way. I read these ladies' blogs before I started my own. I know that I am a better blogger (and maybe even a better cook?!) because of you! So thank you for sharing your experiences with all of us! I award the Super Scribbler Badge to...

1. Kath of Kath Eats Real Food
2. Tina of Carrots N Cake
3. Caitlin of See Bride Run
4. Jenna of Eat, Live, Run
5. Chandra of Chandra's Shenanigans

Ok, peace out.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

oh my, such lovely food!

Anonymous said...

Seriously, your food looks so good today. Except I think I said that yesterday, too! I bought pomegranate seeds for the first time today and I'm glad to see I can just eat them by the handful because besides throwing them on Greek yogurt I couldn't think of anything else!

Anonymous said...

Yummy food today! I love that sweet potato!!

GroundedFitness said...

haha- your snack is a little frighteneing!

Good job on walking home- sadly, last ngith i decided not to walk the pooch cause it was too cold. hes kind of a wimp anyway so he woulda whined the whole time. The gym was nice and warm, though!

Kelly Turner
www.groundedfitness.com

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the shout out and glad to hear it was a success :)

Have you tried the Kashi Heart-to-Heart waffles? They're really good!

Congrats on the award and try not to freeze!! Happy Thursday!

Tina said...

THANK YOU so much for the award!!! You totally made my Thursday! :)

HangryPants said...

Congrats on the blog award!

I love sweet potatoes and beans, but haven't had it in awhile.

You eat the tastiest food!

Anonymous said...

i can't believe you can just eat a few handfuls of pom seeds.... honestly i've had a huge pomegranate after dinner every day for the past two weeks. i start it off by telling myself i just want to peel it for therapeutic purposes, and then of course polish off the whole bowlful.
what...is that not ok? how much sugar's in those pups do you know?

Elina said...

K,I've had the Kashi golean waffles and wasn't really impressed. I'll give the heart 2 hearts a go! :)

Tina, I'm glad to hear that! You deserve it!!

Inna, actually they are still pretty low in calories and the sugars are all natural, so I wouldn't worry about it! I have no problem not eating the whole thing though... I'm trying to spread the joy :D

Anonymous said...

mmm those bars look SO GOOD! sweet potato/cottage cheese is one of my favorite easy meals, I'll have to try adding black beans to it too next time.