Savor and Stretch

FAIL.

2010-09-13T18:47:00.003-04:00

Well, I have failed to get back to blogging. Every time I thought about updating, it felt like a chore, so I decided that until I was excited to blog again, I wouldn't. And here were are. 3 weeks, no blogging. So for now, Savor and Stretch is on hiatus. Not sure how long it will last, but I do hope to be back to blogging some time in the future! Stay tuned!

Making up for lost time.

2010-08-19T19:14:00.002-04:00

That's the best way to describe my lifestyle for the past week. Before my wedding, I was very strict with myself. I cut out things like peanut butter, cheese, and unnecessary carbs, and I worked out almost every day. Now that the wedding is over, I have been letting myself enjoy all the peanut butter and cheese I want! I haven't worked out ONCE. Nor have I blogged. I'm making up for lost time...and then some! I've decided to give myself until next week to get my eating habits and exercise back on track. For now... I can tell you that I've been loving oatmeal with white chocolate wonderful and blackberry jam, feta cheese on everything, popchips, and a whole lot of snacking!

Be sure to check back next week to see if I've gotten my act together yet :)

Honeymoon!

2010-08-13T20:59:00.005-04:00

Time for a honeymoon recap! Bryan and I cruised to Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau on the Carnival Miracle. To no surprise, our trip was full of beautiful beaches...
and
Being in love :)

But also...FOOD! Here are some of the highlights:

An exquisite tuna tartare appetizer.

Surf and Turf.

A perfect filet mignon.
Melt in your mouth. This was paired with wasabi horseradish mashed potatoes...drooool.

A (very large!) porterhouse.

Duck!
Not a huge fan of the texture of duck, but see that little pizza creation on the side? TOO DIE FOR!

An overwhelming chocolate dessert platter.

And one of our favorites, white chocolate cake.
Which we ate all of...of course!

These pictures are hardly reflective of all I ate on this cruise. I'm talking three large meals a day (sometimes more)...multiple desserts at every meal...and lots and lots of indulging. Just as you should on vacation! Now...back to the grind!

Perfection.

2010-08-12T11:39:00.006-04:00

From beginning to end, my wedding was absolute perfection.

Starting with an elegant ceremony and ending with a fantastic reception, the night was packed with delectable cuisine, outstanding entertainment, and unforgettable memories with family and friends.The best way to sum everything up is to (share a few pics and) say that it was, without a doubt, the best night of my life.

Dad walking me down the aisle...
My heart has never beat so fast!

Leaving the church.

Incredible location for pictures.
At our venue, The View on the Hudson.

Champagne.
And kisses for my new husband, the man of my dreams:)

Best. Cake. Ever.
Canoli and chocolate mousse.

And of course,
Lots of dancing!

For more wedding recap, check out Melissa's post: A Wedding Weekend.

And be sure to check out many more great wedding photos on Facebook.

Lackluster.

2010-07-27T21:47:00.003-04:00

So this blog has been pretty lackluster lately due to the chaos in my life right now. And while I would love to leave you with a picture packed, super thrilling post before I take a big long wedding break, I'm sad to say I don't have anything exciting for you! But I will be back (as a married woman!) with some great stuff in two weeks :)

Slacking.

2010-07-25T12:53:00.004-04:00

I am a officially a slacker when it comes to blogging. I am getting married in six days and I am pretty much eating, sleeping, and breathing all things wedding. Well I suppose I have been eating a few other things too...

Friday's breakfast was oatmeal.
This batch was maple and brown sugar with a dollop of pear butter. Mmmm pear butter :)

Next up was a half egg salad sandwich (made with fat free honey mustard instead of mayo).
Plus a pickle, some sea salt Somersaults (Dear Somersaults, send me lots more of your snacks as a wedding present please? They are soooo yummy!), and a fuji apple. Best part about this meal... in addition to it being super delicious of course...was that it filled me up so much I couldn't even finish my apple!

My dinner was an attempt to recreate a meal I ate at a restaurant earlier in the week. The original meal was shrimp, scallops, mussels, and calamari in a spicy marinara sauce over rice. My meal:
Mixed veggies, shrimp, and Prego. Nottttt even close, ha! It was pretty yummy, but certainly didn't compare with my meal out. Ohhh well.

Dessert was a delicious fruit salad.
Honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple, and red grapes. Yum!

I woke up Saturday morning with a growling tummy.
I opted for a bowl of oatmeal topped with a corn muffin and drowned in PB2. The muffin part was delicious, the oats...not so much. I only ate about 2/3.

Pre-lunch snack...

Lunch.
I was craving salty and sweet so I had a half turkey sandwich (with spinach and garlic herb mayo) and a half jam sandwich (with Crofter's South America spread). I also planned to eat those cucs but they tasted a little funky!

For dinner I headed to Wegmans to build myself a big salad.
Nothing crazy impressive in this mix..lettuce, grape tomatoes, onions, Shang Hai shrimp, artichokes, chickpeas, olives, hard boiled egg whites, and fat free ranch.

I neeeeeded more, so I had an unpictured pear and cool whip.

Today's breakfast.
Whole grain bread, PB2, and Crofter's South America.

Then,
A repeat half turkey sandwich, and cucumbers and hummus. And last but not least, a raspberry ice pop... which did not photograph very nicely!

I've also been slacking on fitness recaps but FYI I've been doing Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred for the past two weeks and Loving it! It kills me...but in a good way :)

Rushed.

2010-07-22T18:35:00.003-04:00

There are only a few pictures in this post because I have been forgetful/lazy, but, regardless, I still need to catch you up on eats!!

Wednesday breakfast: vanilla pudding, strawberries, and chocolate Cheerios.

Wednesday lunch.
A half sandwich with turkey (it's low sodium by the way!), baby spinach, tomatoes, and garlic and herb mayo. YUM!!! Plus, leftover cauliflower, cucumbers and hummus, and strawberries. Also yum :)

Dinner was eaten out. I ate at The Distillery with some friends and got the turkey guacamole flatbread. The pictures I took turned out awful so I searched for the pic I took last time I ate this and couldn't find it! I assure you, it looked the same and was just as delicious. I also ordered a side of steamed broccoli. Kinda boring.

Today's breakfast: vanilla yogurt and strawberries. I'm running out of food!

Lunch.
A repeat sandwich, cucumbers and honey mustard, FSTG sweet potato chips (um, have they updated their recipe? These were better than EVER), and strawberries. So tasty. So why was I still hungry after all this?! Rar.

And dinner.
A black bean burger and a veggie mix of string beans, corn, carrots, and onions, all mashed up together with some Wholly Guacamole and taco sauce. Phenomenal meal. The kinda dish where you get sad with each bite because you know it's that much closer to being over.

And that's that! A bit rushed tonight. Only five days left for me to be all packed up for the wedding and honeymoon. Probably should get started on that...

Blogger Blooper.

2010-07-20T18:28:00.004-04:00

In my last post I told you to stay tuned for pics from my dinner out but I didn't take pictures after all. Oops!

Anywho.

Guess what? No Monday breakfast pic! HOWEVER, I have an excuse! There was no breakfast! I had doctor's appointment at 11am and wasn't allowed to eat before it. That was no fun.

When I got home I gobbled up a veggie sub from Subway.
Wheat sub bread with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, banana peppers, vinegar and oregano. DE-LISH! I also had an unpictured strawberry yogurt.

I had some serious afternoon snack cravings, possibly because of skipping breakfast. I had...

A FiberGourmet lite cinnamon crumb cake.
Not quite bakery fresh, but not bad either! A nice way to satisfy my (incessant) need for cake :)

I also had a corn muffin top
With PB2. Oh man this snack is just too good to be true. I might just eat this every day!

Then I had a Fuji apple, and then almonds mixed with cool whip and honey...why not?!

Sometimes salads are fun and filling.
Not this one. This was baby spinach, a cut up turkey burger, onions, and honey mustard dressing. I was a little lazy about ingredients which is probably why it was so boring.

So, as always I forgot to take a picture of my breakfast and I felt bad so here:
No one said they had to be my pictures :)
A chocolate brownie Z-bar, (I won this in Tina's givea
way) which was absolutely delicious.

And
Strawberry banana yogurt. Also very yummy. Chemicals shmemicals. It tastes great!

Lunch was
A half sandwich on whole-wheat with turkey, spinach, tomatoes, and yellow mustard. Plus a jazz apple (my favorite apple I think!) and FiberGourmet cheese crackers. These crackers definitely give 100 calorie Cheez-its a run for their money. The taste isn't Quite as salty, but I hardly missed the salt... Plus you get so many more for less calories! Not too mention all the fiber!

And last but not least...
Dinner! And a pretty good one at that :) Crab meat mixed with a tiny bit of mayo, guacamole, and a few pieces of a toasted tortilla wrap for dipping. I also had garlic cauliflower on the side. If this meal was double the size it would have been heavenly. It was still pretty great, but I needed to snack on some strawberries and almonds after to finally feel full.

Update...five more days of work and eleven more days until my wedding!

Catching up.

2010-07-18T17:30:00.006-04:00

Well it's been a few days, so I guess it's time to catch you up on all my eats!

I'll jump right into Friday's lunch because of course there was no breakfast pic!
I had a half egg salad sandwich, made with eggs and honey mustard, on whole grain bread and topped with spinach. I also had cucumbers and cracked pepper hummus. I was supposed to have FiberGourmet cheese crackers (which were sent to me to sample) BUT I left them in the car. Boooo! So I snacked on some of my kiddos Nilla Wafers instead. Gosh those things are delicious! Who knew?!

After a stressful drive home from work it felt wonderful to come home to this:

Gorgeous spread! Yellowfin tuna in a homemade teriyaki sauce, Asian veggies, and edamame. I love indulging in healthy food!

Next morning I had oatmeal for breakfast.
This batch was a tad too watery. I tossed in some cinnamon and PB2 and enjoyed every bit of my watery mess.

Lunch started with a half sandwich made with whole-grain bread and Crofter's South America fruit spread.
Sweet deliciousness.

Then I had another Green Giant veggie mix. Sodium overload, but I want to use up what's in my freezer. And tt escaped my camera...oops!

Later on I snacked on
the crackers I was supposed to eat the day before! Yum :)

Dinner was simply glorious.
Crab cakes!
Adding guacamole really put them over the top.
These were store bought but tasted restaurant quality. Absolutely mouth-watering meal!!

As usual, I had strawberries and cool whip for dessert.

This morning's breakfast was to die for.
(More strawberries) and a corn muffin top with PB2 and a wee bit of Ovaltine. This combination was unbelievable!! Adding this to my list of favorites.

And finally, lunch.
A (giant) black bean burger topped with blue cheese, pickles, and onions. These burgers are seriously amazing. And so filling!

Later on I snacked on more FiberGourmet crackers and cucs and hummus, which all went unpictured.

Heading out to a wonderful restaurant for dinner....stayed tuned for pics!

Better in Bowls.

2010-07-15T18:49:00.003-04:00

I find that I eat a lot of my meals out of bowls. I had to make a conscious effort tonight to not put my dessert into a bowl. Bowls make eating easier...no?

Bowl number one.
Oatmeal! This batch was maple and brown sugar mixed with PB2 and Crofter's Asia. Delicious, filling, and heavy I guess because when I got weighed at the doctor I had gained two pounds since the morning!!

Lunch was the heavenly combination of tuna and guacamole.
(Tunamole) I mixed my tuna with light mayo, and had a gala apple and a pickle on the side. I ate my lunch over the course of an hour or so, so I thought eating slowly would make me feel more full. Negative. Bryan suggested that because I ate so slow I kept digesting everything I consumed. Perhaps?

Dinner in a bowl of course.
A Green Giant veggie mix (just realized these are loaded in sodium and will now be sticking to veggies without sauce) with snap peas, cauliflower, and carrots. I added some shrimp for protein, and topped it all with Dinosaur BBQ cajun seasoning. Yum!

Dessert.
Strawberries, grapes, and cool whip. Oh so good. Would have been better in a bowl, but I gave in to the boring blue plate.

Unfortunately this is not an accurate picture of everything I ate. There was soooo much unnecessary snacking. Dried cranberries, Somersaults, chips, etc., and there may have even been some Twizzlers in there! All followed by (unnecessary) guilt of course. I bummed myself out because this is supposed to be my "kick it up a notch" phase but I'm really strugglin'! So to help myself I took all the snacks I can't resist and "hid" (or just put them in really high places) them. Will it work? We shall see.

Hungry Hungry

2010-07-14T18:52:00.006-04:00

For the past two days my stomach has been growling nonstop! I think I confused it when I stuffed it incessantly this weekend and now my body thinks I should be eating all the time. C'mon, my wedding is like two weeks away...how's a (hungry) girl supposed to stay on track?!

Food recap.

Forgot a breakfast pic on Monday...groan. I had vanilla yogurt, blueberries, and chocolate Cheerios. Yummmmm.

Lunch.
I had a half sandwich made with (delicious) whole-grain bread, spinach, tomatoes, and cracked pepper hummus. Mmm..sandwiches are my favorite. I also had cucs and yogurt blue cheese, and some red grapes.

But that's not all!
I also had some fantastic frozen yogurt! Mine was vanilla yogurt mixed with strawberries and topped with pineapple and mangos and Bryan's was a coffee mixture topped with chocolate. Both were absolutely delicious.

Dinner was a Green Giant frozen veggie mix tossed up with some roasted chicken and topped with a bit of parmesan cheese.
So yummy! Only problem with this meal was that it ended way too soon.

Then there was dessert, of course.
Frozen cool whip with strawberries and grapes. Did you know frozen cool whip tastes just like vanilla ice cream?! Um...I didn't. Amazing new discovery :)

And guess what?...A breakfast picture! But, a pretty boring one at that.
Toasted corn muffin top and some mixed berry applesauce. Oh how this muffin top made me long for butter. But I resisted!

Lunch was another yummy sandwich.
This one had roasted chicken, spinach, tomatoes, and chipotle mayo. On the side I had strawberries and FSTG sweet potato chips. Great lunch but surprisingly not filling. I was dying for a snack about an hour after I was done eating.

Dinner.
A lovely light salad with baby spinach, a cut up turkey burger, tomatoes, cucs, and light honey dijon dressing.

(Very) soon after, I had dessert...
Vanilla yogurt mixed with PB2 and a Jonagold apple. Yum!

Snacks for the past two days? Why yes of course. I've been munchin' on honey almonds, sea salt Somersaults, and some FSTG chips. All are so addicting!

Back!

2010-07-12T18:38:00.003-04:00

First day back to blogging and I already forgot to take a picture of breakfast, argh!!

It was nice to have a week off from taking pictures. Sometimes it feels like a chore! And I still stayed on track with healthy eating :)

This past weekend was my bachelorette party...
(Beautiful bridesmaids outside a winery) and a while ago I had set the weekend aside to indulge. And I did. Lots of wine, cheese, and chips and dips galore. We ate, we drank, and were very merry.

But alas, back to healthier eats.

Today's breakfast was fresh strawberries and a corn muffin top. The muffin was a little dry, and the strawberries weren't quite sweet enough, but I was still happy.

Lunch.
A whole-wheat wrap with roasted chicken and coleslaw mixed with honey mustard. I LOVE coleslaw and found that using honey mustard is a very tasty alternative to fatty mayo. I also had blueberries and baked chips. A pretty satisfying lunch I must say.

Dinner was similar. Same chicken and coleslaw mix but no wrap.
Less carbs equals less filling of course, so I also had a big bowl of oatmeal.
Maple and brown sugar oatmeal, a bit of almond butter, and some cool whip. Doesn't this look like hot chocolate?! Didn't taste like it, but the cool whip was a really nice addition.

Just in case you're wondering, there are nineteen days until my wedding!! And only ten more days of work. (Not that I'm counting...yayyyy) BUT, that means only nineteen days to make sure I am in great shape! After all, who doesn't want to look their best on the most important of their life!!

Blogger Break

2010-07-05T21:51:00.002-04:00

Due to a combination of some health issues and wedding things, I've decided to take a little blogger break! Be back in a week :)

Perfectly Pictureless Post

2010-06-30T18:49:00.002-04:00

So today was a blogger nightmare. No pictures! But with good reason.

My day started off on a terrible note when I realized I FORGOT MY LUNCH!!!! Noooooooo! For someone who is meticulous about planning their meals and schedules their life around eating...this is basically the worst thing that could happen. I am used to eating my lunch around 11:30 with the kiddos but instead I had to wait til my break at two to get something to eat! I had such a headache. Oy. It made for a long day.

I was so excited to finally eat that I inhaled my veggie sub from Subway (whole-wheat sub with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, banana peppers, vinegar, and oregano) and didn't even think twice about snapping a picture. I also had a bag of parmesan herb Baked Lays, which I hated paying for because I have a whole bag at home, but I knew the sub wouldn't hold me over.

Then, I came home to an apartment smelling of stir-fry. I knew this was bad news because Bryan makes the BEST Asian stir-frys and I simply cannot resist them. So I scratched my plans again, (I was going to have leftover chicken sausage) and picked out and ate nearly every veggie in that stir-fry. I had a little bit of chicken, but avoided the noodles. Confession: when I eat stir-fry I eat it cold, right outta the bowl, with a fork, standing in my kitchen. That's how good it is. I can't even take the time to plate it. Or take pictures for that matter. Such a bad habit!

Then, when it was time for dessert I figured I would just keep up with the no picture taking. I had my first ever caramel Oikos and some green grapes. The yogurt was DIVINE. SOOO much better than the chocolate flavor.

And now, for even more picturelessness.

Fitness Recap

Monday 6/21 - Cardio Party

Tuesday 6/22 - 10lb Slimdown Total Body Blast & Rock Hard Body Abs

Wednesday 6/23 - Turbosculpt

Thursday 6/24 - Jillian Michael's Quick Trouble Zones & Jillian Michael's Boost Metabolism

Friday 6/25 - Rest

Saturday 6/26 - Cardio Party

Sunday 6/27 - Turbosculpt

Monday 6/28 - 20 minute cardio workout & Abjam

Tuesday 6/29 - Jillian Michael's Quick Trouble Zones & Jillian Michael's Boost Metabolism

I've been giving it my all! But, I'm heading home this weekend and working out at home is always been a real challenge...should be interesting.

What's missing?

2010-06-29T19:11:00.003-04:00

I've got two whole days of eating to catch you up on!

Yesterday's lunch...
A multigrain thin with roasted chicken, tomato, baby spinach, and light parmesan peppercorn dressing. On the side I had green grapes and the last of my salty pepper Somersaults. (Sad face!) I bought a whole roasted chicken on Sunday so I could still get my protein, but not be stuck with shrimp or turkey. I picked off the white meat and made up little portion size baggies. GREAT idea!

Dinner was
A vegetable medley from Green Giant mixed with more chicken and topped with garlic and pepper. This was delicious, but not very filling, and the snack monster crept up again.

One of my desserts was strawberries and Cool Whip.
I also had about a week's worth of blueberries and grapes. Fresh fruit is just so tasty. There were other snacks...but no photos = no memory of what I ate! Oops!

For lunch today I had a sandwich with cracked pepper hummus, baby spinach, and tomatoes.
This is certainly more exciting with feta (what isn't?!) but was still very very good on its own. I also had sliced cucumbers, honey almonds, and strawberry banana yogurt with some fresh strawberries. The yogurt was really filling...thinking about eating yog for lunch more often.

Bryan cooked dinner which is always such a treat.
He made jalapeno and roasted red pepper chicken sausage and spicy grilled veggies. This meal was phenomenal! Everything had so much flavor. Definitely want to have this again next week. (Hint, hint babe!)

And finally, dessert.
An apple...not sure which kind...plus PB2 for dipping! Happy belly :)

So what's missing? Breakfast! I have been super forgetful about breakfast pics. Quick recap: Monday- vanilla yogurt, chocolate Cheerios, and blueberries. I think...honestly it's hard to remember without a picture!! And today I had chocolate Cheerios, blueberries, and a rice cake with honey...which by the way is my new Obsession! So tasty!!

I've been slacking with fitness recaps but I will be back with one tomorrow!

It's hard to blog about food....

2010-06-27T19:12:00.004-04:00

When you have a major tummy ache!!! But, I will power through.

Here goes:

On Saturday I ate a chipotle black bean burger, open face, on a multigrain thin.
I topped it with pickles, onions, sriracha, and ketchup. I got these burgers from BJ's and they are double the calories of the normal Morningstar ones, but they are also double the size, double the flavor, and doubly filling, so it is totally worth it. I also had some string beans and garlic hummus for dipping. Quite the satisfying meal.

Regardless of being satisfied by lunch, the snack monster soon took over my body. Afternoon snacks included...
Honey almonds (OBSESSED!), chocolate Cheerios, an unpictured mini dark chocolate bar, and a couple rice cakes. I'm a little bummed because I was able to avoid snacking all week, but at least my snacks were healthy!

Later I went out to dinner with some friends and ordered
The turkey guacamole flatbread without fries. Amazing! The guacamole tasted homemade, the turkey was unbelievably fresh, and the flatbread was crispy and delicious. As usual, I studied the menu online before going so I could pick something yummy but still low in calories and I was so happy with my choice.

Today's breakfast.
Yoatgurt! Vanilla yogurt, maple and brown sugar oatmeal, and a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. Delicious! This kept me full for a good four hours. That doesn't happen often!

Lunch was a salad.
Made with baby spinach, red onion, feta, shrimp, and yogurt blue cheese. Looking back I wish I had added some cucumber in too, but overall it was a good salad.

I needed a little something extra, so I made a simple dessert.
A deep chocolate Vitatop, covered in vanilla pudding mixed with PB2. The pudding overwhelmed the pb flavor a bit, but all in all, a nice treat.

Now, I know I ate a black bean burger for lunch yesterday, but there ain't nothing like the real thing.
So I asked Bryan to cook up some homemade bean burgers for dinner tonight. As always, they rocked. He also made some sweet potato chips on the side. A fantastic dinner from a fantastic man!

Healthy Choices.

2010-06-26T10:35:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was all about making healthy choices. It was a staff development day and they were providing both breakfast and lunch, so I knew there would be some temptations.

For breakfast I brought my own bag of Honeynut and Chocolate Cheerios and hoped there would be some fruit at work.
There was, but nothing too exciting. I had a small Macintosh apple and some red grapes. The apple was so-so but the grapes were yummy.

They ordered wraps from Wegmans for lunch and I requested a veggie one.
I took off the cheese (very tough for me too do!) and instead of chips had more grapes, another so-so apple, and some strawberries I brought from home. This was...eh. Fairly boring, and it certainly didn't fill me up. So, I went back for a turkey wrap and pulled out the turkey, and was left with a lettuce and tomato wrap. Nothing against turkey, but I'm not a fan of Wegmans lunch meat. Overall? The lunches I make myself are much more enjoyable :)

Bryan had dinner waiting for me...
Swordfish in a citrus dill marinade and sauteed spinach. Light and delicious.

Dessert.
An apple with vanilla pudding is already a phenomenal dessert. So how do you make it even better?? Add PB2! Yesterday I was thrilled to receive a jar of PB2, powdered peanut butter, that I had just ordered. I added it to my pudding, and voila! Peanut butter pudding. I ate it with a jazz apple. Perfection!!

Definitely got my fill of fruit yesterday :)

And today's breakfast:
Oatmeal with pear butter. Simple and satisfying.

Procrastination.

2010-06-24T19:21:00.005-04:00

Another day almost gone and I am still going strong. The hardest thing this week was not snacking before and after dinner but I'm happy to say I didn't give in. Not once! Today I am having a really hard time getting myself to work out though, so I'm procrastinating with a post :) I've been fairly productive with just about everything else going on in my life though, so I don't feel too lazy!

A breakfast pic completely slipped my mind this morning but I had vanilla yogurt, strawberries, and a cocopop rice cake. Good? Yes. Boring? Yes.

Now, my lunch wasn't exactly exciting...but it sure was delicious.
I had a salad with baby spinach, red onion, feta, and a cut up turkey burger. All topped with yogurt blue cheese. YUM! I have to confess I am actually salivating just thinking about it. I also had a honey wheat thin with Crofter's Europe to satisfy my need for sweets.

Dinner.
Pizzadilla! A whole-wheat wrap with spinach, pizza sauce, and feta. Also a side of broccoli with garlic hummus. This meal was definitely not an ideal carb/protein ratio, but I'm still happy with it :)

And dessert.
Strawberries dipped in a mix of Cool Whip and Ovaltine. HOLY YUM! While this wasn't full of nutrients, it was low fat and low cal and more importantly, DELICIOUS! I will be having this again very soon!

ALSO I am looking into ordering a new workout series on DVD to help me "kick it up a notch" for the next month. I wasn't a huge fan of Jillian Michaels but I love her OnDemand "Quick Trouble Zones" and am thinking ordering something else of hers. Suggestions??

Good, Great, and Better.

2010-06-23T19:30:00.003-04:00

That's how my eats went today. Not only did I stick to the new "guidelines" I set for myself, I also thoroughly enjoyed everything I ate. And when my belly is happy, it's a good day.

Breakfast was Good.
It was simple...maple and brown sugar oatmeal...but I sprinkled a ton of cinnamon on top and it made all the difference in the world.

Lunch was Great.
Kung pao veggies on a honey wheat thin, sweet potato FSTG chips, strawberries, and wee bit o' almond butter for dipping. So many positive things to say about this meal. The veggies were delicious as always. The chips.. so tasty. Have I mentioned these are fairly low in sodium and made with all natural ingredients? Nothing like food that is yummy AND good for you. The strawberries were the perfect mix of sweet and tart, and the almond butter was a nice treat.

So how could dinner (which was basically a repeat of lunch) be even better? Well for starters I decreased my carbs by skipping the thin and increased my protein by adding shrimp.
Why haven't I been doing this all along!? I also had some leftover sweet potato chips that I meant to eat during my break but forgot about. Forgetting to eat? That alone made me smile. It's nice to not feel hungry all the time!

Then, I had an awesome dessert.
Vanilla pudding and a braeburn apple. Can't believe I only discovered this combo last week. Easily a new favorite!

Yay for good eats :)

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2010-06-22T18:44:00.003-04:00

Changes to my diet will be happening gradually. Saving money is one of my top priorities so right now I am eating what I have on hand, even if it's not the healthiest thing, and then going shopping on Sunday to stock up on "better" things.

So, for the next week you will still see cheese (probably only feta), too many snacks, and not enough fruit & veggies. But stay tuned, and hopefully you will notice some positive changes!

Terrible quality picture of breakfast:
Chocolate Cheerios, red grapes, and vanilla yogurt. Yummy yum yum.

As mentioned, a repeat sandwich for lunch.
Thin, hummus, spinach, tomatoes, feta. Glorious. Sandwiches like this make me think I could easily be a vegetarian! I also had cucumbers and yogurt blue cheese and Tuscan three cheese pretzel crisps. These pretzel crisps are great BUT it seems like the flavor isn't distributed evenly throughout the bag. Some are just not flavorful enough.

Dinner.
Tuna wrap fancied up with onion powder, minced garlic, and sriracha. On the side I had broccoli and garlic hummus. Favorite part of this meal? The hummus. Garlic hummus is SOOO good. Instead of just dipping the broccoli in it, I smothered my wrap in it too. I need to buy this more often!!

And finally, OIAJ!
Apple butter style :)
Delicious and filling! Sad to see my apple butter go though :(

This is IT!

2010-06-21T17:28:00.004-04:00

I spent the weekend making unhealthy choices and overeating. But now it's out of my system and this is IT! The wedding is six weeks away and it is time to kick it up a notch. I've set some goals for myself to help keep me on track:

No cheese (this one will be tough)
No peanut butter (I always eat too much, plus it makes me break out!)
Less carbs, more protein
More whole grains
More weight lifting
Less chips/snacks, more veggies

It's not going to be easy,but with the wedding getting closer everyday I feel like I have a whole new sense of willpower. I CAN DO THIS!!!

First, a quick fitness recap of last week...

Monday 6/14 - Cardio Party

Tuesday 6/15 - Walking lunges, lifting weights, light jogging (took it easy)

Wednesday 6/16 - Jillian Michael's Quick Trouble Zones

Thursday 6/17 - Cardio Party

Fri-Sun - RESTED!

Plus I have been trying to do bicep curls, military presses, and chest flys everyday.

Now, eats...

For reasons unknown, my breakfast picture disappeared in cyberspace after I sent it to my email from my phone. Bummer. I had vanilla yogurt mixed with chocolate Cheerios and strawberries. It was yummy, but the yogurt sorta hid the flavor of the Cheerios. Ah, well.

Lunch was a sandwich.
Made on a multigrain thin with cracked pepper hummus, feta, spinach, tomatoes, and a swirl of sriracha. DELICIOUS!! Having this again tomorrow for sure :) I also had some parmesan herb baked chips, cucumbers, and Newton's fruit crisps. First time trying the fruit crisps and, because I expected them to be soft, they were a big letdown.

Dinner.
Pizzadilla! Made with a whole-wheat wrap, pizza sauce (mixed with minced garlic and sriracha), spinach and feta. On the side I had broccoli and yogurt blue cheese dressing. Great meal, but left me with a tummy ache for some reason. Another bummer.

When I was feeling a little better I had a dessert of chocolate pretzels, strawberries, and grapes.
Fruit is goooood. This might be the last 100 calorie pack you see for a while. I am trying to stay away from snacks like this that have hardly any nutritional value and rarely fill me up. Still, I'm sure a few will sneak their way into my meals here and there :)

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T09:42:00.008-04:00

Bryan and I headed home for the weekend, and ever since I got here I have been in no mood to take pictures. To give you a quick picture-less recap....I've snacked on tons of fruit, nuts, and crackers, and indulged in a delicious Italian meal of antipasto, chicken franchese, and cannoli cake.

More importantly, Happy Father's Day! (to all the fathers) Especially to mine!

Me and my dad on a cruise last year.

Me and my dad in Aruba in 2008.

Call me biased, but I have the BEST dad :) Love you daddy!!!

Many eats to share.

2010-06-17T18:18:00.003-04:00

When trying to come up with a title for this post I tried to pick out something I ate over the past two days but there was just too much to choose from!!

Wednesday started off with
Blackberry yogurt, chocolate Cheerios, and red grapes. This flavor of yogurt was new to me and I had high hopes. Unfortunately it reminded me a little too much of blueberry. It grew on me as I ate it though. This was also my first time having chocolate Cheerios and they were great! They reminded me so much of Cocoa Puffs...yum! Tossed the red grapes in the yogurt which was simply delish.

Next up was a turkey sandwich.
Turkey on an everything bagel thin, topped with baby spinach, tomato, and feta cheese. I had strawberries and salty pepper Somersaults on the side. Over the past few weeks I have gone from liking to loving Somersaults. They aren't sold anywhere near me and I am going to be seriously sad when they are gone!!

Dinner.
A black bean burger with pickles, onions, ketchup and sriracha. I must have overdone it with the sriracha because my mouth was on FIRE the whole time I ate this. I had a pickle and southwestern baked chips on the side. The chips are a little spicy themselves, so this did not help the burn!!

I cooled off with dessert.
Vanilla pudding and a 100 calorie pack of brownie bites. This was another new purchase, and while they were tasty, there were far too few and they were far too small to be anywhere near satisfying.

Today's breakfast was a bowl of Ovaltine oats.
And red grapes. This was good, but I had imagined it was going to be much more exciting.

Lunch...
(Sideways, oops) Green giant vegetable medley, made a bit fancier with garlic, pepper ,and parmesan cheese. I also had some Santa Fe Somersaults.

I kept lunch light so I could enjoy some YOGEN FRUZ with Bryan :)
Chocolate yogurt mixed with bananas and raspberries and topped with blueberries. The banana overpowered the mix a bit, but it was still delicious. I always get a small and gobble it down in seconds and then mooch off of Bryan's fro-yo. Yet I refuse to buy a medium. Anyone else do this?

Dinner was
Turkey, spinach, tomatoes, and cracked pepper hummus on a multigrain thin. Plus broccoli and avocado hummus, and parmesan herb baked chips. The combination of all that hummus and broccoli is probably going to take a toll on my tummy later, but for the time being, it was worth it!

And finally, dessert.
A few cinnamon toast Pretzel Crisps and mixed berry applesauce. A fabulous pair :)

Back to food...And a review!

2010-06-15T20:17:00.007-04:00

So normal blogging resumes. As always, after a weekend of splurging it has been difficult to get back on track, but I have been doing my best.

Skipped a breakfast pic yesterday, but I had my usual vanilla yogurt and honeynut Cheerios. Ready to try something new I think...

I had a salad for lunch.
It was made with baby spinach, grape tomatoes, feta, a chopped up turkey burger, onions, and honey dijon dressing. The salad itself was great but I am still not impressed with the Morningstar Farms turkey burgs. Sooo far from what I am used to! I satisfied my incessant need for dessert with Crofter's Asia on a honey wheat thin. Delicious.

Dinner.
SmartOnes pasta primavera. Like most frozen meals this was dull on it's own but I made it a little more exciting with some spices. Not surprisingly, it left me hardly satisfied and was really looking forward to this...

Deep chocolate Vitatop and vanilla pudding with a small scoop of honey peanut butter.
Vanilla pudding and pb is a magical combination :)

Today's breakfast was a bowl of cinnamon roll oatmeal.
This was the second time I've tried this. The first time I wasn't thrilled, but this time I really enjoyed it. Not sure what was different! I wish it was in the form of a muffin though. Then I would have loved it!

I had a pizzadilla for lunch.
A little different than the usual this time, because I'm short on ingredients. This one had pizza sauce that Bryan made extra tasty with things like sriracha and spices, baby spinach, and some shredded mozzarella. I also had southwestern baked chips and a half a honey wheat thin with Crofter's Europe. This lunch was so good, but I still felt the need to snack all day.

And finally, dinner.
Tuna mixed with salsa con queso on a whole wheat wrap, topped with grape tomatoes. SO much flavor! I had Tuscan three cheese pretzel crisps on the side (review to come soon) and mixed berry applesauce. This meal was a fantastic combination of eats, but alas, I was still hungry. And thus the snacking continued!

Unpictured eats? Pretzels, Life cereal, baked chips, red grapes. (Etc...)

And now...

A review of cinnamon toast Pretzel Crisps.
These are absolutely delicious! They are the perfect healthy alternative to those cinnamony, sugary pretzels you get from the mall that make your mouth water as you walk by. What I also like about these is that they are different from your typical pretzel...thinner, airier, and lighter! So far I've only eaten them by themselves, but I foresee much dippage in chocolate and peanut butter.

Here are the nutritional stats for your viewing pleasure:
Nothing too impressive, but I love that they're low in calories and sugar (despite how sweet they are) and still have got a bit of protein in there.

Having trouble getting back into my workout routine....some encouragement please?

Make a Difference Monday

2010-06-14T18:12:00.002-04:00

Ever have a day where you eat two cupcakes for breakfast and a carton of ice cream for dinner? Yeah, that was me yesterday. So I'm going to skip over yesterday's eats and simply leave you with some inspiration.

My local Christian radio station, KLOVE, has something called "Make a Difference Monday" where they encourage listeners to go out of their way to make a difference in someone's life. I heard the following story on my way home from work and wanted to share it with you...

A woman was shopping at a dollar store when she noticed a man who seemed a little off. Other customers were giving him looks because of his odd appearance. When the woman was checking out she noticed the man was standing in line behind her. She felt something tugging at her heart telling her to pay for his items, so she did. The man began to cry and thanked her. He said to her, "you may think I'm a drunk, or a drug addict, but I look like this because I was in a serious car accident and this is how it left me." She told him that he was perfect the way he was, and that Jesus loved him, and the man began to bawl. He said that was exactly what he needed to hear.

Hopefully that story inspired you the way it did with me. I challenge you (and myself!) to make a difference...maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but hopefully sometime this week. Just think, for only a few dollars, that man's life was changed for the better. Let the next person to make a difference be you!!

Number 2 & Barbeque.

2010-06-13T10:07:00.011-04:00

And the great eats continued as planned. So much to catch you up on!

First, Friday.

Breakfast was oatmeal.
Sadly, even though this was only two days ago, I can't remember what was in my oats! I also had a half a thin with delicious pear butter.

For lunch I had the rest of my Wellsley Farms turkey on a bagel thin with spinach and tomatoes.
I mixed sriracha with a tiny bit of light mayo to give it a creamier consistency and dipped my sandwich in it. So good! I had barbecue popchips on the side.

I neeeeeded dessert,
So I had a 100 calorie pack of Oreo cakesters, vanilla pudding, and strawberries. This really hit the spot.

I had dinner plans with my mom and aunt who were driving up from Westchester for bridal shower number two, but we couldn't get reservations until 7:45, so snacking was necessary. Lots of FSTG chips and Somersaults were consumed. YUM!

We had dinner at the same restaurant as last week, North Shore Grill.

I started out with an Ahi tuna appetizer.
Very salty, but very delicious.

There were also mussels and crab cakes to share.

Their seafood is seriously phenomenal.

Next up was a salad.

And of course there was bread on the table which I was able to resist...
Until our entrees took too long to come out!

But finally my blackened grouper arrived.
And was worth it :)

Saturday started with
An almond butter and raspberry jam sandwich, and frozen grapes.

Then it was time for bridal shower number two! My wonderful future mother-in-law put together an amazing luncheon so that I could celebrate with my Rochester family as well.

Check out the decor.
Not professional, my friends.
This was all done by these two lovely ladies below.
Bryan's mom, Kris, and Grandma Florence.

Lunch was just as impressive.
My plate had two different wraps on it (I went back for a third), pasta salad, potato salad, cheese, and fruit. Fantastic selection. So delicious!

And then amazing cupcakes for dessert.
I rarely eat icing, it is just not my thing, but I ate every last bit of this cupcake including the icing. SO GOOD!

Typical mom/daughter pic.

And me and none other than Melissa from Crunches for Cupcakes!
Family and blogger friends :)

After the shower a bunch of us gathered back at our apartment for a wedding party bbq.
Good times with good friends :)

My plate:
If this was all I ate I would probably felt fine today. However, around midnight I went back for several plates of pasta salad and mac salad, and at least three brownies. Which is probably why I felt like a big pile of yuck this morning! It was as if everything in my belly realized it shouldn't be there and was trying to get out as quickly as possible!!

Great weekend, sad to see it end!

The epitome of laziness.

2010-06-10T21:25:00.004-04:00

So, I was going to skip blogging tonight and spend some time working on an iMovie project. But, I can only work on it on Bryan's mac and when I turned it on I saw that it needed to be charged. So, instead of getting off the couch to get the power cord, I decided to just blog instead. That, my friends, is the epitome of laziness. I did just finish a workout and sweated my tush off...so perhaps I deserve to be a bit lazy?

Then I realized I only have two pics for you. Lame-o. Sorry!

Breakfast went unphotographed, as usual, but it was nothing special...Honeynut Cheerios and vanilla yogurt.

Then lunch...
Turkey, baby spinach, tomato, and sriracha, on an everything bagel thin. Plus cucumbers and veggie cream cheese, and FSTG sweet potato and jalapeno chips. Hadn't had the sweet potato flavor in a while and I forgot how gooood it is. Now, let me tell you a little bit about this turkey. I consider myself a lunch meat snob. I have a slight obsession with Boar's Head cold cuts and it wasn't until a few months ago that I gave in to trying a different brand, simply to have some more meal options. (Boar's Head meat isn't readily available where I live) Then, last week at BJ's I hesitantly tried a free sample of Wellsley Farms turkey. To my surprise, it WOWed me. It was delicious! Bryan went back this week to get half a pound. It is the closest thing to Boar's Head I have ever found. It turned a typical sandwich into something quite spectacular. I cannot explain how excited this makes me!

And to continue the good food news,
I had an AWESOME dinner from Pita Pit! I had a salad with baby spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, falafel, feta, and tzatziki sauce. This was a beast of a salad and I wish I could eat it every single day. It was such a filling meal.

I have a filling the good eats will continue this weekend. Look out for some good posts!

Little bit of everything

2010-06-09T17:58:00.007-04:00

Today started off with a bowl of oatmeal.
Maple and brown sugar oats mixed with dark chocolate dreams, and topped with lots of strawberries. I was trying to recreate the strawberries & cream and dark chocolate dreams combo, but this didn't even compare, unfortunately. The oatmeal was good, and the strawberries were good, but together they weren't anything to write home about.

Lunch was a pizzadilla.
In case you just started reading, the glorious pizzadilla is essentially a quesadilla, only with pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese, instead of the usual Mexican fillings. It was as delicious as ever. I also had cucumbers, strawberries, and a 100 calorie pack of peanut butter crackers.

I was craving all sorts of different things for dinner, so what did I do? Had a little bit of everything!
Repeat meal...another pizzadilla! My lunch was so good that I just had to have it again! I also fancied up the sauce with some sriracha and minced garlic (stole that idea from Bryan), and left out the cheese, and to be honest, I didn't miss it! I also had half a Naturally More and apple butter sandwich.

And...
A snack plate with cucumbers, FSTG buffalo chips, and yogurt blue cheese dressing.

Such a happy belly :)

Highlight of my day?
Coming home to a package from Pretzel Crisps! They sent me four flavors -- classic, tuscan three cheese, cinnamon toast, and supreme. I dove into the cinnamon toast and supreme already and both were absolutely divine. I will post more detailed reviews soon. Stay tuned!

PS. Changed the font. Should it stay?

Short and sweet

2010-06-08T19:10:00.004-04:00

Hate to have a brief post again, but I'm feeling a little lost for words today! My brain is tired.

So without further ado,

Breakfast.
Light & Fit strawberry banana yogurt, honeynut Cheerios, and green grapes. Saved some of the cereal for a late morning snack. Cereal is awesome, but I think I'd have to eat gallons before feeling satisfied.

Lunch.
Leftover kung pao veggies, sandwich style. Loved how stuffed this sandwich was. When the veggies felt out I ate 'em up with a fork and it was like second lunch! I also had a sliced gala apple and barbecue popchips. And Lots of water to wash away the spiciness!!

Dinner.
Black bean burger, topped with sriracha/ketchup, pickles, and southwestern baked chips. Yum.

And then a perfect dessert.
I broke up the Kashi bar and dipped the pieces into a mix of vanilla pudding and honey peanut butter. Heavenly. Beyond bummed that this was my last Kashi bar because I would be having this over and over again!

Being sick means...

2010-06-07T20:53:00.004-04:00

A lackluster post, and a lackluster workout. My apologies for the first thing, and argghhh to the second. I usually take it easy on the weekends so I absolutely hate when Monday rolls around and something gets in the way of me jumping back into my workout routine. Today it was feeling Incredibly Icky that got in the way. I've felt under the weather all day and my 6pm nap only made it worse. I refused to give up exercise altogether though, and did three easy ten minute workouts from OnDemand.

Not too many eats to share with you...

Breakfast was (unpictured) honeynut Cheerios and frozen grapes. Boring!!

Lunch.
An everything bagel thin with light veggie cream cheese and sliced tomatoes. As unexciting as this sounds, it really hit the spot. Simple and delicious. I also had sliced strawberries dipped in dark chocolate dreams (need I say more?) and broccoli and carrots dipped in lite dressing. Looking back it probably wasn't the most healthy choice to have both peanut butter and cream cheese in one meal, but I think the selection of fruit and veggies makes up for it :)

Kung pao veggies for dinner.
Possibly the spiciest batch yet! I'm talking eyes watering, lips burning, nose running...HOT! But taaaaaasty. I paired the veggies with FSTG cheddar chips. Haven't decided if I prefer this combo over the veggies and sweet potato chips.

And finally, dessert.
April's protein brown batter with half of a honey wheat thin. Despite the fact that I added too much water and my peanut butter refused to be mixed, it was rather yummy. And kept me full!

Bridal shower number two is this weekend...please send health tips and positive thoughts my way so I will NOT be sick for it!!!

Sweet stuff.

2010-06-06T19:36:00.003-04:00

Breakfast this morning was
Half a honey wheat thin with Naturally More and some chocolate chips. I had blueberries and grapes on the side. This was fairly healthy, delicious, and satisfying. Everything a breakfast should be!

Lunch was a favorite concoction, "Tuna-mole"
Aka, tuna and guacamole...with lots of chip options! Pictured: Lightly salted Lays, FSTG buffalo chips (also some Bold buffalo bites hiding under them), FSTG blue corn chips, and Stacy's everything bagel chips. After I was through I was uncomfortably full and felt that way for a few hours!

I planned for a turkey burger dinner, but my tummy did not agree with said plans. Typical Sunday sweet tooth took over instead, and I snacked on sweet stuff for the rest of the day.

First, a serving of light Moose Tracks ice cream.

Next, sugar-free vanilla pudding and FSTG chocolate chips.

And a cocopop rice cake with honey peanut butter and blackberry jam for dipping.

Then there was some undocumented snacking because I simply could not figure out what I wanted to eat next. I settled on some Doctor Kracker pumpkin seed cheddar flatbreads. Yum!

And last but not least, Fitness recap...

Monday 5/31 - Turbosculpt

Tuesday 6/1 - Total Body Blast, Whittle my middle

Wednesday 6/2 - Cardio Party, Whittle my middle

Thursday 6/3- Turbosculpt, Whittle my middle

Friday 6/4 - 20 minute cardio workout and Rock Hard Body Abs (OnDemand workout)

Saturday 6/5 - Rest day

Sunday 6/6 - Rest day

Great day!

2010-06-05T23:08:00.005-04:00

You ever have a day when after all is said and done you think, "today was really great"? Today was one of those days. These days don't come around too often. But today was a winner!

It started out (pretty un-special) with a bowl of oats.
I've been trying to make my oatmeal more watery all week and finally succeeded today. Overdid it a little, actually. This batch had pear butter and a bit of honey peanut butter. Yum!

Then Bryan and I headed out to a festival in Rochester called Canal Days. It was your typical scene --lots of vendors selling art, jewelry, trinkets, decorations, etc., and of course an abundance of unhealthy food-- but we had a blast. The weather was beautiful and we had so much fun checking everything out.

Lunch was a bit of a challenge since festival food is mostly all greasy and/or fried, but I was happy to see a vendor that sold wraps.
I chose the veggie wrap, which wound up being basically bagged salad drenched in vinaigrette. Boring. It left me very unsatisfied (and jealous of Bryan's Dinosaur BBQ pulled pork sammy) and I knew I needed something else in my belly.

So we bought some sweet potato fries to munch on.
I knew they'd be fried obviously, but I was still bummed to see greasy they were, not to mention they were cold!! Ah well, ya win some ya lose some.

In happier news, I met up with my mom at one point and she bought me this beautiful bracelet.
And the funds from it are donated to a wonderful cause.

As we walking to the car about to conclude our lovely little day, I thought I heard one of my favorite Christian songs, but I was convinced my mind was playing tricks on me. Finally I gave in and followed the sound of "high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory..." and we found ourselves in front of a local Christian band!
I felt like this was God's way of tapping me on the shoulder and saying "hey, remember me?" What a great way to remind me of how awesome He is. I really needed that. The band, Soul Surrendered, turned out to be really great and played tons of my favorites so we stayed and listened to the rest of their set. It was the highlight of my afternoon!

(Much) later on we met up with my parents for dinner (we didn't eat until 9!) at a place called North Shore Grill. It was a great find -- it's only about ten minutes from us and had really good food!

I started with the Portobello stuffed mushroom appetizer.
This was very good, but I was hoping it wasn't going to be smothered in melted cheese. I also had a bite of everyone else's apps...seared teriyaki tuna, crab cakes, and mussels...which were all absolutely delicious.

Next up was a salad.
I was impressed with everything the salad was topped with, but stuck to the healthier stuff and ignored the olives and croutons. I used a tiny bit of the crumbled blue and balsamic.

I had blackened tuna for my entree.
Amazing! My meal came with sauteed veggies and wild rice. I only ate a bit of the rice, but devoured the vegetables and the fish.

Great meal. The best part? Between my mom and Bryan we took home lots of leftovers!!

I was full when we got home, but a new flavor of "light" ice cream was calling my name from the freezer. Earlier today Bryan and I bought a low calorie version of Moose Tracks and I couldn't resist having some. I didn't overdo it, but I certainly enjoyed myself :)

Hope your Saturday was as awesome as mine!

Friday Eats.

2010-06-05T09:42:00.002-04:00

Clever title, eh?

Yesterday started with dark chocolate oats.
Maple and brown sugar oatmeal mixed with dark chocolate dreams. Perrrrfection.

Next up was a pizzadilla!
With a side of veggies and yogurt blue cheese. Of course I used some blue cheese for my pizzadilla too, because after all, that is one of the world's best combinations! I also ate an unpictured chocolate pudding.

I was hungry for dinner around 4, so I ate dinner at 4 :)
SmartOnes Mac and cheese with peas and topped with cajun seasoning. Delicious and filling.

Dessert.
A South Beach s'mores bar which I was sent in the mail for free. (Yay for free samples) This had a "diet food" taste to it, but was very yummy nonetheless. My stomach has been out of sorts ever since though... not sure if it was all that fiber.

Later on my tummy was grumbling so I had a serving of Trader Joe's gorgonzola crackers and a mini dark chocolate Hershey's bar.

And now, time for more oatmeal!

Content.

2010-06-03T17:38:00.004-04:00

Tonight's dinner really left me quite content. I don't often feel completely satisfied after I eat and want to eat more, or I am way too full. But not tonight! :)

Recap of eats:

Last night's dinner...
My first time having a Morningstar Farms turkey burger. Not thrilled. It wasn't that bad, but it just didn't hold a candle to a homemade turkey burger. I smothered it in a mix of Dinosaur bbq sauce and spicy mustard and was happy. Not sure if I will buy these again though.

On the side I had a nice little snack plate
With FSTG buffalo chips, cucumbers, and yogurt blue cheese dressing. This was a new dressing for me and I really liked it. It didn't have the "yogurty" taste that the ranch had, and even though there was a definite "low fat" taste to it, the sharp blue cheese flavor was also strong. I will buy this again!

Dessert was an unpictured 100 calorie pack of chocolate pretzels, and lots of frozen grapes. Yum!

I skipped a breakfast picture today. I had vanilla yogurt, honeynut Cheerios, and fresh blueberries. My blueberries tasted a little dull, but the rest of breakfast was great. Big fan of the yogurt/cereal combo. Boring? Maybe. But oh so satisfying.

Lunch.
I had a thin with turkey and light veggie cream cheese, broccoli and cracked pepper hummus, and a 100 calorie pack of peanut butter crackers. This batch of turkey isn't so great. I kept getting weird bites that seemed fatty...Gross!! I think I might try to switch to another brand of lunch meat. Any suggestions?

And then there was dinner.
Another snack plate, with barbecue popchips, cucumbers, and salsa con queso and veggie cream cheese for dipping. I also had a jam sandwich.

And a fantastic dessert:
I have been all about mixing fruit and chocolate lately, so I had a banana yogurt and a deep chocolate Vitatop. Awesome combination :)

ARGHHH!!!

2010-06-02T13:09:00.003-04:00

Is the sound I have been making all day. It is one of those days for sure.

Since I'm not in the peachiest of moods, this post will be short. (And sweet?)

Yesterday's breakfast.
I tried something new....cottage cheese and pineapple...prepackaged for my convenience! Unfortunately, it turns out I'm not a fan of cottage cheese. At least not in the morning. I might give this another try, but definitely not for breakfast.

Lunch was turkey, baby spinach, and horseradish hummus on an everything bagel thin.
Delicious. On the side I had a sliced gala apple and a 100 calorie pack of peanut butter sandwich crackers. A pretty fabulous combination of eats I must say.

Dinner.
Half of a Fabulous Flatbreads (they sent me a whole bunch of products to review and I am JUST getting around to it!) whole-grain naan with baby spinach, leftover andouille chicken sausage, and a bit of shredded mozzarella. I know naan is Indian but these are the ingredients I had on hand so I just went with it! I cooked this in the oven and the naan came out a bit chewy. Other than that it was yummy, but left me hungry.

So I had
Vanilla pudding and honeynut Cheerios. I brought out the box of cereal with me which I knew was a bad idea. Not surprisingly, I ate nearly half the box! But I figured there were much worse things I could be snacking on!!

Today's breakfast...
This mess is vanilla yogurt, Crofter's North America, and honeynut Cheerios which of course I mixed in. Perfection.

And finally, lunch.
An everything bagel thin with veggie cream cheese and cucs, green grapes, a Kashi bar, and baked chips. Still munchin' on the grapes and bar.

Halfway through this week....Hallelujah!

Memorial Day Eats & Fitness Recap

2010-05-31T18:26:00.004-04:00

I've been having a love affair with oats this weekend. Today's batch was strawberries and cream oatmeal mixed with a spoonful of dark chocolate dreams.
A-MAZING. I wanted to eat a whole other bowl after I was done but instead I had a handful of blueberries.

In the afternoon Bryan and I headed out to a barbecue with some good eats, and great friends.

Some food:
Hummus, tortilla chips, crackers, and (phenomenal) homemade coleslaw.

Bryan's famous deviled eggs.
He put in a bit of jalapeno for an extra kick. It was impossible to not scarf down two of these bad boys. They were gooood.

Chicken shish kabobs.
So excited we got to take some of these home!

Tiny diet coke.
The size of my hand :) How adorable!?

Angel food cake.
With blueberries, strawberries, and cool whip. Perfect guilt-free dessert!

I came home in the mood to snack. Some of the highlights...
Sriracha peas!! What an outstanding find. These are a MUST have.

And this blob of a creation...
FSTG chocolate chips, cool whip, and Crofter's North America fruit spread. Delicious!!!

Fitness Recap:

Monday 5/24 - Total Body Blast

Tuesday 5/25 - Off

Wednesday 5/26 - Cardio Party

Thursday 5/27 - Turbosculpt

Friday 5/28 - 20 minute cardio workout and Abjam

Saturday 5/29 - Off / Whittle my middle, lifting 5lb weights

Sunday 5/30 - Cardio Party, Whittle my middle

Monday 5/31 - Anticipated...Turbosculpt

Fun fact...Bryan and I are getting married two months from today!!! Wowzaaaa

Sunday...in sixty words or less.

2010-05-30T18:14:00.005-04:00

Waking up with almond butter and jam.

Lunching on a summer salad.
Spinach, sausage, tomatoes.

Dark chocolate oatmeal.
For my sugar fix.

Light dinner.
Cheddar chips, turkey, tomatoes.

Then
Cereal applesauce, and Crystal Light.

After dinner walk for fro-yo.
Asking for a small and getting a medium. Proud because you only ate half :)

Long weekends are glorious.

Better and Better.

2010-05-29T19:10:00.006-04:00

So my eats have gone from "eh" to great over the past two days. They started out a little lame, but every meal keeps gettin' better :)

My "eh" meal was Friday's breakfast.
My options were limited so I had a granny smith applesauce and some cinnamon Life cereal. The applesauce was basically flavorless!

Lunch was much better.
A pizzadilla! I find myself pronouncing this like Napoleon Dynamite for some reason. Anywho, it was delicious. Cold pizza is awesome even in quesadilla form. I also had some unpictured cucumbers, and half of an everything bagel thin with pear butter. (Julie-the pear butter is PHENOM!) This may have been a weird combination except that the bagel thins really taste more poppy seed or Sesame seed than "everything".

Dinner was...even better.
Homemade black bean burgers, homemade sweet potato chips, and roasted broccoli. Yum, yum, and yum!! One of my favorite meals :)

I snacked on some chocolate FSTG chips for dessert.
It was much easier to control my eating when I measured out my portion. (Duh!)

Today's breakfast:
Bananas and cream oatmeal with dark chocolate dreams. Everything I had wanted it to be and more :)

Repeat (sideways) lunch.
Look at that gooey, melty cheese. The only thing wrong with this creation is that after I eat it I immediately want a second one. Instead, I ate a handful of chez cocoa Somersaults.

Bryan and I had a productive day of running errands, which included going to the bank, some shopping, buying a wedding band for him (I already got mine) and finally, a much needed trip to the grocery store!!
Some of my purchases. Found Morningstar turkey burgers!! Can't wait to give those babies a try. Also excited to try out a new frozen dinner, and as always, psyched to have Vitatops back in my freezer! I left most of my produce out of this picture...I got apples, grapes, blueberries, a broccoli mix, a cucumber, baby spinach, and tomatoes.

Sushi for lunch!
I had a spicy tuna roll made with brown rice. I also munched on some edamame. Definitely a great meal.

Next up was some southwestern baked chips with salsa con queso.

And then a 100 calorie pack of golden Oreos to satisfy my sweet tooth :)

Happy Memorial Day weekend!!

Gettin' there!

2010-05-27T18:14:00.005-04:00

I've been able to get back to working out. Woo! But I have not been able to stop snacking! Rar. Thank goodness I have this blog to hold me accountable, otherwise I might have just eaten an entire bag of FSTG chocolate chips. Wow. So addicting.

Last night was a surprise dinner.
I came home to a pita from Pita Pit waiting for me in the fridge! It was stuffed with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, banana peppers, feta cheese, and tzatziki sauce. I meant to take a picture of it unwrapped but I was too busy chowing down and forgot! I also had barbecue popchips and a HUGE diet coke. And then some other chips were consumed. Having a huge box of FSTG chips is just way too tempting!!!

Breakfast = Banana oats in a beautiful bowl.
Yummmmy. Like a banana muffin! Except what this really needed was a touch of chocolate. I'll be adding dark chocolate dreams to my next batch :)

Lunch.
I snacked on cucumbers, an apple, and popchips instead of having a full meal so I could save my appetite for...

YOGEN FRUZ!
Had to have my weekly frozen yogurt fix of course! I had chocolate yogurt mixed with raspberries and topped with blueberries and pineapple. Perfection! Drooling just thinking about it!!

I had tuna for dinner. Have I mentioned I am way overdue for a grocery trip? Hence why my meals are a bit repetitive.
I ate some of the tuna on half of an everything bagel thin and then rest with popchips. I also had broccoli and cracked pepper hummus.

Dessert was a cocopop ricecake with honey peanut butter.
I could bathe in this stuff. It's THAT good.

Then uncontrollable snacking took place. I munched on anything within reach! That's why I try to put the more unhealthy snacks in the highest cabinets :)

Why am I such a bottomless pit lately?!?

Almost back to normal.

2010-05-26T13:09:00.005-04:00

Getting back to my healthy ways has been more difficult than I expected. For the past few days I've felt sick to my stomach and unbelievably hungry...at the same time...which has caused me to snack uncontrollably and NOT work out. I'm feeling better today so I'm hoping things will be back to normal soon.

Tuesday's breakfast.
Peaches and cream oatmeal. In one of our beautiful new bowls! This is probably my least favorite of the fruit and cream flavors, but I like to save the best ones for last! Looking forward to bananas and cream later this week :)

Lunch was a thin with almond butter and raspberry jam.
Plus broccoli, salsa con queso, and refried beans. My tummy was not happy after this and I'm thinking it may have been the beans. My sandwich was delicious though, and the broccoli and cheese combo was amazing as always.

Dinner...
I love our new dishes!! I had an everything bagel thin with cheddar cheese and sliced tomato, barbecue popchips and cucumber slices. This was an awesome meal. If only it filled me up!

But of course it did not,
So I had some (sideways) chocolate pudding and a chocolate Special K bar. And THEN the snack monster attacked so I had unnecessary amounts of lightly salted chips and cinnamon Life cereal.

Today's breakfast (phone quality picture)
Was mixed berry applesauce and more cinnamon Life cereal. I'm addicted.

And finally, lunch.
Tuna and salsa con queso on a wrap, with a side of cucumbers and lite dressing and chocolate pudding for dessert. Cucumbers are the perfect snack for a hot summer day! And it is HOT out there today. I'm thinking one of the reasons I haven't been feeling great is because I'm a little dehydrated, so I've been trying to refuel with lots of water and Crystal Light.

I really want to work out tonight...but I am dreading doing it in my hot apartment! What do you do to beat the heat?!?

Plus... Check out this giveaway!

Dinner Should Taste Good.

2010-05-24T18:06:00.003-04:00

And what better way to make that happen than to eat Food Should Taste Good chips? I swear, more than half of my dinner was FSTG chips. SO addicting!

But first...

Last night's dinner.
The FIRST pizza Bryan and I have ever shared!!! Seriously! He doesn't eat cheese so we always get our own pies but I really wanted to split it with him this time so I skipped the cheese. And it was still delicious :) My half had pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, sweet peppers, and onions, and his half had pepperoni, sausage and mushrooms. Hardly healthy, but VERY tasty.

Breakfast!
Actually took a picture :) Too bad it was far from exciting. I had a Kashi bar and frozen grapes.

Lunch was an everything bagel thin with salmon cream cheese and sliced tomatoes.
I also had a gala apple and jalapeno crunchies on the side. This meal was sub-par. Apple wasn't sweet, tomatoes were mushy, etc. But it got me through the day!

And dinner.
A black bean burger topped with pickles, onions, sriracha, and ketchup, with a spoonful of refried beans and a side of FSTG blue corn chips. Yum!

Dessert.
I started out dipping some chocolate pretzels in honey peanut butter but once those ran out I switched over to FSTG chocolate chips! What an amazing combination! I could have gone on eating this all night!!

Now I'm currently enjoying a Crystal Light raspberry ice pop to help cool me off in this unbearably hot weather!!

And of course, a fitness recap:

Sunday 5/16 - Rest of Cardio Party and Turbosculpt

Monday 5/17 - Cardio Party and Abjam

Tuesday 5/18 - Total Body Blast and 10 minute ab workout

Wednesday 5/19 - Turbosculpt and 10lb slim down upper body

Thursday 5/20 - 20 minute cardio workout

Friday/Saturday/Sunday- Rest Days!

It’s good to nourish your body…

2010-05-23T18:23:00.009-04:00

But it's better to nourish your soul. As important as health and fitness are to me, I was too wrapped up in spending time with my friends and family this weekend to care even a little bit about eating healthy or working out. And I'm so glad. I had a wonderful, guilt-free weekend!

I am blessed that both my mom and my future mother-in-law are giving me bridal showers, and this weekend was bridal shower number one, back home in Westchester.

I've decided not to recap any meals I missed and just jump right into the shower fun. I was actually pretty stressed about this event because I do not like being the center of attention! Bryan and our dads brought me to the restaurant and we were immediately overwhelmed by paparazzi! There had to be twenty cameras in our faces!
Yet even though there was so much attention on us, the stress seemed to melt away when I let myself realize that everyone was there because they loved me, and I wound up having an amazing time.

5/7 of my bridesmaids.

Future mother-in-law, me and mom!

Sorority sisters!
Bridesmaids and me in my ribbon hat. As much as I hated wearing it, my cousin did an AWESOME job making it!
My mom, Nanny Annette, me, and Nanny Coombs. The most amazing women in my life.

Love them SO much!

Me (with the lovely hat) and my mom. Huge thanks to her for putting this all together.

So many amazing gifts...
The favors... wedding cakes and wedding dresses. They were every bit as delicious as they were cute!

And the reason that all these wonderful things are happening to me...
Love you Bryan!

So, there you have it. A wonderful weekend. Food and fitness will pick back up tomorrow :)

Just a few bites...

2010-05-19T17:39:00.006-04:00

I don't have too much to share with you, but I'm heading home tomorrow so I won't be able to blog until Friday at the earliest, and I didn't want to neglect my blog for that long!!

Shame on me, I forgot to take a pic of breakfast. AGAIN. Boo!! I had a cocopop ricecake with honey peanut butter and a side of frozen grapes. This surprisingly kept me full until lunchtime!

Lunch was a veggie burger.
Well, a Morningstar Farms black bean burger to be exact. I had it on a wheat thin topped with pickles, red onion, ketchup, and sriracha. SO TASTY! I skipped out on sides because I was meeting Bryan for frozen yogurt later.

We met for YOGEN FRUZ, of course. Mine was chocolate yogurt mixed with banana, and topped with blueberries and strawberries.
Deliciousness. Bryan got chocolate mixed with raspberries and blackberries and topped with strawberries. A berry bonanza! His was amazing too. Can't believe I didn't think of the chocolate/raspberry combo...I LOVE those flavors together. Definitely getting that next time we go!

Dinner.
Kung pao veggies and a side of FSTG cheddar chips. The perfect combination of spicy and salty. Yum!!! Can't wait to have the leftovers tomorrow.

To satisfy my sweet tooth I had
Sugar-free chocolate pudding an a vanilla Special K bar. Nothing too exciting or healthy about these choices, but together they were DIVINE. Perfect dessert!

Terrible Twos-day

2010-05-18T13:27:00.007-04:00

I know the title of this post is beyond corny, but once it popped into my head I knew it was just too perfect not to use. That should tell you all you need to know about my day. I was ready to be home in my bed by about 9am.

Last night's dinner was simple.

An everything bagel thin with the last of my cracked pepper turkey, topped with sliced pickle and mayo, with some barbecue popchips and 100 calorie pack of chocolate pretzels on the side. To make up for the veggies this meal was missing I dove into an amazing stir fry that Bryan put together the night before. I picked out pretty much all the vegetables. SO DELICIOUS! Thanks Bryan :)

Skipped a breakfast pic, again. Sorry! I had banana yogurt and Honey Bunches of Oats mixed in. I liked the change of yogurt flavor but I think I prefer the vanilla/cereal combo.

Lunch was an everything bagel thin with salmon cream cheese and sliced tomato.

I had cauliflower on the side with some parmesan cheese and pepper for a little extra flavor. Such a big fan of this salmon cream cheese. I kind of bought it reluctantly because I haven't been able to find my beloved spinach and artichoke cream cheese, but it's turned out to be a great choice! Oh, there's also pudding in this pic, but I wasn't in the mood!

Dinner.

The pizza quesadilla was the greatest find because I crave pizza A LOT. Like tonight! I had the rest of the cauliflower on the side. Fantastic :)

Dessert was a Kashi dark chocolate coconut fruit & grain bar.

I wasn't feeling totally satisfied after this and the next thing I knew...Snack Attack! I had a whole bunch of honey mustard and onion pretzel crisps and some Kopali Organics dark chocolate banana pieces. Finished it all off with some ruby red grapefruit juice. Yum!

Typical Sunday

2010-05-17T13:07:00.004-04:00

Sunday was pretty typical as far as eating goes. I couldn't deny my sweet tooth and I was all about snacking. I stuck to my meal plan (I plan literally all of my meals) for breakfast and lunch but for the rest of the day I decided to just eat intuitively and have what I was craving. And for the most part, I didn't overdo it!

Bryan cooked up some salmon sliders for lunch.
I ate mine bunless, with a mix of Dinosaur BBQ sauce and spicy mustard, and some mixed veggies on the side. I also topped my sliders with tomato slices, but after the pic was taken. Salmon burgers really put me in a summer mood! What foods make you think of summer?

Next up was sugar-free chocolate pudding.
Perfect guilt-free (minus the artificiality!) snack!

By around 3 my sweet tooth was in full force.
So I made an almond butter, raspberry jam, and green grape sandwich. YUM-MY! This was so good that I came really close to making another one and eating it all over again.

But instead
I had a Dr. Kracker pumpkin seed cheddar flatbread. I tried dipping it in hummus but didn't like how the flavors mixed.

Then I had some salmon cream cheese spread on a cocopop rice cake.
I topped it with tomatoes. Found a new snack!!

Somewhere between this and the next snack I took some more rice cakes and dipped them in honey peanut butter. My favvvvorite!

And lastly, I had a healthy hazel Boomi Bar.
And finally felt full!

Sure, there were a few eats here and there that escaped my camera, but those were the highlights!

Today for breakfast I had blueberries and cream oatmeal. Certain bites reminded me of a blueberry muffin actually. Delish! Anyone have an easy no-bake recipe for blueberry muffins using oats??

Lunch was:
A thin with cheddar, baby spinach, and horseradish hummus. On the side I had a sliced gala apple and some jalapeno cheese crunchies. I'm currently downing some Crystal Light ruby red grapefruit juice. I've forgotten to mention my new found love for this juice. It is so tasty and really helps me fight hunger!

Resisting Temptation & Fitness Recap

2010-05-16T10:15:00.008-04:00

As I've said before, simply being home in my apartment puts a lot of food temptation in my way. Yesterday was no exception. In fact, a morning trip to Dunkin' Donuts during which Bryan picked up not one, not two, but 25 munchkins made resisting temptation that much harder. But I am pleased to say that I successfully avoided unnecessary snacking (nothing wrong with snacking, I just struggle with overdoing it) and did not have one single munchkin. Those sugary little devils ain't got nothin on me!

So I mentioned we went to Dunkin' Donut's yesterday. This isn't typical for me because I don't like buying breakfast, and coffee upsets my stomach, but I had two gift cards (from teacher appreciation), so we decided to put them to use.
I got a small iced vanilla latte lite (kind of a mouthful!) and an egg white and cheese on an english muffin. I would have liked a wheat english muffin, but this Dunkin' didn't carry 'em. Bummer. Having a breakfast sandwich was a really nice change from the norm. The iced coffee was also good, but only after I dumped a whole lot of Sweet 'N Low in it. Is Sweet 'N Low bad for you? I should probably know this. Also, to my pleasant surprise, the coffee didn't give me any tummy troubles!

I had some fruit for an afternoon snack.
A mini apple and some frozen green grapes. Very refreshing!

Dinner was
A pizza quesadilla (that got a little extra crispy in the toaster) and a salad made with baby spinach, broccoli, red onion, broken up FSTG buffalo chips, and light parmesan peppercorn dressing. Fantastic meal. The FSTG bag recommended putting the buffalo chips in a salad, so, I did! YUM!

Dessert was a deep chocolate Vitatop.
This was bittersweet because my taste buds were in heaven but it was my last Vitatop! Boo.

And finally, today's breakfast.
No better way to start off a Sunday morning than with pb&j oats! I made mine with honey peanut butter and raspberry jam. Perfection.

And now, fitness recap:

Monday 5/10 - Cardio Party, plus lifting with 5lb weights

Tuesday 5/11 - Turbosculpt

Wednesday 5/12 - 20 minute cardio workout, AbJam

Thursday 5/13 - 10lb Slimdown Total Body Blast

Friday 5/14 - Less is More cardio workout, 10lb Slimdown Core workout

Saturday 5/1 - Cardio party (Only 25 minutes...my body was done)

Catching up.

2010-05-14T18:36:00.008-04:00

I'm done with classes and yet I still haven't had time to blog! This was a long week and I am so looking forward to the weekend. I plan on doing a whole lot of nothing and I couldn't be more excited!

Anyway, I may have been neglecting my blog for the past few days but I definitely have not been neglecting my tummy :)

Wednesday I met my little for dinner at Wegmans.
We both had sushi! I had a spicy shrimp roll made with brown rice. I'm a little hesitant about grocery store sushi but this roll was pretty fab! I also made myself up a lovely salad of iceberg lettuce and spinach, cucumbers, onions, mushrooms, peppers, and honey dijon mustard. Yummm.

Thursday's breakfast.
Typical vanilla yogurt and cereal. Never fails to satisfy.

Lunch was a turkey on a thin topped with pickles and mayo.
On the side I had barbecue popchips and a new Kashi bar: Dark chocolate coconut. The verdict? OH Yum! The best part was the top of the bar which was coated in a layer of chocolatey goodness.

Dinner...
Another turkey sandwich -- this one was made with baby spinach and horseradish hummus --and jalapeno cheese crunchies, strawberries, and chocolate pudding on the side. Great meal. Sometimes I forget how spicy those crunchies are. So tasty though! I decided to dip my strawberries in the pudding to make my dessert extra special :) Delish!

Today's breakfast was strawberries and cream oatmeal.
Definitely the best fruit and cream flavor so far! I stuck with the strawberry theme and brought some fresh ones for a late morning snack.

Lunch was a repeat of the other day.
Salmon cream cheese and red onion on an everything bagel thin. A little heavy on the onions as you can see from the pic, but otherwise a mouthwatering creation :) I also had broccoli and salsa con queso, and green grapes.

A finally, tonight's dinner.
Frozen mac and cheese fancied up with sauteed spinach and Dinosaur BBQ cajun seasoning.
This has got to be one of my favorite frozen meals. So easy and SO good!!!

And last but not least, a gala apple.
My bite sort of looks like a heart, no? Maybe that's just the romantic in me :)

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY Weekend!!!!!

The most important meal

2010-05-12T13:11:00.006-04:00

Of the day is breakfast. And yet you won't see it in this post! But that doesn't mean I didn't have it... it's just that now that I bring my breakfast to work I completely forget to take pictures! So let me fill you in. On Tuesday I had strawberry banana yogurt with some grapes mixed in (barely taste the banana in this yogurt) and today I had peaches and cream oatmeal. I bought a variety box of oatmeal with all different fruit n' cream flavors and I am really impressed so far!

Okay now for pictures.

Tuesday's lunch...
A thin with cracked pepper turkey, baby spinach, and horseradish hummus. Perfection! I also had broccoli with salsa con queso for dipping, and a 100 calorie pack of chocolate pretzels. Pretty much everything about this meal was Great. Got my salts, sweets, and veggies, all I needed was a fruit. I see a repeat meal in the near future!

Tuesday night I had a lovely surprise.
What's better than coming home to a giant box of Food Should Taste Good chips?!?!? Veronica from FSTG sent me the flavors of chips that I can't find in stores near me. She sent Buffalo, Cheddar, Potato and Chive, Blue Corn, Cinnamon, and Chocolate. I think that's all of them. I'll admit it, I already opened three bags. Ok, maybe four. Reviews to come soon!

Dinner was eggplant spread, baby spinach, and melted mozzarella on a thin.
On the side I had FSTG cinnamon chips, and you can also see some almond butter hiding in the corner of that pic. My sandwich was delicious! But the spinach would have been better sauteed :) The cinnamon chips were good, not great. The cinnamon flavor was a bit too mild for me. I think I'll stick to my sweet potato and almond butter combo. Shouldn't have messed with a good thing!

Today's lunch was the amazing Naturally More and apple butter combo.
Are you tired of me raving about this sandwich yet? I also had broccoli and cracked pepper hummus and a sliced gala apple. Very satisfied :)

Happy Wednesday!

Blogger Annoyances

2010-05-10T21:01:00.003-04:00

I used to have a lot of difficulty posting updates when I was using my old computer. But now, on my brand spankin' new laptop I am running into a lot of the same problems and realizing that it's probably BLOGGER behind the issues. So, thanks a lot blogger!

Eats.

Last night's dinner was a new favorite.
A pizza quesadilla. Made with whole-wheat wrap, pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni, and shredded mozzarella. Not sure why there's so much plate in this picture!

For dessert I tried out a new kind of oatmeal...
Blueberries and cream. Delicious! So good, and I didn't need to add a thing!

Today's breakfast:
Honey Bunches of Oats and strawberries. This was yummy but apparently not very filling because I was SO hungry that I actually had to eat my lunch with the toddlers at the very early hour of 11:30am.

I had an everything bagel thin (new purchase, very exciting!)
Slathered with salmon cream cheese (another new purchase) and topped with red onions. Clearly I was going for the lox and cream cheese combo and this totally did it for me! Can't wait to have this again!!

Dinner:
A black bean burger topped with salsa con queso, with Kay's parmesan protein chips and a pickle on the side. Super annoyed that blogger won't let me turn this picture!! Rar. Dinner was great though! As you may have noticed, during my weekend home salsa con queso and I rekindled our relationship :) I am in love with this stuff! SO much flavor, and the 40 cals/serving doesn't hurt either!

Dessert was a honey wheat thin topped with Crofter's South America fruit spread.
Yummy. However...like breakfast, this didn't fill me up so I dove headfirst into my box of Honey Bunches of Oats and nearly finished the darn thing. Needless to say, after I was through I was thoroughly full!

Sunday Sweet Tooth

2010-05-09T17:42:00.010-04:00

We’re currently driving home to Geneseo, and I’m updating from the car. And as I type I am miserably losing a battle against my unfailing “Sunday Sweet Tooth”. I’ve got a bag of mini chocolate bars next to me and if they’re not in my belly, I’m not happy. I considered hiding them somewhere in the car but at this point, I know the best way to beat this chocolate monster is to feed it!

So let me catch you up a little on my weekend eats. These are just the highlights. There was mucho snacking that went unpictured.

Friday night my grandparents came over for dinner and we had a barbecue, or more accurately...a feast. There were lots of temptations but I did my best to make healthy choices.

I had a chipotle black bean burger, half topped with salsa con queso, and half topped with mushrooms and my grandma’s famous roasted peppers.

I also loaded my plate with sides…mixed veggies and bean salad. I went back for a few more helpings.

Saturday morning we were meeting with our pastor for premarital counseling and the last thing I wanted was a growling stomach during our session so I had made sure my breakfast was filling. Bryan did no such thing :)I had a bowl of oatmeal with peanut butter and topped with lots of honey nut Cheerios. I did Not remember what a freakin tasty cereal this was! Yum!

I splurged for lunch and had one of my all time favorites, a turkey and swiss sub!

My sub was topped with lettuce, tomato, onions, mayo, and oil and vinegar. I had some Asian “sweet and spicy” chips on the side. A very satisfying meal. A turkey sub never fails me! (As long as it’s Boar’s Head!)

I had a major craving for something sweet after so I satisfied it will a big ol’ serving of Entemann’s crumb cake.My mom called me out on eating almost half the cake. Oops!

We ordered Chinese food for dinner. Another favorite.

We had chicken and broccoli in garlic sauce, sesame chicken, vegetable lo mein, fried rice, and some sushi. I filled up my plate quite a few times.

Then I had a dessert that I certainly didn’t need…a chocolate éclair.

I swear these were taunting me all weekend!!

I started off today with an apple and an oatmeal raisin cookie.

Lunch was a fun concoction. I took the leftover mixed veggies from Friday, and stirred in some chopped up grilled chicken and salsa con queso. This was good, but the salsa lost some of its cheesy spice when it was mixed with everything. I also had an apple, The rest of my Kettle baked chips, and lots and lots o’ chocolate!

Fitness Recap:

Monday 5/3 – 10lb Slimdown Total Body Blast

Tuesday 5/4 - Cardio Party

Wednesday 5/5 – Turbosculpt &10lb Slimdown Core

Thursday 5/6 – Rest day/Lifting with 5lb weights in the car

Friday 5/7 – 20 Minute Cardio workout

Saturday 5/8 – Rest day

Sunday 5/9 - Who knows?!

An apple a day...

2010-05-07T11:45:00.005-04:00

Keeps the doctor a way. So what does two do?? I find that after a meal when I'm just not as full as I'd like to be, an apple always done the trick. And, I'm home for the weekend and my parents' house is always stocked with apples so be prepared to see lots :)

In other news, I'm blogging from a brand new laptop!! Yay!! I finally said goodbye to my HP Pavilion and hello to a beautiful Dell Inspiron. Thank you dad!

On to eats...

Yesterday's breakfast was vanilla yogurt and cereal. No pic, but nothin' new to see anyway!

Lunch was
A toasted thin with sauteed spinach and TJ's eggplant spread. Oh Trader Joe, how I love your creations :) I also had mixed berry applesauce. I'm on a big applesauce kick lately. It's so good!

Dinner was the rest of my Subway sub. (Did I mention I got a foot long?)
It was almost as good the second time around. On the side I had some chips that I was sent to review from Kettle Foods.
They sent me the salt and fresh ground pepper flavor and the aged cheddar flavor. Both were absolutely delicious, and the nutritional facts are awesome! I compared the salt and pepper chips to a Trader Joe's brand (same flavor) and found that you could eat 20 of the Kettle chips for 120 calories, but only 7 of the TJ's chips for 150 calories. One thing to note...the cheddar chips were so tasty but they STUNK! Like feet! So hold your breath and enjoy :)

For breakfast this morning I had some raisin bran clusters
And an apple of course!

I had tuna for lunch.
With lots of Kettle chips on the side, along with an (unpictured) apple and carrots and dip. Happy belly!

Travel Tension

2010-05-05T18:08:00.005-04:00

Anyone else get stressed about traveling? Even if it's only a long weekend? We're heading down to Westchester tomorrow night to take care of (more) wedding things and I've got to-do lists and checklists out the wazoo. I stress myself out over everything I need to remember and all the things I have to take with me. Even though I'm only going to be gone for three days! So silly.

Time for some eats.

Tuesday's dinner.
Remember the almond butter and and jam sandwich from the other morning? Well I took that breakfast and made it dinner instead. I was out of grapes so I missed that part, but other than that it was just as delicious! I also had broccoli and grape tomatoes with cracked pepper hummus for dipping, and a few FSTG sweet potato chips. Great dinner!

Breakfast in a bag!
Honey Bunches of Oats with sliced strawberries, "on the go" style. The strawberries were a nice change from just plain cereal but they did make the cereal a little soggy. (I actually like dry cereal!)

Today's lunch looks very similar to last night's because...it was!
Instead of almond butter I had peanut butter and instead of jam I had apple butter, but it's all in the pb&j family! Still not over this Naturally More and apple butter combo...don't think I ever will be! It' the kind of sandwich that makes me want to lick the remains off the tinfoil it was wrapped in. Seriously. Like last night I also had broccoli and more hummus. Yummy yum.

Dinner...
Good old veggie sub from Subway. Lettuce, tomato, onions, olives...and they were out of banana peppers so I wanted another veggie to liven up the sub but I couldn't decide between jalapeno peppers and pickles, so I got both! The pickles were tasty when they fell out of the sub but I couldn't really taste them when they were mixed in with everything else. And the jalapenos were HOT HOT HOT! Had to take most of 'em off! I also had a sliced gala apple on the side. I washed it all down with a diet coke. Chemical satisfaction :)

I was the lucky winner in a giveaway from The Candy Enthusiast
And today my wonderful prize, bonbons filled with white chocolate pb, arrived! Yayyy! I let Bryan try the first one and I had a little bite...delish!

Operation Clean Out the Fridge!

2010-05-04T13:09:00.004-04:00

Yep, it's that time again. It's been a few weeks since my last trip to the grocery store but I'm trying to hold out another week and finish everything in the fridge (and cabinets) first. So my meals are a little creative...or dull....however you wanna look at it!

Forgot to take a picture of Monday's breakfast. Boo me. I had vanilla yogurt with some Honey Bunches of Oats mixed in. Yum! So simple and sweet.

Lunch.
Looks totally pathetic in this picture but it was really very good! I spread some TJ's eggplant garlic spread on Dr. Kracker seedlander snackers and also had a mini apple and a strawberry Kashi bar. The eggplant spread is sooo delicious... I could just take a spoon to the jar and be happy!

For dinner I had
A thin with reduced fat cheddar, sliced strawberry, and just a touch of baby spinach. I also had a gala apple and salt and pepper popchips. I loved the strawberry/cheddar combo last time I tried it but believe it or not these strawberries were a little too sweet and really overwhelmed the whole sandwich. I missed the sharp taste of the cheese. On their own though this batch of strawberries is perfect!

Tuesday's breakfast:
Kinda lame. A strawberry Kashi bar and green grapes. Yummy, but not filling.

And finally, lunch.
PANCAKES! (yay) With dark chocolate dreams. Great, GREAT combo! I kinda want to eat this all day, every day. I also had some of those delicious strawberries, and then a mix of salty snacks... jalapeno crunchies and baked bbq chips. Goood lunch.

Weekend Eats & Fitness Recap

2010-05-02T19:09:00.004-04:00

I've got a term paper hanging over my head, so please excuse me if this is short and sweet :)

Yesterday's lunch was a simple idea...
That turned into an obsession! I made a pizza quesadilla with a whole wheat wrap, pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni and reduced fat shredded mozzarella. On the side I had broccoli and cracked pepper hummus. This was the perfect meal! So much flavor. It was so good that I had exactly the same thing for dinner! And I was actually craving it again today!

After dinner I had a major sweet tooth, so I gave in and said ta-ta to willpower and hello to the rest of the Better'n pb jar! Enough said.

Today's breakfast...
One half of a thin with almond butter and grapes, and one half with raspberry jam. Bryan suggested I try it as a sandwich, so I did and my taste buds went wild! YUM!!!

A little bit later I was feeling hungry so I made a bowl of pb&j oats.
With Naturally More and apple butter, of course. I also snacked on some dried cranberries (Wegmans brand) and dried mango from Kopali Organics.

We met Bryan's parents for an early dinner at a place called Lovin' Cup. Very cute, coffeehouse -like feel. I had a veggie wrap
With lettuce, tomatoes, onions, red peppers, avocado, feta, and vinaigrette. I ate the whole thing and scarfed down my pickle and all my chips as well.

After dinner sweet treat...
Chocolate "lite" ice cream. No idea what they meant by lite, but I was hoping it was at least a little bit healthier than the regular stuff!

I also had a mini apple when I got home.

And last but not least,

Fitness Recap

Monday 4/26 - Less is more 30 minute cardio workout

Tuesday 4/27 - Rest Day

Wednesday 4/28 - Cardio party

Thursday 4/29 - Turbosculpt

Friday 4/30 - 20 minute cardio workout and AbJam

Saturday 5/1 - Cardio party

Sunday 5/2 - 10lb slimdown core workout and Turbosculpt

My Worst Enemy.

2010-05-01T08:54:00.005-04:00

I've come to the startling conclusion that of all of the obstacles standing in the way of maintaining a healthy lifestyle...such as eating out and holiday splurging...it turns out that my kitchen is my worst enemy. When I'm out and about and away from that room, I am able to stick to my meal plans and make healthy choices. But when I'm home, knowing that the kitchen is a mere fifteen feet away, stocked with food galore, I feel constantly tempted...like it's always beckoning me to come and eat eat eat! I came to this conclusion as I was uploading my pictures from yesterday and realized that my pictures were hardly an accurate portrayal of what I actually put in my body. This didn't surprise me as it would have meant taking the camera to the kitchen with me something like thirty times! Usually I'm too hard on myself, but in this case I know I was overeating. I wasn't eating because I was hungry. I was eating just because the kitchen was right there...I was eating when I was full...and I was eating when I was bored. So what's a girl to do??? Help!

Okay moving on...

Friday's breakfast was glorious.
Batter Blaster pancakes topped with strawberry jam. I realize that they hardly look edible here, but I was just too concerned with gobbling them down to try for a better picture!

Lunch was a healthy variety of eats.
I had a Morningstar Farms Italian Herb Chik'n patty topped with TJ's eggplant garlic spread, sliced cucs, and cauliflower with parmesan cheese and pepper. Fantastic lunch! Light and satisfying.

Afternoon snack...
100 calorie pack of cinnamon thins dipped in Better'n pb and some Crystal Light ruby red grapefruit juice. I have been downing this juice all week, it's so delicious! After I finished the cinnamon thins I simply had to move on to bigger and better things so I dipped some blizzard Oreos. After a couple cookies I tried to salvage my snacking with a healthier choice and had some chocolate Newman O's instead.

For dinner I had a black bean burger
Topped with pickles, red onion, and of course ketchup and sriracha. Delish, but gone in a flash.

For dessert I finally tried protein cookie dough since I have seen it all over the blog world.
Chocolate protein powder, tbsp of pb, some cinnamon and water. Yum!!!

And then today's breakfast was half a Boomi bar (pistachio pineapple and unpictured)
And chocolate Oikos.

Busy day ahead...what are your plans??

Eats and a WINNER!

2010-04-29T19:47:00.003-04:00

I'll get through my eats real quickly because, let's face it, I'm sure you're more interested in the winner of the giveaway :)

Typical Thursday breakfast:
Apple butter oats! Eaten on the commute to work...no other breakfast fills me up like oatmeal does. Still can't believe I didn't have it in my life until this year!!

Pita Pita lunch date!!
What's missing from this picture? The pita! I got my meal "fork style" for a change. It was basically a salad with falafel, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, baby spinach, topped with babaganoush. I loved the falafel, and the veggies were your typical veggies, but the babaganoush was sub par. I think I'll try out the fork style option again, but I'll have to play around with the ingredients to find the perfect combo.

Bryan brought along some really tempting (and unhealthy) snacks so I also munched on some chips and Spicy Szechuan chex mix which was OUT OF THIS WORLD! I felt like I was eating an Asian stir fry! It was too delicious to feel guilty :)

And then a simple dinner...
Green Giant veggie medley (snap peas, red peppers, and potatoes in a garlic herb sauce) and FSTG sweet potato chips with almond butter for dipping. There's also a 100 calorie pack of cinnamon thins in this pic but I decided against them because my lunch was so filling.

And finally...the winner of the giveaway is....

Simply Shaka!

Congrats! Send me your address at jennamis1@gmail.com and I will get those goodies out to you asap. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Fancy up your frozen meal!

2010-04-28T18:23:00.003-04:00

Let's start out with last night's dinner.
I had a sandwich made with reduced fat cheddar, baby spinach, and horseradish hummus. On the side I had Kettle baked bbq chips, a chocolate Special K bar and some green grapes. This meal had it all..fruits, veggies, salts and sweets, but I was still hungry! I am a bottomless pit these days :)

Today's breakfast...
Vanilla yogurt with some Honey Bunches of Oats mixed in. I LOVED this combo. It's so simple but very sweet! I'm pretty sure vanilla is my favorite flavor of yogurt. Does this mean I'm boring???

Lunch:
A sliced gala apple, broccoli with honey mustard, and pancakes! With dark chocolate dreams for dipping :) I know this is kind of a random variety of eats but hey, it all goes to the same place! The pancakes and pb were obviously the star of the meal. Who says you can't have pancakes for lunch? I'm already planning on having them again sometime next week. Yum!

Dinner.
How do you turn a frozen meal into a gourmet meal? Add veggies and Dinosaur BBQ cajun seasoning! The last time I had Smartones Mac & Cheese I added sauteed spinach and cajun seasoning and LOVED it. This time I added cauliflower instead. It didn't really live up to the spinach combo but it was still very tasty and very satisfying. I'm convinced it's the seasoning that makes the meal...get out and get some! What a great investment!

To satisfy my (perpetual) sweet tooth I had...
A deep chocolate Vitatop dipped in some Better'n peanut butter. Heavenly!

I couldn't seem to fill myself up tonight, so lot's of snacking took place. Unpictured eats: 3 heaping forkfuls of pulled pork, Dr. Kracker crackers, lots o' dark chocolate!

There's still time to enter my giveaway ... I will pick a winner tomorrow night!

Fruits, Veggies, Salts, & Sweets.

2010-04-27T13:05:00.005-04:00

I realized that I plan out my meals by trying to include the following: a fruit, a vegetable, something salty, and something sweet. Let's see how my last few meals fared.

I didn't really meal plan for Sunday, so let's skip right over these next few things...
(SmartOnes lasagna florentine) and
(pb and apple butter oats)

and move right on to Monday. Oops! Didn't take a picture of my breakfast... strawberry banana yogurt and a mini apple. Yogurt=great, apple=lackluster.

Now, Monday's lunch.
I had some green grapes (fruit), broccoli (veggies) and tzatziki sauce, salt and pepper popchips (salty) and a bowl of tuna. Looks like this meal was lacking something sweet, but I doubt that ever hurt anyone.

Monday's dinner.
Kung Pao veggies, cucumbers (double veggies), seeded spelt crackers (salty), hummus, and Crofter's Europe fruitspread (can this count as my something sweet and as my fruit!!?) on a honey wheat thin.

And finally, today's lunch. (Forgot a breakfast pic again...Had Honey Bunches of Oats and frozen green grapes.)
Lunch was more Kung pao veggies, sweet potato chips (salty), a mini apple (fruit) and a 100 calorie pack of golden Oreos (sweet). Check!! Got 'em all in this meal.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Hey!

2010-04-26T20:17:00.002-04:00

Have you entered my giveaway yet??? Check it out!

Be back with normal posts tomorrow!

Eats, Fitness, and?

2010-04-25T12:33:00.007-04:00

A Giveaway!

But first, breakfast, lunch, and my weekly workout recap.

Breakfast:
Chocolate soup! At least that's what it looks like. I had Chocolate Oikos mixed with some raspberry jam and Better'n pb. When I concocted this in my head it was delish but in reality it was just OK.

Lunch:
A turkey sandwich made with cracked pepper turkey, pickles, and real mayo. Sometimes you just need the real stuff! I also had Kettle baked bbq chips, another pickle, and pear sauce. FAN-TASTIC lunch. Such a happy belly.

Fitness recap:

Sunday 4/18 - Less is more 30 minute cardio workout and Abjam

Monday 4/19 - 10 minutes of Turbosculpt turned into a reluctant rest day because of the pain in my chest!

Tuesday 4/20 - Cardio party

Wednesday 4/21 - 10lb slim down total body blast (mix of light weights and cardio) and 20 minute cardio workout

Thursday 4/22 - Turbosculpt

Friday 4/23 - 20 minute cardio workout and Abjam

Saturday 4/24 - Cardio party

Sunday 4/25 - Turbosculpt and 10lb slim down total body blast.

And finally,

GIVEAWAY!!!

In honor of my hundredth blog post...which was oh, about 7 posts ago but I didn't realize...I'm having a giveaway! The lucky winner will get a totally random collection of awesome snacks.
Shown: 2 bags of Foods Alive flax crackers (Hemp and Mexican Harvest), Newman's Own Organics Champion Chip Cookies (Double chocolate mint chip), Foods Alive Hemp Oil dressing, 2 bags of Somersaults (S.S. Sea salt and Salty Pepper), Kay's Naturals protein chips (Lemon herb), 2 Boomi Bars (Almond protein plus and Cashew protein plus), a cashew almond Prana Bar, and Newman's Own Organics mints (ginger).

How to enter:

1. Tell me which snack you want to try most.
2. Add me to your reader.
3. Follow me on twitter (jennamis1).
4. Tweet about this giveaway!
5. Post a link to the giveaway in your blog.

**Leave a separate entry for each**

I will pick a winner on Thursday, April 29th. Good luck!!!

Productivity.

2010-04-24T17:48:00.004-04:00

Downside of being super productive? It may lead to overeating! Today I got three big assignments done and I am psyched! However, I found out that a grumbling tummy is a side effect of productivity. I would be lying if I said the things you see below are an accurate portrayal of what I have eaten thus far. There was much, much more!

Breakfast was a cocopop rice cake with Better'n pb for dipping, and half of a pistachio pinapple Boomi bar.
I wasn't crazy about this bar...I think it was the pistachio part!

For lunch I made some super tasty pizzas on multigrain thins.I topped sauteed spinach with eggplant garlic spread from Trader Joe's and some reduced fat shredded mozzarella. Delicious!! I also had some cucs and light dressing.

Dinner...or maybe I should just call it my third meal since it was eaten circa 3:30 pm...was TJ's black bean soup with a swirl of sriracha and some FSTG jalapeno chips.
I think my expectations for this soup were a little too high. I wasn't thrilled, but I finished the whole bowl!

After dinner snacks:
A blue bran Vitatop with Better'n pb for dipping (probably should take a break with this for a while).

And an apricot goji Prana bar.
Big fan of this flavor. It reminded me of the maple pecan Boomi bar actually.

Unpictured eats (that come to mind)...chocolate Newman O's, half a strawberry Kashi bar, dark chocolate blueberries, Kay's jalapeno honey mustard pretzels.

Check back tomorrow for a fitness recap AND a giveaway!

Hold your breath...

2010-04-23T21:41:00.005-04:00

I titled my post this because driving home tonight, as I got off my exit, I was overwhelmed with an awful smell. It was as if I was driving into steaming pile of, well...you know. And I had to hold my breath (and breathe only out of my nose) until I got home. Not pleasant!

So, now that my lovely little anecdote has gotten you all excited to read about food (ha)... enjoy!

Let's start with Thursday's dinner.
I had a Morningstar Farms black bean burger (my old reliable) on a thin and topped with red onion, pickles, and, as always, a mix of sriracha and ketchup. I also had a side of broccoli and cauliflower with horseradish hummus for dipping. Dessert was supposed to be a peach/yogurt parfait (pre-packaged) but I took one bite and was hardly impressed so I tossed it (boo me for being wasteful on Earth Day!!) and had a raspberry jam sandwich instead. I also had a few spoonfuls of Better n' pb. Believe it or not, I think I'm slowly starting to love that stuff!!

This morning's breakfast was a simple serving of Honey Bunches of Oats.
This picture inspired me to paint my nails today :)

Before lunch I snacked on a sliced gala apple.

Then I had a thin with cracked pepper turkey, reduced fat cheddar, baby spinach, and horseradish hummus.
This sandwich combo is a keeper! I also had some salt and pepper popchips and a pickle, or two.

After lunch I made an amazing snack of Kay's french vanilla cereal dipped in Better n'pb. YUM!!!

Tonight I had a monthly mall trip with some of my bests which meant a food court dinner.
So I course I chose a veggie sub from Subway. With my sub I had a diet coke, bbq Baked Lays, and strawberry and banana crisps. Everything was great, except I couldn't decide if I loved or hated the crisps. I changed my mind with every bite!

And finally, two wonderful things about the past few days...

Today: A (very expensive) successful shopping trip! I found myself two dresses, one for my bachelorette party, and one for one of my showers, an adorable top, and a very cute pair of earrings.

Yesterday:
Surprise roses from the fiance! And in my favorite color :) Thanks babe!

Happy weekend!!

Apples and Nuts.

2010-04-22T13:14:00.003-04:00

You will see both of those show up a lot in my past few meals.

Wednesday's breakfast was...
Plain ol' maple and brown sugar oatmeal, plus a brokcn up cocopop rice cake spread with some jam. This was difficult to eat in the car. I would have been better off just putting jam in my oats and calling it a day!

I've been having my Naturally More peanut butter and apple butter combo every Wednesday for a while now,
So pb&j for lunch it was! Who likes change anyway? I also had a sliced up gala apple and a bunch of broccoli dipped in tzatziki sauce. Yum!

Dinner...
Broccoli and Cheese with shrimp mixed in, topped off with some Dinosaur BBQ cajun seasoning. I love this meal but it really doesn't fill me up. So I also snacked on some (unpictured) FSTG sweet potato chips and olive chips.

Dessert was a strawberry Kashi bar.
Kinda can't wait to run out of these so I can buy the blackberry flavor again!

Today's breakfast was a cocopop rice cake with some Better n' peanut butter and half a Prana cashew almond bar.
Not overly exciting choices, but it was nice to have something different.

And finally, lunch.
I had cracked pepper turkey on a thin with baby spinach and tzatziki sauce. I also had jalapeno cheese crunchies, a mini apple, and mango peach applesauce. Great, great variety of eats.

So there you have it, lots of apples and nuts!

A million things!

2010-04-20T13:13:00.003-04:00

I feel like I am trying to do so many things all at once! Whilst updating I am finishing my lunch, checking my email, looking at wedding bands (online), and...a million other things. So if I seem a little scatterbrained in this post...that's why!

To start...I am such a bad blogger. I totally forgot to take a picture of my (not very) exciting breakfast this morning. I had strawberry kiwi yogurt with red grapes mixed in. Tasty, but kept me full for about a minute.

Today's lunch was a salad with iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, turkey pepperoni, onions, and honey mustard dressing.
I also had some baked chips (different from the ones pictured!), and a cocopop with Justin's maple almond butter. The salad and chips were good, the cocopop and ab might have even been very good, but nothing was great. Oh well, I feel full!

Now, I haven't eaten my next meal yet but I didn't want to leave you with just one picture. So, since Bryan is wonderful enough to not only pack my dinner and take a pic too, here's dinner!
Turkey on a thin with the last of the veggie cream cheese and some baby spinach, plus baked kettle bbq chips, carrots and dip, and a 100 calorie pack of cinnamon thins. Looks awesome...I am very confident I will enjoy this :)

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Sundays are for...

2010-04-19T20:09:00.004-04:00

Sweets?

Before I get into today's eats, let me catch you up on the rest of yesterday. Now, I know I've mentioned how much I snack on Sundays. Yesterday was no exception, but all I wanted was SWEET stuff. Very unlike me!

At first I tried to start off slowly...

I had some raspberry jam on a cocopop rice cake.
Yum...but I needed to move on to something bigger and better.

Like Blaster Batter pancakes!
Check out all these fillings!
Mini peanut butter cups, dark chocolate dreams, white chocolate chips, dark chocolate blueberries. Man oh man this was my downfall.
I ate two of these, and then just kept chowing down on the chocolate.

Had to get my salt fix though! (Of course!)
So I made a mini pizza on a thin with turkey pepperoni, onions, and shredded mozzarella.

I also tried to make a protein muffin since I finally had the ingredients on hand...
But failed! This tasted like air, so I tossed it.

And finally...Monday meals.

Breakfast was vanilla yogurt with some Honey Bunches of Oats mixed in.
I love the cereal/yogurt combo!

Lunch was turkey on a thin
With baby spinach and horseradish hummus, and a side of salt and pepper popchips. I also had pear sauce....which I know I wasn't raving about...but now that I only have one left I'm a little sad. Haven't seen these babies in Wegs!

For dinner I had a whole-wheat wrap
With iceberg lettuce, onions, cucs, feta, and tzatziki. (Repeat from last week) Yum! I also had a cinnamon roll pudding (it's sugarfree...and tasted it...bleh), jalapeno cheese crunchies, and some grapes. Good meal!

Bummed tonight because I have this really bad pain on the right side of my chest and it's keeping me from working out. Blah!

YouTubing.

2010-04-18T20:29:00.015-04:00

I'll be back tomorrow with a food post, but for now...

Some YouTube vids of mine that I'd like to share with the blog word:

My grandpa passed away last summer and this Christmas I put together a video of our family clips and photos to honor him. One of the special features was a clip of my cousins and I dancing, and I put it to the song "Down". Hilarious!

Remember the adorable pic of my grandma with my new cousin? The oldest girl in the video is her mom! Crazy stuff!!

And this is my cat, Ellie..saying hi to me.

This is how she greets us when we come home :)

Groceries & Fitness

2010-04-18T12:49:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite times to grocery shop is at night. So, instead of going to the movies as planned, Bryan and I spent our Saturday night at Wegmans! Stocking up on good eats = a perfect date night :)

We went to the Pittsford Wegmans instead of the one we usually go to because it's about 100 times nicer. I was a little disappointed that they actually didn't carry some my favorites (like spinach and artichoke cream cheese), but their "Nature's Marketplace" made up for it!!

My purchases...
Some highlights: Justin's nut butter...yay!!! I got packets of cinnamon pb, honey almond butter, and maple almond butter. I also got more horseradish hummus (discovered Tribe makes it, phew!), two packets of protein powder, salt and pepper popchips (finally! My Wegmans doesn't carry this flavor), cocopop ricecakes, and baked Kettle Chips. Some really great stuff!

Last week Shannon from Lessons to Learn sent me my prize from her giveaway...
A box of Boomi Bars and Prana Bars! I decided to try one out for breakfast this morning.

I had the Maple Pecan Boomi Bar and LOVED it!
The maple flavor reminded me of pancakes, and the texture reminded me of Fig Newtons. Great combination! Thanks Shannon!

Lunch was TJ's smoked apple chardonnay chicken sausage. (That's a mouthful!)
With sauteed baby spinach. The sausage was good, but I actually like what we get from Wegmans better. It had a hot dog taste, and even thought I love hot dogs, it was not what I expected.

And a fitness recap...

Monday 4/12 - Cardio Party

Tuesday 4/13 - Turbosculpt

Wednesday 4/14 - 20 minute cardio workout and Abjam

Thursday 4/15 - Turbosculpt

Friday 4/16 - Cardio Party

Saturday 4/17 - Rest day (Although I do think walking around a grocery store burns some cals!)

Sunday 4/18 - "Less is More" 30 minute cardio workout on Exercise OnDemand...plans for a 20 minute workout at some point later today.

Plus, I made an effort to do sitting crunches during my commute to and from work every day. And I can feel a difference!

Sushi Saturday.

2010-04-17T17:16:00.004-04:00

Been lookin forward to this all week!

But first, a recap of dinner, breakfast, and snacks.

Last night I threw together a quick salad.
It had iceberg lettuce, red onion, cucumbers, turkey pepperoni, gorgonzola crackers, and honey mustard dressing. Good, not great. I wasn't really too concerned about dinner though...the only thing on my mind was what I had planned for dessert :)

I had been saving the last of my jar of Naturally More for a special occasion, and what's more special than a Friday night after a long day of work?
Embarrassingly, I didn't want to wait for my oats to cool for OIAJ so I had OIAB instead. This batch consisted of maple and brown sugar oatmeal, some Kopali Organics dark chocolate covered banana pieces (which I like better in something then on their own), and of course, Naturally More. YUMMY...but, I wasn't as full as I thought I'd be and I wound up snacking a lot before bed.

Breakfast was simple and satisfying.
A honey wheat thin with almond butter. When this batch runs out, should I stick to Naturally More or try another brand?

Afternoon snacks...
Dark chocolate covered blueberries and chez cocoa Somersaults. Major sweet tooth today!

And then...it was Sushi Saturday. Tummy, you are so welcome.

We started off with a crawdad bowl appetizer.
Crawdads? Good. Sweet and sour sauce? Great. All fried up? Amazing. And served over white rice. What could be better?

Then, this spread:
Edamame, (crawdad app in the background), and five phenomenal rolls. Bryan had the Carly roll (Escarole and avocado rolled in onion crunches), the Salmon Diablo (diced salmon and minced scallions in a chili garlic sauce), and the Katana roll (crabstick, seaweed salad, and Japanese mayo, rolled in onion crunches). I had the Oakland Roll (snowcrab, Japanese mayo, avocado and hot sauce) and the Happy Crab (crabstick, bacon, cream cheese, cucumber, avocado, and Japanese mayo, rolled in onion crunchies). Such good choices!

And of course there was dessert.
Fried cheesecake bites and fried Oreos! With a hazelnut chocolate sauce for dipping. There are no words to describe this dessert! Well, delicious, delectable, mouthwateringly good. I guess those would give you some idea. Oh, and fresh strawberries! Who remembers the fruit when there's fried food around?

Shouldn't every Saturday be Sushi Saturday?

A Midday Post?

2010-04-16T13:08:00.003-04:00

Yes! I found internet in the parking lot at work so I can finally post during the day! Nothing cooler than sitting in your car and blogging during your break :)

I skipped blogging last night so that this post would be chock full of eats.

Thursday's breakfast was apple butter oats.Confession..this isn't the actual picture but I swear it looked just like this. And it was delicious, as always!

Lunch was a great variety of things.
I had leftover kung pao veggies with a sprinkling of parmesan. The mix of spicy and cheesy was amazing! My sides were FSTG sweet potato chips, a Kashi strawberry bar (this flavor hasn't really grown on me yet) and a mini apple. Loved this lunch. The best part is it really filled me up!

I had pb&j for dinner.
I used Naturally More and Crofter's Asia fruit spread. I missed the apple butter combo but this was pretty good too. Made me love Naturally More even...more. I also had cucumbers with horseradish hummus (going to be SO sad when it's all gone) and southwestern baked chips. Yum!

Today's breakfast was a deep chocolate Vitatop and some frozen green grapes.
Oh Vitatops, how I love you and your chocolately goodness. Great way to start my day.

Lunch...
Bryan took some way more artsy pictures this morning but I couldn't decide which one to go with so I went with something pretty regular. This is a whole-wheat wrap with lettuce, red onion, cucumbers, feta, and TJ's tzatziki sauce. Wow. This gives Pita Pit a run for it's money. Seriously can not wait to eat this wrap again! I also had some TJ's jalapeno cheese crunchies and a 100 calorie pack of cinnamon thins. Really good lunch but wished I had duplicates of everything. I am far from full!

WORN OUT Wednesdays

2010-04-14T19:26:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the alliteration, but that's really the best way to describe how I feel on Wednesdays. Can't wait until 15 hour days are over!

I had some great eats today.

Started out with a strawberry Chobani.
I really liked this flavor, but I really did not like the aftertaste. Not sure if it was just this particular one, or if it's something about the yogurt that I'll have to get used to.

Next up was a repeat lunch.
Usually I try to vary my lunches. I've come a long way from how I used to eat...tomato and cheese on wrap with ranch dressing...every day. No fruits no veggies ('cept for the mater!) But, when something's good..it's good. So, I had cheddar, baby spinach, and horseradish hummus on a multigrain thin, again. I stuck with the pear sauce again too, but tried out TJ's jalapeno cheese crunchies for my salty snack. Um...YUM. Great, great choice. And a pretty decent serving size!

Dinner was the famous set your mouth on fire kung pao veggies.
With half a thin to scoop up the veggies and lessen the spice just a bit.

For dessert I finally tried out some snacks that Heidi from Somersaults sent me.
I had the chez cocoa flavor- delish! And dipped them in some Better'n PB. This was my first time trying the pb too and I was a little disappointed. It's got way less calories and fat, but totally tasted that way! I felt like I was missing out on that natural pea-nutty goodness. But, mixing it with the cocoa nuggets created a pretty nice combo. I'll be having it again!

Then, to make sure I was really full...
I had a (very) small serving of some dark chocolate covered blueberries. I'm all about the portion control!

Seriously, how good is dark chocolate? I'm convinced you could cover just about anything in it and it would taste 100x better. Yum.

Sometimes life gets in the way.

2010-04-13T19:48:00.005-04:00

Of lots of things. Like blogging! But I've finally got a whole ten minutes to update!

So here goes...

When we got home Sunday night I was starvin! And wanted something in my belly as soon as possible. So I popped in a frozen dinner -of mac & cheese.
I (Bryan) salvaged it by sauteeing up some baby spinach. I mixed it in with the pasta, smothered it with Dinosaur BBQ cajun seasoning and all of a sudden it was a meal! And a very, very good one at that.

For dessert I finally gave Tina's 3 Minute Cookie recipe a try. I left out a few ingredients, and used white chocolate chips instead.

Here it is in the making.

And the final product. The Verdict? Weird consistency, but pretty tasty.

Ok, moving on to yesterday. Monday's breakfast was some red grapes and a Yoplait banana cream pie yogurt.
Banana? Yes. Cream pie? Negative. These companies need to stop trying to fancy up the names of their flavors like banana cream pie and cinnamon roll. Just call them banana and cinnamon. Nothin wrong with that!

Lunch was a repeat from last week because it was so great!
Naturally More and apple butter (bliss), a sliced up gala apple, and some celery and light veggie cream cheese. Spectacular mix of eats.

Dinner was good as well. I gave the TJ's horseradish hummus a try with some baby spinach and cracked pepper turkey, on a thin of course.

The hummus made the sandwich. SO GOOD. I also had some baked chips, and chocolate covered goji berries from Kopali Organics. I was sent a bunch of dried fruit by Kopali to sample and I loved these!! 8/10

Today's breakfast...

Kay's apple cinnamon protein cereal and a few green grapes. ADORED this cereal! Could have eaten a whole other bag :) 9/10!

I HAD to have that horseradish hummus again and SOON so I ate it for lunch on a thin with baby spinach and cheddar. YUM!

I also had TJ's honey sesame stix (heavenly), green grapes, and pear sauce. Pear sauce is...very much like applesauce. But I'm not complaining...definitely having it again soon.

For dinner I tried out the eggplant garlic spread from TJ's, on a wrap with baby spinach and feta.

I really liked this, but will probably eat it differently next time. It was more eggplanty than I expected and I might have preferred it on a thin topped with some melted mozzarella! Mmmm...ideas. I also had gorgonzola crackers (TJ's, again) and a chocolate raspberry parfait. Good stuff :)

Too much wedding planning, too little blogging.

2010-04-11T19:07:00.013-04:00

Where to start! I haven’t blogged in forever because after work on Thursday Bryan and I packed up and headed down to Westchester to spend time with my family and check (A LOT OF) things off of our wedding to-do list.

So let’s rewind to Thursday’s eats.

I began my day with a bowl of apple butter oats. I think. Thursday seems so long ago!!! But I believe that’s what I had, and I believe it was delicious.

Next came a light lunch of peas (with pepper, garlic, and parmesan), a jam sammy, and some grapes.I was saving my appetite for a magnificent dessert at YOGEN FRUZ!

This time I got my fruits – bananas and strawberries – mixed right into the yogurt, and then topped it with pineapple.HOLY YUM!

Bryan got his mixed with strawberries and pineapple, and topped with kiwi. Also a great combo! Love love fro-yo!

I packed up dinner to eat during the drive home.I had a cucumbers, baby spinach, red onions, and light veggie cream cheese on a multigrain thin. I also had a chocolate raspberry parfait, a 100 calorie pack of cinnamon roll thins, and the last of my barbecue popchips. The star of this meal was the cinnamon roll thins! So tastyyyy.

Friday’s breakfast was a bowl of cinnamon roll (overdoing it with the cinnamon stuff?) oatmeal.The flavor was good, but it may have been a stretch to call it “cinnamon roll”… “oatmeal smothered in cinnamon” would have been more appropriate.

I had packed up a lunch for Friday before we left because I have a VERY hard time controlling my portions when I’m home with my family. I had thin with turkey, baby spinach, sriracha, and feta and some baked chips. I had also packed a vanilla chobani but I don’t think it survived the car ride… it did not taste good! So I had to toss it L I also snuck a few bites of some of the other cold cuts and chips my family was enjoying.

The highlight of Friday was getting to meet my new baby cousin! My second cousin, Alyssa Marie, was born four weeks ago and I finally got to see her. There is nothing to not love about this child. She is amazing!This is a picture of my grandma with Alyssa, her first great-grandchild! I love this picture…Two gifts from God.

Another exciting part of my day…a trip to Trader Joe’s!

I had been looking forward to this for weeks!

We made out with so much good stuff! I’ve already tried almost everything we bought and have been very happy. See how happy!?

Dinner was eaten in many different parts. First, some fresh veggies…Sideways, for whatever reason.

And some homemade guacamole.One of Bryan’s best batches! I used the fresh veggies for dipping instead of chips to be just a bit healthier :)

Then, a lovely baby spinach salad with some kind of berry balsamic vinaigrette, dried blueberries, pistachios, and walnuts. Probably ate about ¾ of this! So good!!

Next up was ahi tuna in a sauce called Island Soyaki.Bryan cooked this meal for my family and we could not get over how good it was! To die for!!!

My plate:

Happy tummy.

Saturday started out with a gala apple. We were going to be tasting cakes for our wedding so I didn’t want to eat much! I wish I had taken pictures of the cakes we tried, but I felt a little weird about it. We decided on a simple, elegant cake with chocolate mousse and canoli fillings. Very excited!

Cake tasting got me in the mood for sweets so I had a pb&j sandwich for lunch with dark chocolate dreams and grape jelly. I also had some honey sesame sticks (TJ’s) which are PHENOM and leftover spinach salad. The salad wasn’t really doing it for me this time so I switched over to some raisin bran clusters.Loveddd these.

Saturday’s dinner began with a nice selection of appetizers…Roasted red pepper bruschetta, multigrain chips, a pepperoni and cheese roll, shrimp, and then some carrots and dressing that I added to the mix for a healthier alternative.

While my family had steak I enjoyed a Morningstar farms chipotle black bean burger. I also had creamed spinach, mushrooms, and onions. Their steaks looked good, but I did not feel like I was missing out at all. My burger was great! Dessert was a whole lot of TJ’s products…most covered in dark chocolate…all delicious…all unpictured. I eventually had an apple to fill me up so I’d stay away from the chocolate!

This morning’s breakfast was a bowl of maple and brown sugar oatmeal with dark chocolate dreams. I also threw some raisin bran clusters in there after I took this picture.

And I had some fresh fruit!

After church we visited the hotel our guests are staying at for the wedding where they gave us these amazing chocolate chip walnut cookies. Not a healthy choice, but totally worth it.

Lunch was sort of a repeat of dinner…another black bean burger topped with cheese, mushrooms, onions, and of course, sriracha and ketchup!

How good does that look?!

And finally, a fitness recap.

Monday 4/5 – Turbosculpt

Tuesday 4/6 – Cardio Party

Wednesday 4/7 –Turbosculpt, various ab moves

Thursday 4/8 – 20 minute cardio workout, lifting (in the car!) with 5 lb weights

Friday & Saturday – Rest days. I brought home my sneakers, a sports bra, weights, Turbojam dvds…all so I would be prepared to workout. But there just wasn’t enough time to exercise!! Bummed. But I’ll get back on track J

I got a lot accomplished this weekend. I wish some of my accomplishments included working out and blogging, but hey, that’s life!

Finally...

2010-04-07T17:44:00.003-04:00

Jumped on the Chobani bandwagon!
And I think I'm staying:) Thanks to coupons from Melissa I was able to get a "buy two get one free" deal. I got two vanillas and one strawberry and gave the vanilla a try today. Really liked it! I'm still getting used to the sour cream-ness of Greek yogurt but I'm already in love with the consistency and how much it fills me up!

Today's lunch was also very filling.
I had the world's best sandwich... a honey wheat thin with Naturally More pb and apple butter. I swear this is like eating a little piece of heaven. I insist that you try it!! I also had a sliced up gala apple and some celery with light veggie cream cheese for dipping. This meal satisfied both my sweet and salty needs and I was very, very happy!

And then dinner...
I turned my salad combination from yesterday into a sandwich and had iceberg lettuce, red onions, and feta cheese on a thin. (Skipped out on the grape tomatoes) I also added some cracked pepper turkey to plump it up a bit, and dipped the sammy in honey mustard. Very good! I also had some cucumbers, Dr. Kracker hummus maximus crackers, and pine nut hummus.

Dessert.
Sweet and simple! A strawberry Kashi bar. I liked this, but definitely prefer the blackberry flavor. Good thing I have one of those babies left!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday :)

Three...

2010-04-06T17:49:00.007-04:00

On any other day, three could mean a lot of things...the number of meals I ate, the number of calls I missed, the number of times I made a kid cry, (ha!)...who knows. But today, it means the number of years I've been dating my best friend. Today Bryan and I our celebrating our three year anniversary! We're not doing anything too special tonight, just enjoying some QT with each other, but it's still an exciting day! This is also the last time Bryan and I will celebrate this anniversary, because after July 31st we'll have a new one! Crazy stuff!!

So I simply didn't have time to post last night, so let me catch you up.

Breakfast was a Light & Fit apple pie yogurt and some Kay's french vanilla protein cereal.
(Phone quality pic) I didn't remember buying this flavor yogurt and I wish I realized before I walked out the door because I would have chosen the Kay's apple cinnamon flavor instead for a better match! Oh well. The yogurt was okay - very real apple pie flavor but very fake aftertaste. Not sure if I would buy this again. The cereal was good too but I mixed it in with my yogurt so I couldn't really taste it anyway!

I met Bryan for lunch and he brought me..
A thin with cucumbers, cream cheese, and sriracha, baked chips, and veggies and pine nut hummus. I had a very similar lunch over the weekend and it was so darn good that I just had to recreate it. YUM!

Dinner was a variety of goodies, as always.
I had a thin with cracked pepper turkey, baby spinach, feta, and sriracha (awesome combo!), barbecue popchips, grapes, and a chocolate raspberry parfait. Nothing but good things to say about this meal. Everything was delicious. If only there were more of everything!

This morning's breakfast:
A mini apple (which turned out to be more of a late morning snack) and my first ever Greek yogurt! I was hesitant at first because I tried a bite of the yogurt before I swirled the chocolate around and it had a definite sour cream taste, but once I mixed it with the chocolate I was loving it! Bryan is on his way home right now with some Chobani so I'm really looking forward to trying out tomorrow!

Lunch was an old favorite combo and a new favorite combo.
Old fav: sweet potato chips and almond butter. New fav: Salad with lots of fresh veggies, feta and honey mustard! So good!!!!

Tonight's dinner was a twist on a turkey BLT.
I had half a toasted multigrain thin with cracked pepper turkey, iceberg lettuce, grape tomatoes, and real bacon bits. So tasty! I paired this with a reduced fat cheddar cheese stick. This meal was lacking fruit and a little light on the veggies, but I'm not too worried :)

Then there was... dessert!
The amazingness that is OIAJ!
I used an almost empty honey peanut butter jar. I made sure to let my oats cool before pouring them in because I've been warned about the dangers of melting plastic! This batch was phenomenal. Oh man. So much peanut butter. So satisfied!

And lastly, my anniversary gift from my future hubby! Disclaimer: We weren't supposed to exchange at all, but he surprised me with this...
A freakin' shoe organizer! This is such a lifesaver! I seriously needed this so bad. He is so thoughtful :) (Don't you love the bow?) Thanks babe!

WILLPOWER vs. Holiday Feast

2010-04-04T20:48:00.008-04:00

Guess who won? Holidays are always associated with eating (and in my case, over-eating), so I guess I should have known what I was getting into, but I was really hoping that I would have a little more self-control today. But before we talk about today, let's talk about last night.

We had reservations at Black & Blue, one of my favorite restaurants, so I knew I was going to be straying from my healthy ways. I did, however, do my best to control my portions.

I split the chopped salad with my mom, though you would never know by the size.
This combination of bacon, blue cheese, chickpeas, and sweet and sour vinaigrette is simply divine! I ate the whole thing!

Next up was the crab and lobster fondue.
HOLY YUM! That is the only way to describe this. Plus it was a HUGE serving! My mom and I shared this as well and had tons left over. I tried to avoid the doughy pita triangles it came with, and mixed it in with my salad instead.

Bryan enjoyed an appetizer of tuna tartare.
I snuck a bite and this was veryyy tasty.

I wasn't in the mood for red meat so I chose the ahi tuna over steak.
Good call on my part because I was already pretty full from apps, and this was the perfect light meal. And, it was DELICIOUS! It was paired with snap peas, carrots, and potatoes, all in a delectable ginger glaze.

But, you can't go to a steakhouse without a little bite of steak right?
So this lovely lady, aka my beautiful mother, let me try her filet mignon which was coated with melted crumbly blue cheese. Mmmmm. Perfection.

And here's the fiance with his ribeye topped with lump blue crab.
Looked good!

I definitely did not need dessert but I really wanted it, so, I indulged! It was a toss up between the banana cream pie and the white chocolate cheesecake but I went with the one with fruit in the name. That means it's good for you...right? ;)
"Caramelized fresh bananas & banana infused custard with an oreo-cookie crust". Oh yeah, it was as good as it sounds.

Even though I went to bed with a very full tummy, I woke up hungry and refueled with some apple butter oatmeal.
I also enjoyed some unpictured cantaloupe and green grapes.

And then it was time for the Easter feast! Bye bye willpower!

Appetizers are my all time weakness, and this spread didn't make it any easier.
Cheese and crackers, chocolate covered pretzels, goldfish.
Deviled eggs, cream cheese and salsa dip, leftover crab and lobster fondue.
Baked brie and raspberry in a crescent roll!

I tried almost everything, but couldn't stay away from the cheese!

Then we had a wonderful meal of:
Caesar salad.
Asparagus. (And unpictured peas)
Beef bourguignon.
Snappy seafood stew.

My plate:
A little sampling of everything, of course! A delicious meal. My favorite was the seafood stew!

I was too full to go back for seconds, but made room for the amazing desserts. Two trifles - one with chocolately goodness, one with strawberry, both to die for.

Plus some chocolate covered strawberries.

A day of GREAT eats!!!

Not gonna lie, after this feast I snacked incessantly on jelly beans and M&M's. Totally overdid it. Unhappy tummy.

Hope you all had a fabulous day, however it was spent. Happy Easter! And thank you Lord!!

Saturday Eats & Fitness Recap

2010-04-03T16:58:00.003-04:00

Today's breakfast was OIAJ in my almost empty bowl of Naturally More almond butter.
I have been getting excited for this batch for weeks now and was kind of disappointed!!
The almond butter left in the jar was all very hard and stuck to the sides so it didn't really mix with the oatmeal. Bummer.

After breakfast Bryan and I headed out for the jog that I had promised myself I would do. I don't know who I was kidding. I hate running!!! I am just not cut out for it. About five seconds into jogging I had to stop and walk instead. I was a little upset at first but then Bryan made me realize that I could eventually work up to jogging or running and that walking the two miles we did was a good start.

Lunch was far from healthy but I just couldn't resist the leftover buffalo chicken pizza from my brother's dinner.
I paired my slice with a healthy side of broccoli and pine nut hummus. I also had some unpictured cantaloupe.

Later on I also had far two many Ritz munchables dipped in dark chocolate dreams. Bad decision. We've got reservations soon at one of my favorite restaurants and I'm still full from snacking!! Oh well.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've decided to do a weekly recap of my fitness rather then just talk about my workouts randomly through the week. It will be easier for me to keep track of what I've been doing. So, my workout schedule for this previous week:

Monday 3/29 - Cardio Party (40 minutes of cardio), plus 60 regular crunches, 40 standing crunches, and various ab moves from Abjam.

Tuesday 3/30 - Turbosculpt (40 minutes of toning arms and thighs)

Wednesday 3/31 - 20 minute cardio workout (Turbojam) and Abjam (20 minutes of ab work - 10 standing, 10 on the floor)

Thursday 4/1 - Cardio Party, plus some lifting 5 lb weights

Friday 4/2 - 20 minute cardio workout and Turbosculpt

Saturday 4/3 - 45 minute walk outside, potentially doing Abjam tonight

Stay tuned for an update later tonight of an undoubtedly amazing meal from Black & Blue!

Happy, Hot Friday!

2010-04-02T18:49:00.007-04:00

As thrilled as I am that today is in the 80's, it feels like we went right from winter to summer and skipped over spring! And I'm a little unprepared! Time to break out the sundresses :)

Even though the weather is gorgeous, I've unfortunately spent most of the day inside. But I've been fairly productive at least!

My day started out with half a honey wheat thin with some almond butter, and a side of frozen green grapes.

Then Bryan and I took our much anticipated trip to the grocery store. Check out all my purchases!
Some of the things I'm really excited about....having Vitatops in my freezer again!! (Double Chocolate), new yogurt flavors...Yoplait banana cream pie and Stonyfield Oikos chocolate. Wegmans doesn't carry Chobani (booo!) so Bryan is going to pick me up some at Top's this week. I'm also excited about the cheddar cheese sticks, strawberry Kashi bars, and southwestern Baked Lays! Soo good!

Lunch...
I had a multigrain thin with light veggie cream cheese, cucumbers and sriracha. On the side I had baked chips, two pickles, and a mini apple. A pretty well balanced lunch if I do say so myself.

After lunch, Bryan and I got right to cleaning the apartment so it would be ready for my family. We finished up just in time! I usually work up a sweat while cleaning so I wore my pedometer this time to see if I was getting a good workout in. Burned close to 100 cals!

My parents had dinner plans tonight and Bryan is working so it was just me and my brother Dan for dinner. He wanted pizza but I decided to opt for a healthier meal. I got portabello bruschetta salmon and spicy red lentil soup from Wegmans.
The salmon was good- not great. The topping was the best part, so I only ate a little more than half. The soup is an old favorite...it reminds me of my big :) So tasty!

I enjoyed my meal but it was very hard to watch my brother scarf down five slices of buffalo chicken pizza.
Mia's is soooo good!

I was feeling pretty full after dinner but I still wanted something sweet so I made myself a nice little fruit plate
With some frozen red grapes and fresh cantaloupe that my mom brought. Delicious!

How did you spend this beautiful day? Hopefully outside!!