Hi readers,
After a little over a month of blogging I realized that I really love it! Your comments always brighten up my day and I look forward to sharing fun recipes with you!! So, I decided to get my own domain since I'm going to stick with this blogging thing for a while :D Please update your bookmarks and rss readers to www.healthyandsane.com... and go there to check out today's eats.
PS. This is the last post on this site. All new posts will be on www.healthyandsane.com. Hope I won't lose any of you! Thank you all for reading - it means a lot to me!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Much needed rest
Sorry for being MIA yesterday. After another super exhausting day at work, all I wanted to do is get in my pjs, order some pizza and drink some wine. So that's exactly what we did! :D It was the perfect night to just wind down and relax. I feel 100% better, especially after 8+ hours of sleep! I just love the weekends!!
Here are a few eats from yesterday. Ordering pizza (well, a calzone) last night wasn't the healthiest choice but it was in the "sane" category. I just needed it.
Breakfast: 1/2 banana, nonfat yogurt, pomegranate seeds, 1T pb, some pb puffins and chocolate granola. I was kind of too excited to eat this and mixed it all in before I took a pretty picture. This does not look appetizing but it one of the best yogurt mixtures I've ever made!
Snacks throughout the day included another white chocolate cranberry bar, TJ's 100 calorie dark chocolate bar (not pictured), this little guy:
+ 1/2 banana & Barney butter wrap:
For lunch I got a little sushi box: tuna/avocado maki + 2 tuna sushimi and 2 salmon sushimi. It was from our local supermarket but it was super fresh. It really hit the spot for my sushi craving!
And here are a few pics of my dinner calzone: wild mushrooms + ricotta. I <3 ricotta! I also had some wine -- about 1/2 bottle :)
And let's move on to today, which is going to be another lazy day :D I am in the mood to lounge around the house, do a little blogging and blog reading, hit the gym and just relax. We do have plans to go to a bar for a birthday party so I will get out of the house, but for now, I'm just enjoying our warm apartment and not working :)
Breakfast today was another awesome yogurt parfait. I just threw a bunch of stuff we had and it was super delicious. So many flavors and textures, the only thing that was missing was banana... we're all out!
So yeah, in this beautiful bowl there is about 3/4 c nonfat yogurt, 1/2 juicy pear, some pomegranate seeds, pb puffins, Erin's double chocolate granola and crunchy peanut butter. I didn't measure things out this morning. No counting calories today. I'm not in the mood.
And very soon after that I dug into the pan with the white chocolate cranberry bars. These things are dangerous. I need to give them away immediately before I polish them off! Here is a little piece with some coffee. Yum!
I'll be back later today with a lunch post and probably tomorrow with the recap of dinner and the party. Hope you're all enjoying your Saturday!
Here are a few eats from yesterday. Ordering pizza (well, a calzone) last night wasn't the healthiest choice but it was in the "sane" category. I just needed it.
Breakfast: 1/2 banana, nonfat yogurt, pomegranate seeds, 1T pb, some pb puffins and chocolate granola. I was kind of too excited to eat this and mixed it all in before I took a pretty picture. This does not look appetizing but it one of the best yogurt mixtures I've ever made!
Snacks throughout the day included another white chocolate cranberry bar, TJ's 100 calorie dark chocolate bar (not pictured), this little guy:
+ 1/2 banana & Barney butter wrap:
For lunch I got a little sushi box: tuna/avocado maki + 2 tuna sushimi and 2 salmon sushimi. It was from our local supermarket but it was super fresh. It really hit the spot for my sushi craving!
And here are a few pics of my dinner calzone: wild mushrooms + ricotta. I <3 ricotta! I also had some wine -- about 1/2 bottle :)
And let's move on to today, which is going to be another lazy day :D I am in the mood to lounge around the house, do a little blogging and blog reading, hit the gym and just relax. We do have plans to go to a bar for a birthday party so I will get out of the house, but for now, I'm just enjoying our warm apartment and not working :)
Breakfast today was another awesome yogurt parfait. I just threw a bunch of stuff we had and it was super delicious. So many flavors and textures, the only thing that was missing was banana... we're all out!
So yeah, in this beautiful bowl there is about 3/4 c nonfat yogurt, 1/2 juicy pear, some pomegranate seeds, pb puffins, Erin's double chocolate granola and crunchy peanut butter. I didn't measure things out this morning. No counting calories today. I'm not in the mood.
And very soon after that I dug into the pan with the white chocolate cranberry bars. These things are dangerous. I need to give them away immediately before I polish them off! Here is a little piece with some coffee. Yum!
I'll be back later today with a lunch post and probably tomorrow with the recap of dinner and the party. Hope you're all enjoying your Saturday!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Still working :(
It's past 10pm and I'm still working :( I'm going to make this post quick. There was no workout today (obviously!) and my night ended with a little too many chocolate covered edamames (damn stress!). Hopefully I can get my work wrapped up quickly though and get to bed. Tomorrow is Friday so that's always good! :D
BREAKFAST
I purchased some peanut butter puffins yesterday and could not wait to incorporate them into my breakfast! This breakfast looks very bland (and orange!) but it was actually very delicious. I think I've become a little nut butter addict :D In the container you see 3/4 c yogurt, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1 T pumpkin butter, 1 T crunchy peanut butter + about 1/2 c pb puffins.
LUNCH
I kept lunch simple today - there is very little cooking this week in my kitchen, if you haven't noticed already. I made a quick sandwich with 1/4 avocado, 1 slice of turkey (last one), 1 thin slice of Land O' Lakes white American cheese and enjoyed it with 1/2 cup of Pacific Natural Foods cashew carrot ginger soup (I think that's the name!). The soup was quite intense. The 1/2 cup was plenty! It was a very nice combo with the sandwich though.
Oh, this is the turkey we buy:
SNACKS
Another chocolate craving satisfied with my new love (picture reused):
And later on... the best baked good I've ever made! :D It is so.freaking.good!
And this guys jumped into my mouth at some point...
DINNER
I got home pretty late and knew there was a big chance I would have to do some work again. So to give myself a little time to relax, I grabbed dinner at UFood. I just love having this place across the street! I got one of my favorites: chicken chop cobb salad which consists of mixed greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, turkey bacon, low fat cheddar cheese, lite sour cream and "fried" (baked) chicken. I dressed it with 1 tablespoon of Newman's Own reduced fat honey mustard dressing. Yum!
LATE NIGHT SNACKING
And then my boss called and I had to get back to work and I grabbed some "work buddies". A serving of my favorite trail mix (I missed it!):
Some more puffins:
And as mentioned before, a bunch of chocolate covered edamames that are not pictured here.
Total calories: 2520 :( Can the weekend begin yet?
Hope your week is less stressful! It's almost Friday... and then the weekend!!! Yay!
BREAKFAST
I purchased some peanut butter puffins yesterday and could not wait to incorporate them into my breakfast! This breakfast looks very bland (and orange!) but it was actually very delicious. I think I've become a little nut butter addict :D In the container you see 3/4 c yogurt, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1 T pumpkin butter, 1 T crunchy peanut butter + about 1/2 c pb puffins.
LUNCH
I kept lunch simple today - there is very little cooking this week in my kitchen, if you haven't noticed already. I made a quick sandwich with 1/4 avocado, 1 slice of turkey (last one), 1 thin slice of Land O' Lakes white American cheese and enjoyed it with 1/2 cup of Pacific Natural Foods cashew carrot ginger soup (I think that's the name!). The soup was quite intense. The 1/2 cup was plenty! It was a very nice combo with the sandwich though.
Oh, this is the turkey we buy:
SNACKS
Another chocolate craving satisfied with my new love (picture reused):
And later on... the best baked good I've ever made! :D It is so.freaking.good!
And this guys jumped into my mouth at some point...
DINNER
I got home pretty late and knew there was a big chance I would have to do some work again. So to give myself a little time to relax, I grabbed dinner at UFood. I just love having this place across the street! I got one of my favorites: chicken chop cobb salad which consists of mixed greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, turkey bacon, low fat cheddar cheese, lite sour cream and "fried" (baked) chicken. I dressed it with 1 tablespoon of Newman's Own reduced fat honey mustard dressing. Yum!
LATE NIGHT SNACKING
And then my boss called and I had to get back to work and I grabbed some "work buddies". A serving of my favorite trail mix (I missed it!):
Some more puffins:
And as mentioned before, a bunch of chocolate covered edamames that are not pictured here.
Total calories: 2520 :( Can the weekend begin yet?
Hope your week is less stressful! It's almost Friday... and then the weekend!!! Yay!
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 blogBREAKFAST
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:
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.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Snacky
Where did the day go? I feel like I was running full speed today and there is still just so much to do! I'm happy to report that despite the craziness I've been able to eat healthy. I was bored a few times and looking for chocolate but there was none in my desk drawer so I stayed away :) Let's start with breakfast...
BREAKFAST
Wow, I actually forgot what I had for breakfast until I looked in my camera. Is that why bloggers take pictures of their food? Haha, jk. We all know that pictures are what make these posts fun :) Anyways, so for breakfast I had a yogurt "parfait": ~3/4 c TJ's nonfat yogurt (all we had left), 1/2 banana, some raisins and Back to Nature granola to go. I received this little sample a while back when I went to Whole Foods and last night I thought it was a good idea to finally give it a go (since I'm out of my favorite trail mix... so sad!). Here is the little packet of the granola:
And here is my yogurt after mixing in this goodness:
This was quite delicious but actually almost too sweet. There was some honey and maybe cane sugar (I forget now) in the granola, that combined with the raisins was a lot of sugar (I know, that's coming from the girl who's obsessed with chocolate, but yes, too sweet even for me!). It did have a very nice almond-y flavor and there were even a few whole almonds in there. Not bad! I wouldn't buy this stuff but I did enjoy it today :D I also had a cup of my usual coffee (with 1 half & half pod & 1 tsp of agave nectar).
About 4 hours later I couldn't decide whether I wanted to eat or work-out. I chose to eat so that I could continue working. Which brings me to...
LUNCH
I had a few slices of the Baker bread left and this inspired my lunch today. Simple but so so good. I am absolutely in love with this bread. When I opened the ziplock bag today with the bread, it just put a smile on my face. I could smell the nuttiness of the bread and I could not wait to assemble today's combo: 2 slices of The Baker bread (you can find the picture of the package here), 2 slices of turkey, 1 light laughing cow wedge + a simple salad of mixed greens, grape tomatoes and 1 tablespoon of Annie's low fat cucumber dressing. I cut the sandwich into bite sized pieces because they were fun to eat last time :)
Mmm, nutty turkey/cheese bites...
I also took a picture of the turkey package we use, but I can't find it... and now it's all gone :( I'm going to have to take another picture next time we buy it. Also, I do not like Annie's low fat cucumber dressing. I used some today because I hate wasting food and cannot throw it away, but actually that's the reason why I started using full fat dressings. They are much better and you can use half as much and be twice as much satisfied for the same amount of calories.
SNACKS - LOTS OF SNACKS
I was kind of in a snacky mood today. I wasn't hungry. Actually both my breakfast and lunch were very satisfying, but I just felt like snacking and since I knew I was still within my calorie range, I let myself indulge in a few extras today. They were all healthy, so we're still good :)
Snack #1: Ellie Krieger's energy bar
Snack #2: a very juicy pear - yum!
Snack #3: 1/2 clif nectar bar. Today I actually liked it - it tastes like a bunch of dried fruit compressed into a bar. I probably wouldn't buy it again though... I'll just eat a bunch of dried fruit, uncompressed next time :D
Immediately after snack #3, came snack #4 because I was looking for a pen in my desk drawer and found these...
That package is so cute! I actually love candy corn and I figured the extra sugar was a great pre-workout snack. Right?
WORKOUT
About 15 minutes after consumption of snacks 3 and 4, I took the Jump & Burn class at my gym. This class is taught by the same instructor I won the personal training session from, the super tough one! I absolutely love her classes and today I liked it especially. Maybe I should eat candy corn every day before a workout?! I had so much energy and felt really strong. The class is basically jump rope interval training. It started by jumping for 3 minutes and then we alternated between 1 minute jumping and 1 minute "off the jump rope" (different lifting moves, pushups, squats, jumping jacks, etc.). The finale of the class is another 3 minutes of jump rope straight. It was awesome! 60 minutes well spent, but I needed a little something extra so I did another 10 minutes or so of abs by myself. Great workout!
DINNER
Dinner was very quick and easy today, no recipe, just a bunch of stuff we had on had thrown together. I made some ww pasta, sauteed some mushrooms, rehydrated sundried tomatoes and grilled some chicken sausage on the George Forman. All that was tossed with organic tomato sauce (I actually was going to use some white wine sauce I made and froze but it looked funky so I tossed it) and dinner was made. It very filling and delicious. The picture of the pasta before I mixed the sauce in looked better, so here it is:
By the way, the chicken sausage I used today was the Whole Foods organic garlic and parmesan chicken sausage. I used 1/2 of it, but I was kind of jelous of my husband who got a whole link :) It was super juicy and delicious! I can't wait to make a sandwich out of one!
And for dessert, I had some Hershey's snacksters...
This is the package:
If you can see on the top of the box it says 0 trans fat, but in the ingredients list it has less than 2% of partially hydrogenated palm oil (i.e. trans fat) so this just shows you how important it is to read labels. It also had some high fructose corn syrup. We bought this stuff a while ago before I cared about any of this natural/whole food business and today I decided to have some as a little treat. These guys are actually super yummy but I will definitely not be buying them again (we still have a bunch which I'll eventually eat, since as mentioned previously I cannot throw away food!).
Today's calorie total: 1637
Oh, I also baked something super yummy (I hope!). I've been dying to make these since I stumbled upon the recipe and that day has finally come. They are cooling so you and I will have to be patient. I'll reveal the treats tomorrow! :D
One more thing (man I talk/write a lot!) I was awarded the Scribbler Badge award by Lara. Thanks Lara, I'm so touched (and a little shocked since really, I'm no writer)! I'll award a few of my favorites tomorrow. It's time to do some work around the house..
BREAKFAST
Wow, I actually forgot what I had for breakfast until I looked in my camera. Is that why bloggers take pictures of their food? Haha, jk. We all know that pictures are what make these posts fun :) Anyways, so for breakfast I had a yogurt "parfait": ~3/4 c TJ's nonfat yogurt (all we had left), 1/2 banana, some raisins and Back to Nature granola to go. I received this little sample a while back when I went to Whole Foods and last night I thought it was a good idea to finally give it a go (since I'm out of my favorite trail mix... so sad!). Here is the little packet of the granola:
And here is my yogurt after mixing in this goodness:
This was quite delicious but actually almost too sweet. There was some honey and maybe cane sugar (I forget now) in the granola, that combined with the raisins was a lot of sugar (I know, that's coming from the girl who's obsessed with chocolate, but yes, too sweet even for me!). It did have a very nice almond-y flavor and there were even a few whole almonds in there. Not bad! I wouldn't buy this stuff but I did enjoy it today :D I also had a cup of my usual coffee (with 1 half & half pod & 1 tsp of agave nectar).
About 4 hours later I couldn't decide whether I wanted to eat or work-out. I chose to eat so that I could continue working. Which brings me to...
LUNCH
I had a few slices of the Baker bread left and this inspired my lunch today. Simple but so so good. I am absolutely in love with this bread. When I opened the ziplock bag today with the bread, it just put a smile on my face. I could smell the nuttiness of the bread and I could not wait to assemble today's combo: 2 slices of The Baker bread (you can find the picture of the package here), 2 slices of turkey, 1 light laughing cow wedge + a simple salad of mixed greens, grape tomatoes and 1 tablespoon of Annie's low fat cucumber dressing. I cut the sandwich into bite sized pieces because they were fun to eat last time :)
Mmm, nutty turkey/cheese bites...
I also took a picture of the turkey package we use, but I can't find it... and now it's all gone :( I'm going to have to take another picture next time we buy it. Also, I do not like Annie's low fat cucumber dressing. I used some today because I hate wasting food and cannot throw it away, but actually that's the reason why I started using full fat dressings. They are much better and you can use half as much and be twice as much satisfied for the same amount of calories.
SNACKS - LOTS OF SNACKS
I was kind of in a snacky mood today. I wasn't hungry. Actually both my breakfast and lunch were very satisfying, but I just felt like snacking and since I knew I was still within my calorie range, I let myself indulge in a few extras today. They were all healthy, so we're still good :)
Snack #1: Ellie Krieger's energy bar
Snack #2: a very juicy pear - yum!
Snack #3: 1/2 clif nectar bar. Today I actually liked it - it tastes like a bunch of dried fruit compressed into a bar. I probably wouldn't buy it again though... I'll just eat a bunch of dried fruit, uncompressed next time :D
Immediately after snack #3, came snack #4 because I was looking for a pen in my desk drawer and found these...
That package is so cute! I actually love candy corn and I figured the extra sugar was a great pre-workout snack. Right?
WORKOUT
About 15 minutes after consumption of snacks 3 and 4, I took the Jump & Burn class at my gym. This class is taught by the same instructor I won the personal training session from, the super tough one! I absolutely love her classes and today I liked it especially. Maybe I should eat candy corn every day before a workout?! I had so much energy and felt really strong. The class is basically jump rope interval training. It started by jumping for 3 minutes and then we alternated between 1 minute jumping and 1 minute "off the jump rope" (different lifting moves, pushups, squats, jumping jacks, etc.). The finale of the class is another 3 minutes of jump rope straight. It was awesome! 60 minutes well spent, but I needed a little something extra so I did another 10 minutes or so of abs by myself. Great workout!
DINNER
Dinner was very quick and easy today, no recipe, just a bunch of stuff we had on had thrown together. I made some ww pasta, sauteed some mushrooms, rehydrated sundried tomatoes and grilled some chicken sausage on the George Forman. All that was tossed with organic tomato sauce (I actually was going to use some white wine sauce I made and froze but it looked funky so I tossed it) and dinner was made. It very filling and delicious. The picture of the pasta before I mixed the sauce in looked better, so here it is:
By the way, the chicken sausage I used today was the Whole Foods organic garlic and parmesan chicken sausage. I used 1/2 of it, but I was kind of jelous of my husband who got a whole link :) It was super juicy and delicious! I can't wait to make a sandwich out of one!
And for dessert, I had some Hershey's snacksters...
This is the package:
If you can see on the top of the box it says 0 trans fat, but in the ingredients list it has less than 2% of partially hydrogenated palm oil (i.e. trans fat) so this just shows you how important it is to read labels. It also had some high fructose corn syrup. We bought this stuff a while ago before I cared about any of this natural/whole food business and today I decided to have some as a little treat. These guys are actually super yummy but I will definitely not be buying them again (we still have a bunch which I'll eventually eat, since as mentioned previously I cannot throw away food!).
Today's calorie total: 1637
Oh, I also baked something super yummy (I hope!). I've been dying to make these since I stumbled upon the recipe and that day has finally come. They are cooling so you and I will have to be patient. I'll reveal the treats tomorrow! :D
One more thing (man I talk/write a lot!) I was awarded the Scribbler Badge award by Lara. Thanks Lara, I'm so touched (and a little shocked since really, I'm no writer)! I'll award a few of my favorites tomorrow. It's time to do some work around the house..
Monday, November 17, 2008
Back to the real world
It's so tough getting up in the morning after a really fun vacation... even though it was only a weekend in NY, it was so action packed that it definitely felt like a longer vacation. Well, it was back to reality this morning when my husband had to peel me out of bed. I so wanted to stay in!
BREAKFAST
We had no bananas in the house and I kind of get lost without bananas but I thought of a quick breakfast this morning that actually, to my surprise, ended up being very delicious. Here is the spread: apple cinnamon oats with apples and barney butter.
And my bowl up-close, with bb mixed in:
I cut up 1/2 a large apple into little chunks and microwaved them for 2 minutes. I then added to the bowl the Nature's Path cinnamon apple instant oatmeal and a little over 1/2 cup of water. Microwaved the whole thing for another 75 seconds, topped it with some bb and voila. De-licious! On the side I had the rest of the apple, sliced. It was super creamy and satisfying. I was surprised to like it as much as I did, since there was no banana. You'll see this combo again, I'm sure. It also kept me full for over 4 hours, although it could also be work stress. It's just crazy busy and it's not going to slow down until next year. Yikes!
SNACK
Around noon or so I still wasn't really hungry but my mind started wondering. I definitely was in the mood for some chocolate. So despite bringing a different snack to work, I dug into my emergency 100 calorie chocolate bar. It's my last one... I need to get more of them asap!
WORKOUT
Like I said before, work was crazy busy. I considered skipping my usual lunch workout but decided to just cut it short instead. I just feel so much better when I exercise and I didn't want to have to drag myself to the gym after a long day at work. I'm so glad I made that choice! I'm going to have to deal with the same dilemma on daily basis. *Sigh*
I felt like running today so running I did. On the running schedule for the day was 5x400 interval run. I warmed up by walking for about 2.5 minutes, and then got right to business... about 1/2 mile run at 6.3mph and then the intervals began. I did five 1/4 mile intervals at 7.5 mph, 8 mph, 8.3 mph, 8.7 mph and finally at 9 mph. In between the intervals I rested by jogging at 6.2 mph for about 0.15 to 0.25 miles. I ran for a little while longer at around 6.5 mph for a total of 30 minutes, then walked for a minute and jumped on the ET for another 14 minutes. Total workout time: 45 minutes. Not bad!
Back to work...
LUNCH
Lunch were some leftovers. I made some turkey lasagna about a month ago, and froze 1/6 of it for later. Last night I took it out of the fridge when I was searching for something to eat for dinner. As the previous post notes, we ended up going out so I brought it for lunch today :) Here it is with some baby carrots on the side. It may not look appetizing but it was actually very delicious! Good to know that this stuff freezes well..
And a close up:
Still looks gross? Sorry. I had an adora disk for dessert :D
DINNER
I never got hungry for a second snack. Works for me! Dinner was a recipe I've wanted to make for a while. In fact, I bought the root veggies a few weeks ago and they've been waiting for me patiently in the fridge. I finally dug into the stash tonight! Here they are pre-shredding:
I don't know the name of all of these. I can recognize the carrots but that's about it. The recipe I made tonight was for the shredded root vegetable pancakes from Eating Well. They have a whole article on root vegetables in the December issue and I wanted to make every single one of them. I have a bunch more veggies left, so there will definitely be another appearance of these beauties :D At this point my camera died, so while recharging it I put everything together. No step by step pics, sorry, but here is the final product:
My dinner was 3 of the pancakes with 2 tablespoons of reduced fat sour cream and a salad with mixed greens, grape tomatoes, TJ's golden berry medley and sunflower seeds (tossed in a little less than a tablespoon of Annie's goddess dressing). Very veggiful!
Close-up of the pancakes...
And my salad:
I knew I was still low on calories for the day. I was planning on baking but it was getting late so I made a quicky healthy "dessert." I was kind of low on protein today so that's how I ended up with a yogurt base.
In the ramnican is some nonfat yogurt, pumpkin puree, pumpkin butter and Erin Baker's double chunk granola. Pretty yummy, but I'm definitely making some real dessert tomorrow!
Btw, I find that counting calories really helps me with staying on track. I'm going to post my stats here to keep myself accountable. Today I ate about 1410 calories. It's a bit on the low side (still within my range) probably because I ate so much during the weekend that I'm still living off the weekend storage :)
K, gotta prep for tomorrow. I have no idea what I'm eating and it's getting late. Good night!
BREAKFAST
We had no bananas in the house and I kind of get lost without bananas but I thought of a quick breakfast this morning that actually, to my surprise, ended up being very delicious. Here is the spread: apple cinnamon oats with apples and barney butter.
And my bowl up-close, with bb mixed in:
I cut up 1/2 a large apple into little chunks and microwaved them for 2 minutes. I then added to the bowl the Nature's Path cinnamon apple instant oatmeal and a little over 1/2 cup of water. Microwaved the whole thing for another 75 seconds, topped it with some bb and voila. De-licious! On the side I had the rest of the apple, sliced. It was super creamy and satisfying. I was surprised to like it as much as I did, since there was no banana. You'll see this combo again, I'm sure. It also kept me full for over 4 hours, although it could also be work stress. It's just crazy busy and it's not going to slow down until next year. Yikes!
SNACK
Around noon or so I still wasn't really hungry but my mind started wondering. I definitely was in the mood for some chocolate. So despite bringing a different snack to work, I dug into my emergency 100 calorie chocolate bar. It's my last one... I need to get more of them asap!
WORKOUT
Like I said before, work was crazy busy. I considered skipping my usual lunch workout but decided to just cut it short instead. I just feel so much better when I exercise and I didn't want to have to drag myself to the gym after a long day at work. I'm so glad I made that choice! I'm going to have to deal with the same dilemma on daily basis. *Sigh*
I felt like running today so running I did. On the running schedule for the day was 5x400 interval run. I warmed up by walking for about 2.5 minutes, and then got right to business... about 1/2 mile run at 6.3mph and then the intervals began. I did five 1/4 mile intervals at 7.5 mph, 8 mph, 8.3 mph, 8.7 mph and finally at 9 mph. In between the intervals I rested by jogging at 6.2 mph for about 0.15 to 0.25 miles. I ran for a little while longer at around 6.5 mph for a total of 30 minutes, then walked for a minute and jumped on the ET for another 14 minutes. Total workout time: 45 minutes. Not bad!
Back to work...
LUNCH
Lunch were some leftovers. I made some turkey lasagna about a month ago, and froze 1/6 of it for later. Last night I took it out of the fridge when I was searching for something to eat for dinner. As the previous post notes, we ended up going out so I brought it for lunch today :) Here it is with some baby carrots on the side. It may not look appetizing but it was actually very delicious! Good to know that this stuff freezes well..
And a close up:
Still looks gross? Sorry. I had an adora disk for dessert :D
DINNER
I never got hungry for a second snack. Works for me! Dinner was a recipe I've wanted to make for a while. In fact, I bought the root veggies a few weeks ago and they've been waiting for me patiently in the fridge. I finally dug into the stash tonight! Here they are pre-shredding:
I don't know the name of all of these. I can recognize the carrots but that's about it. The recipe I made tonight was for the shredded root vegetable pancakes from Eating Well. They have a whole article on root vegetables in the December issue and I wanted to make every single one of them. I have a bunch more veggies left, so there will definitely be another appearance of these beauties :D At this point my camera died, so while recharging it I put everything together. No step by step pics, sorry, but here is the final product:
My dinner was 3 of the pancakes with 2 tablespoons of reduced fat sour cream and a salad with mixed greens, grape tomatoes, TJ's golden berry medley and sunflower seeds (tossed in a little less than a tablespoon of Annie's goddess dressing). Very veggiful!
Close-up of the pancakes...
And my salad:
I knew I was still low on calories for the day. I was planning on baking but it was getting late so I made a quicky healthy "dessert." I was kind of low on protein today so that's how I ended up with a yogurt base.
In the ramnican is some nonfat yogurt, pumpkin puree, pumpkin butter and Erin Baker's double chunk granola. Pretty yummy, but I'm definitely making some real dessert tomorrow!
Btw, I find that counting calories really helps me with staying on track. I'm going to post my stats here to keep myself accountable. Today I ate about 1410 calories. It's a bit on the low side (still within my range) probably because I ate so much during the weekend that I'm still living off the weekend storage :)
K, gotta prep for tomorrow. I have no idea what I'm eating and it's getting late. Good night!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
