WIAW #40: No Show Snow

WIAW #50 (holy cow- fifty?!)

May 152013

Hey folks! It’s that time again…

Time for What I Ate Wednesday! In case you’re new to the party, head on over to Jenn’s page to read more about what WIAW is all about

Let’s get right into the good stuff, shall we? Here’s a peek at what I ate on Monday, a typical workday.

Breakfast

Breakfast this week has been pretty typical for me- one cup of Multigrain Cheerios with skim milk, a banana, and a handful of blueberries. YUM!!

Unfortunately I used up the last of the blueberries yesterday (they were organic and on sale at Trader Joe’s!) so this morning I was stuck with just the banana. Lame. My, how quickly I became spoiled with those blueberries! Last week they were a decadent treat, and now I’m grumpy because they’re gone. #FirstWorldProblems

Lunch

Yesterday’s lunch was a “chic p” salad leftover from this weekend’s trip to SweetGreen. Included in my salad was:

mesclun and baby spinach
baked falafel
chickpeas
cucumbers
fresh peppers
pita chips
lemon hummus tahini dressing

So good! I was worried the salad would be a little wilted since it was leftover from Saturday, but it was surprisingly delicious even two days later.

Clearly.

After finishing my salad I munched on a few raw almonds, which I brought in case the salad didn’t fill me up. The salad did fill me up, but I ate the almonds anyway They are my nemesis.

So good!

Snack #1

A few hours later my stomach started to growl, and in order to avoid the chocolate in my office’s candy bowl, I munched on an apple and sipped some unsweetened green tea.

I’ve been keeping my apple slicer at work lately (it’s an awesome gadget I found at Marshall’s for like $5) which makes eating my afternoon snack much more enjoyable. Maybe I’m just lazy, but the idea of cutting up an apple at work without a proper knife or cutting board always seems to difficult. Having my apple slicer handy makes me actually want to eat a healthy afternoon snack, instead of looking at my apple and deciding froyo would be a better option (not that it isn’t of course, but you can’t eat froyo every day at 3:00 pm now can you?).

Anyway, this snack was great

Snack #2

But it didn’t keep me out of the candy bowl, unfortunately.

Sometimes a girl just needs chocolate, especially when there are Reese’s involved. I mean, come on.

Dinner

Fabio brought some good steaks back from New York last weekend, and on Monday he offered to cook them in our new cast iron skillet (a gift that he purchased for “me” – aka, himself – a few weeks ago). I made some brussels sprouts and healthified mashed potatoes to go along with my steaks. The brussels sprouts were sauteed with a little olive oil, garlic, and balsamic vinegar, while the potatoes were boiled and mashed (skins on) with a wedge of laughing cow cheese, skim milk, and Brummel & Brown buttery spread. YUM. This was a fantastic dinner.

Cooking the steaks on the cast iron skillet produced a LOT of smoke at first (I was worried they’d taste burned), but the steaks were perfectly cooked and very flavorful. Fabio did a great job!

Yummm!

Monday was a rest day for me (since my half marathon is on Saturday, this week is pretty low key on the training front) so Fabio and I enjoyed this meal from the comfort of our couch and caught up on a bunch on TV It was a great evening!

Question of the day: How do you cook your steak?

WIAW #49 Wine Time

WIAW 5 Responses »

May 082013

Hey there friends! My day is slightly less busy than yesterday (emphasis on slightly) and I’m feeling a bit better about the week ahead. Phew! I think my body was exhausted from the weekend activities and a good night’s sleep has left me feeling rejuvenated. Love when that happens!

Since I’m feeling well-rested and have been able to get some real foods back into my diet after too much beer and fried food over the weekend (what can ‘ya do), I think I might skip the bar after kickball tonight.

Every week, my friends and I play kickball on the National Mall and then head to the bar for a few fun drinking games afterword. Having kickball to look forward to every Wednesday has been a blessing, and I can’t begin to tell you how much fun it is hanging out with your best friends in the middle of the week, but going to the bar afterword is just something I should skip today. I think I spent enough money and calories on beer over the weekend, thankyouverymuch. Yep, so I’ve decided that today I’m going to go for the kickball game only, no matter how hard my friends try to pressure me to go to the bar after. I need my rest!

What would you guys do, go to the bar with all your friends, or take a week off to save money, detox, and rest?

WIAW

Anyway, it’s Wednesday so let’s get into today’s What I Ate Wednesday post! Thanks to Jenn for hosting the linkup

I tried to eat pretty healthily yesterday since I ate a lot of garbage over the weekend (actually it wasn’t that bad- it just seemed like it), so let’s see how I did!

Breakfast

I had a deeeelicious bowl of Multigrain Cheerios with skim milk, half a banana, and blueberries. I absolutely love when we have fresh berries in the house, which unfortunately isn’t very often since they are expensive out of season. These blueberries are so good and I have been enjoying them all week! Yumm

Lunch

While we were in New York this weekend, we stopped at our favorite Greek restaurant, Gyro World, for dinner. While there, I decided to order a Greek salad to eat at work during the week. I finally dove into it yesterday, and man, was it good!

When I first opened the salad, I was a bit overwhelmed by the lettuce, green peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, feta cheese, grape leaves, and olives that were totally stuffed to the brim of the bowl. However, once I chopped up the ingredients, drizzled on some dressing, and tossed things around a bit, I was able to tackle the giant salad. Yum!! (BTW- I tossed the olives. I’m just not a fan).

I wound up only being able to finish about 2/3 of the salad and took the rest home for later. Score!

Snack #1

At work yesterday, I helped my coworker, Mary, with a project (hi Mary!). To thank me, she gave me a few of her Junior Mints (her favorite candy!) to snack on. The minty chocolaty bites were exactly what I needed after my big salad (plus the minty flavor was definitely necessary after those onions. I also ate a ton of gum yesterday afternoon. Raw onions = stinky breath. Yikes!).

These were totally delicious and reminded me of being in a movie theater, since that’s the only time I would usually eat Junior Mints. So good!

Snack #2

Fabio and I had another three mile run on the agenda yesterday afternoon, so I knew I wouldn’t get around to making dinner until somewhat late (I also got out of work late yesterday, giving me an even later start). To hold my hunger at bay, I snacked on a handful of raw almonds and Mini Babybel cheese. Perfect after-work snack!

Dinner

When we finally got home from our run, I decided to make something quick and easy for dinner. I wound up sauteing some onions and garlic in olive oil before tossing in brussels sprouts and chicken sausage that we picked up recently at Trader Joe’s. Once they were cooked through, I tossed in some tomatoes, spinach, and whole wheat pasta. I made a sort of cheese sauce out of a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese, fat free Greek yogurt, and tons of fresh Parmesan. It was deeeelicious! I love meals like this On the side I had the rest of my Greek salad from lunch.

Dinner Drink

To make last night’s dinner a little more “special” than a regular old Tuesday, Fabio decided to open up a bottle of red wine to enjoy with our pasta. This is something we used to do quite frequently, as it makes a normal weekday a little more fun, but we haven’t had much wine in the house lately and have therefore been slacking. Fabio and I talked about how much we like having wine with dinner (it feels so much fancier!) and we decided we’re going to buy a case of some cheap, but good, wine next time we go shopping. Please let me know if you have any recommendations- we aren’t picky!

Snack #3

I mentioned last week that Fabio recently signed us up for the Graze boxes, which sends you healthy snacks once every two weeks. This week’s box arrived last night, and after dinner we decided to try out the “honeycomb crunch” snacks. The “crunch” was quite delicious and Fabio and I really enjoyed trying out this snack (especially with the red wine! It was quite fun!).

I’m not sure how long we’ll continue to get the Graze boxes, but for now they are reasonably priced and fun for us to receive

So there you have it- everything I ate yesterday! Not a bad day all things considered; at least I got a lot of variety and colors going on! Some healthy fats too. Not too shabby.

Daily Activity

As I mentioned earlier, Fabio and I completed a quick three mile run yesterday. I was trying to pick up my pace a bit, but in the end it wasn’t too different than usual. Oh well, next time. It was still a great run!

Question of the day: Do you drink wine? Do you know a lot about it?

WIAW #48

WIAW 10 Responses »

May 012013

Just a reminder, there’s still time to enter my giveaway for the free Bestowed Box! I will choose a winner tomorrow morning. Good luck!

Helllloooo! Happy May! As I mentioned yesterday, May is probably my favorite month. The weather is usually really nice and it’s not quite as hot as the summer. Something about the sunshine and blue sky outside today just makes me positively giddy!

Alright so it’s Wednesday which means it’s time for my favorite weekly tradition- What I Ate Wednesday! Thank you to Jenn for hosting the linkup, as usual!

Since I showed you so many unhealthy things last week for my What I Ate Wednesday in Punta Cana post, I’m hoping this week I can get back on track with eating some of my “normal” foods. The challenge is that Fabio and I are seriously low on groceries at the moment, so we’ve had to get a little creative with our meals. Let’s see how we did yesterday, shall we?

Breakfast

We are out of bananas (wahhh) so in addition to my usual 1 cup of Multigrain Cheerios with skim milk, I had half a whole wheat English muffin toasted with peanut butter and chia seeds. I’d like to think the Cheerios would have been enough to fill me up by themselves, but knowing me and my stomach, I probably would have been hungry again by about 10:30 am. Oh well, the English muffin did the trick Plus it’s never a bad thing to get a few chia seeds sprinkled in my food.

Lunch

For dinner on Monday night, I made chicken tortilla soup loosely based off of this recipe (I say loosely because I changed at least half of the recipe- oops!). For Monday night’s dinner, I topped the soup with all sorts of cute garnishes like nonfat Greek yogurt, avocado slices, and bits of Trader Joe’s Flax seed tortilla chips. For lunch yesterday though? I skipped all the fancy toppings and stuck with the chips haha. There’s just no time for garnishes when you are slopping soup from a plastic bowl to a tiny plastic spoon while trying to send emails. AmIright? Anyway, the soup was just as good the second day and this made a fabulous (and surprisingly filling) lunch. Yummmm. I will definitely be making this soup again!

Snack #1

At around 3:00, my tummy started rumbling again, so I dug into one of the snacks I brought from my Bestowed box! I chose the Nature’s Bakery Fig Bar in the whole wheat raspberry flavor. I was expecting it to be similar to a Luna bar, but was pleasantly surprised to see that it was more like a Fig Newton! I had only planned to eat half of the bar, but it was so delicious that I ate the whole thing. Yummmm. I also had a big cup of unsweetened green tea from the Kurig in my office. This was a great snack! (Wish I had another one of those bars right about now…)

Snack #2

After work I had a three mile run on the agenda, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to get around to making dinner for a while. To hold me over until dinner time, I had a mini Babybel Light cheese. I just love these little guys. They’re so tasty!

Dinner

For dinner I tried a new recipe: spicy sweet potato burgers with garlic crema. It came out pretty good, and I especially liked the garlic crema! My only concerns were that the recipe wasn’t very clear (at one point it mentions flour but that’s not one of the ingredients listed) and that it was a bit too “mushy” for my taste (I think it would have been good to have a bit more crunch in the burger). Otherwise, it was really tasty! I served my sweet potato burger and garlic crema on a sandwich thin with lettuce. On the side I had roasted egg plant and brussels sprouts. Great dinner!

Snack #3

A little while later my sweet tooth started calling to me, so Fabio and I finished off the dark chocolate that came in my Bestowed box. I’m not usually a fan of dark chocolate, but this one was really decadent and delicious. It was the perfect after-dinner snack!

So there you have it, everything I ate yesterday! Now that we used up the brussels sprouts and eggplant, we are completely out of veggies (except for onions and garlic – oh joy). We also have one lonely apple sitting in the fruit basket which looks pretty pathetic. I guess it’s ok though, since we have kickball tonight (and will probably grab Subway or something), I have a charity event tomorrow evening for work, and Friday evening we will be driving up to New York. Looks like we will be void of any fresh produce for quite a while! Yikes!

Question of the day: What do you eat when you are out of fresh produce?

A great dinner and lunch option for us was the chicken tortilla soup, which used a lot of canned veggies like tomatoes and beans. It also allowed us to use up some of the chopped mixed peppers in the freezer Win!

WIAW #47: In Punta Cana!

WIAW 6 Responses »

Apr 242013

Hi friends! Happy hump day! After getting back from vacation late Monday night and spending all last night unpacking, doing laundry, and rubbing aloe lotion all over my sunburned legs (oh yes), I’m starting to get back into the swing of things. Thank goodness!

I don’t know about you, but there is something nice about getting back into your routine. Vacation is always so fun and leaving is always awful, but coming home, seeing Fabio and Jack, and sleeping in my own bed has been really nice as well. It’s called vacation for a reason after all!

For this week’s What I Ate Wednesday post, allow me to show you all the great things I ate/drank on vacation in Punta Cana!

Thanks to Jenn for hosting the linkup, as usual!

Alriiiight, let’s get this party started (Pink, anyone?).

I want to preface this post by explaining that my friends and I stayed in an all-inclusive resort. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this type of hotel, everything, including all our food and drinks, was free. We literally did not spend one dime on food, except for the night we went to the Italian restaurant and wanted a nicer bottle of wine. But otherwise, it was all free. Woohoo!

The only downside to this type of resort is that usually the food is not all that great. Although this resort had better food than most all-inclusive places I’ve stayed at, it still relied heavily on a buffet and had very few healthy options. Bummer.

I generally tried to eat as healthy as I could, while still enjoying a few treats along the way (pretty much my motto in life). I think I was pretty successful!

So, without further ado, here’s what I ate on vacation!

Breakfasts

The breakfast buffet at the resort had a ton of choices, but my standard breakfast looked something like this:

An omelet with tomatoes, cheese, onions, green peppers, and ham
Fresh fruit
Whole wheat toast
Some type of “treat” (e.g., small waffle, chocolate muffin, croissant, hash brown, etc.)

There were some cereal and yogurt options that probably would have been fine, but I really liked the omelet station where you could choose your ingredients. Yummmm.

Lunches

The lunch buffet was really good and in addition to a ton of delicious pre-made options, it had a grill where a chef made ready-to-order chicken or pork. The chicken was perfectly marinated and I had it each day for lunch. There was one day where I opted for fresh paella instead of the chicken, which was really good as well.

For my sides I usually chose beans and rice (SO good!) and some combo of veggies. On the particular day pictured above, I had roasted potatoes, carrots, green beans, and cucumbers and tomatoes with balsamic. Sorta random, but that tends to happen to me at buffets. I go a little crazy!

Dinners

The resort had a ton of different restaurants to choose from, and during our stay we ate at the International restaurant (mixed variety of foods), the Mexican restaurant, the Dominican restaurant, and the Italian restaurant.

Up first: International.

This night I ordered a lobster bisque to start (more like lobster soup- it wasn’t very good) and then ordered chicken breast stuffed with shrimp and spinach for my entree. It was served on a bed of mashed potatoes with a few carrots and string beans on the side. It was delicious but rather large and I only ate half of the chicken. You can bet there wasn’t a smidge of mashed potatoes left on my plate though. They were awesome.

Second night: Mexican.

The Mexican restaurant started us out with delicious hot chips served with queso, guacamole, and salsa. YUM!!

For my entree I chose the fajitas which came with a combination of steak, pork, and chicken. I shared this meal with my friend Catrina who ordered the chicken tacos. Everything was delicious!

Third night: Dominican.

I honestly can’t really remember what I ate this night, except that it was grilled chicken on a bed of brown rice. I think there was some seafood in the rice as well. I guess this is what happens when you start off dinner with too many cocktails and some really delicious bread…the appetite for your entree sort of dwindles.

Case in point…

Yep. The bread was that good.

Fourth/last night: Italian.

The food at the Italian restaurant was probably the best we ate all week. Everything tasted phenomenal and I’m so glad we saved it for last. We wound up ordering a plate of fettuccine carbonara for the table to share, and then I ordered shrimp risotto for my appetizer (unpictured- oops!).

For my main meal I chose chicken in sun-dried tomatoes which tasted more like chicken parmesan with regular tomato sauce to me. It was really good, but not as good as the two pastas were.

Sorry for the awful picture!!

Finally, on our last day, we had lunch at the airport and I chose Wendy’s. It was a hungover-sunburned-sad-that-we-have-to-go-home kind of day, and Wendy’s seemed like the only solution.

At least it tasted good!

What we drank

At the beginning of our trip, we mostly drank gin & tonics. While they’re not my favorite drinks, they got the job done. After the first day we switched to rum and cokes since (duh) the Caribbean is known for its rum.

We also drank a lot of Mama Juana shots, which are made up of honey, red wine, and rum (woah). During the day we’d sip on a few beers or daiquiri drinks, but we didn’t go too wild and mostly just had a ton of water. We were saving our strength for the evening! Haha!

Question of the day: What do you eat at buffets?

WIAW #46: Pre-trip Jitters

WIAW 6 Responses »

Apr 172013

Hey kiddos! I am super busy today trying to get everything ready for my trip to Punta Cana tomorrow, so let’s make today’s What I Ate Wednesday quick!

Thanks to Jenn for hosting the linkup

Here’s a little snapshot of what I ate yesterday!

Breakfast

Nothin’ new here. Just a bowl of Multigrain Cheerios with skim milk and a banana. I’m sure one of these days I’ll get tired of this breakfast, but seeing how I just bought a box of this cereal from Costco (!) it might be a while haha.

Lunch

For lunch yesterday I had a taco salad leftover from Monday night’s dinner. On Monday evening I made two huge taco salads for dinner, and when I was assembling them I just made two more for Tuesday’s lunch! Super easy! The salads had ground turkey, onions, black beans, tomatoes, cheese, tortilla chips, and a “dressing” that I made by combining plain nonfat Greek yogurt with some salsa. Yummmm! Oh, and of course there was spinach and romaine lettuce, but I bet you could have guessed that

Snack

Ugh someone refilled the candy bowl at work and I couldn’t resist. Yum.

Dinner

Last night I had to run a few more errands before my trip tomorrow (you know, important things like getting a pedicure and a spray tan) so I didn’t get home until somewhat late. Fabio was a gem and offered to cook me dinner, which came at the price of not being super healthy. Oh well, I’ll take the opportunity not to cook any time! Fabio made us cheeseburgers (mine was on a sandwich thin), homemade french fries, and sauteed spinach. Yummm!

And there you have it folks, everything I ate yesterday! Woohoo! Not a bad day of eats if you ask me And now I’m off to finish some things up before I leave. Hoooorayyyy! I’ll be back on Tuesday but I have a couple posts lined up to keep you guys occupied Have a good rest of your week!

Question of the day: What candy tempts you the most? Chocolate is my nemesis!

WIAW #45 – I scream for ice cream!

WIAW 6 Responses »

Apr 102013

Hellooooo! I am feeling quite chipper this morning due to the bright sunshine and warm weather outside. Seriously, everything just seems so much better when the weather is nice. Ahhh, I am a happy girl today

Another happy thing- it’s Wednesday! Which means 1) we are halfway through the week, and Thursday and Friday always seem like a breeze anyway, 2) I get to play kickball tonight with my friends (!!!) and 3) it’s time for What I Ate Wednesday, of course!

Thanks to Jenn from Peas and Crayons for hosting, as usual! I love the opportunity to share my love for food with other bloggers from around the world, without any judgement. It’s such a great concept!

So, without further ado, here’s a look at what I ate yesterday…

Breakfast

Hmmm nothing new here. Just a big old bowl full of Multigrain Cheerios (1 cup, to be exact) and some skim milk. I had half a banana with the cereal and ate the other half on the side (my bananas this week are huge!). This is such a good breakfast and it’s so quick to throw together. Yummm.

Fun fact: Jack loves when I have cereal because I let him drink the milk at the end. He always seems to get mad at me when I eat something different because he doesn’t get anything out of it! Haha

Lunch

Fabio and I are running very low on groceries at the moment (I think our fridge currently consists of milk, egg whites, cheese, and hummus. Oh and beer. How nutritious.) and instead of eating a boring old PB&J for lunch yesterday, I decided to enjoy the sunshine outside and pick something up near my office.

Now, let me preface this by saying that my office has so many good places to eat near by. Just within a two block span, we have Potbelly’s, Corner Bakery, Subway, Sweet Green, Pret a Manger, Nando’s, Au Bon Pain, Chipotle, Subway, Bobby’s Burger Palace…the list goes on.

That does not even include the food trucks that are always swarming my block, or the awesome little Greek and Chinese places that a lot of people frequent. With all those delicious options, sometimes it’s a little hard to stay on track and find something healthy, but luckily I was successful yesterday!

I chose a shrimp salad wrap from Pret A Manger for 380 calories (I love that they have the calories listed in the store and all the rest of the nutrition stats online). Let me just tell you, I had to look up the ingredients for this wrap because it was so good that I didn’t believe the calories. It had a delicious spicy, creamy sauce (which I was sure had to be made with something fattening?) and perfectly cooked shrimp. Yum yum yum yum. Seriously.

Having this for lunch was a great choice. On the side I had a chopped up apple because I was worried the wrap wouldn’t fill me up by itself. It seemed to hold me over pretty well, but I ate the apple anyway

Dinner

As I said earlier, Fabio and I are pretty low on food right now, so last night we used the remaining veggies that we had to throw dinner together. We had one tomato, one plantain, half a head of broccoli, and three large carrots. I couldn’t think of anything that used all those ingredients cohesively, so I made three separate things.

Tilapia with fresh salsa (I wish we’d had some fresh cilantro for that, but it turned out alright anyway)
Fried plantains
Sauteed broccoli and carrots with garlic and honey

It was sort of a random dinner, but everything tasted great and we were able to use up all our assorted veggies Now I can “go crazy” at the supermarket buying tons of fresh produce without having Fabio tell me that “we didn’t even wind up eating all that last time” mwahahaha!

Dessert

After dinner Fabio and I watched the season finale of Shameless (did you guys see it??) and enjoyed some Ben & Jerry’s Banana and Peanut Butter Greek FroYo. Yummm. This stuff is so delicious. Worth every creamy, peanut buttery, bite!

And there you have it- what I ate yesterday I think there may have been a Hershey’s kiss and Rolo candy sprinkled in there somewhere after lunch, but I didn’t take a picture. Oops. Not a bad day all things considered.

Daily Activity: 4 grueling miles. Not sure why my run was so difficult yesterday; it could have been because my body is just getting used to all this distance running and it could have also been because Fabio and I chose a new route and didn’t know exactly which way to go, which always makes things feel longer. Either way, we did a pretty good job I was happy to get it over with

Question of the day: Do you watch Shameless? If so, what do you think happened to Steve/Jimmy?

What’s you favorite ice cream flavor?

WIAW #43: Sick Day

WIAW 16 Responses »

Mar 272013

Oooh man you guys. This week has not started off on the right foot for me.

Hmmm where to begin.

At around 2:00 pm on Monday, my tummy started feeling reallllly funny. At first I thought maybe I was just digesting something weird and that the pain would go away. Since I had a really important meeting at 3:00, I tried to power through the pain. I got some work done, but as my 3:00 meeting loomed closer and closer, my stomach pains only got worse.

By this time I knew something was seriously not ok. I told a few of my coworkers that I felt sick and said I would probably go home after my meeting. I kept telling myself that I just had to make it though the meeting, then I could go home.

Suddenly 3:00 struck and I went into the meeting pretending everything was fine. I got a little shaky at times, identified a few trash cans in case I needed to throw up at a moment’s notice, and said what I had to say in front of my three very important bosses who where in the meeting with me. Thank God.

As soon as I got back to my desk I called my manager and told her I was NOT feeling well and that I needed to go home ASAP. I didn’t even mess with the metro; I just hailed a cab and zoomed right home. [I should note that my manager is amazing and once she heard how I was feeling she offered to drive me home. I didn't want to inconvenience her, but what a gem.]

At some point on my ride home, the cab driver looked back at me and asked if I was going to be ok. I guess I looked a bit sick as well. Highlight of the week right there, when the cab driver is worried you’re going to vomit in his car. Awesome.

A few short minutes later we pulled up in front my apartment, I paid the fare and ran out, and then sprinted up the stairs. I even thought about what would happen if I didn’t make it inside my apartment and threw up on the carpeted hallway. Luckily that didn’t happen.

Somehow I made it all the way to the bathroom and gracefully threw up in the toilet before I was even able to remove my coat or pet Jack. [Side note: Jack was pretty annoyed at this actually. Usually the first thing I do upon my arrival is spend a good 5-7 minutes cooing over him, and he was annoyed that I favored the toilet over his cute face].

I spent the rest of the afternoon cowering under the covers with a fever and occasionally running to the bathroom to throw up more. What happened to me?!

Luckily yesterday was a much better day and thankfully there was no more vomit (Woohoo. Vomit-free days are the best kind). Instead I spent almost the whole day at home sleeping, which seemed to cure me completely.

I did manage to get down a little food (which was a huge improvement from the night before, when I could only eat 2 bites of soup and sip on Gatorade) but my eats weren’t anything exciting. I’ll show you anyway, obviously, since today is What I Ate Wednesday.

Breakfast

For breakfast I had a whole wheat English muffin topped with a little Brummel & Brown buttery spread. I thought some carbs would be good for my tummy. I also had an apple chopped up with almond butter. When I felt sick as a little kid, my grandma would make me eat an apple with a spoon (did anyone else have to do this?). It seems weird now, but apples always remind me of being sick and (maybe it’s just in my head) but they seem to make me feel better.

Lunch

For lunch I had some chicken noodle soup and bread from Corner Bakery (which Fabio was sweet enough to bring home for me on Monday). I also had a few saltine crackers and a giant glass of blue Gatorade (unpictured). This lunch helped perk me up, but then I immediately took a three-hour nap. What can you do.

By the time I woke up at around 6:00 pm, I was feeling much, much better. I even had some energy to cook a normal dinner for Fabio and me.

Dinner

I made some homemade calzones using whole wheat Pillsbury pizza crust, grilled chicken, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese (These were very easy! To make you just roll out the dough, cut into fourths, distribute toppings evenly among the four squares of dough, wrap them up like calzones, pinch the sides together, and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees). We also had green beans and carrots on the side. I thankfully had my appetite back at this point, so I ate every bite. Yum.

Today I’m back at work and feeling almost 100% better, so whatever that awful bug was at least it was quick. I am happy to report my stomach is completely back to normal and my fever is gone.

Hooray!

Question of the day: Did you have any weird remedies for being sick as a kid?

WIAW #42

WIAW 18 Responses »

Mar 202013

Happy first day of spring! Does it actually feel like spring anywhere out there? I don’t know how the weather is where you guys are, but today is wiiiindy and cold in the Nation’s capital.

Oh, also, it might snow tonight. And again on Monday. Awesome. Guess that groundhog was pretty inaccurate when he said warm weather was on his way, huh? Oh well, I’m sure it’ll warm up eventually. Right? Right?? Right????

Anyway, things are super crazy around here (seriously, I know I said that last week, but it’s so much worse now) so I apologize if my posts seem to be lacking a little bit this week. Just to give you a little snapshot of what I’ve been dealing with, let me explain that on Monday night I stayed at work until 8:00 pm, then yesterday I came in at 7:45 am (waaay earlier than usual) and I didn’t leave work until after 9:30 pm. Seriously! 9:30!

By the time I sat down to eat dinner, it was almost 10:30 and time for bed. Quite annoying. Hopefully things should slow down later this week and I’ll be back to normal. Cross your fingers!

Ok, ok. Enough whining. It’s Wednesday so let’s get into today’s What I Ate Wednesday post! Thanks to Jenn for always hosting the linkup.

So, let’s check out what I ate yesterday during my super busy day at work, shall we?

Breakfast

Yummmm I love this breakfast. In my bowl I had 1/2 a serving of Multigrain Cheerios and 1/2 a serving of Fiber One Chocolate Cereal with skim milk. So delicious! I actually ran out of the Fiber One cereal after I poured this bowl, so it looks like I’ll be switching it up for a little while. What cereal should I try next? Anyone have a good suggestion for a cereal they love?

I also had a banana on the side

Lunch

I’m sure you guys are shocked by this combo Yes, for lunch I had turkey on a sandwich thin with American cheese and mustard. I also had carrots and hummus on the side. I swear I do eat other things for lunch, especially leftovers from dinner, but I guess that doesn’t usually happen on Tuesdays when I take these photos haha! Still a great lunch in my book.

Snack I

We had a few clients come into the office yesterday afternoon and there was some fruit salad leftover from their meeting. Woohoo! I happily enjoyed a big bowl of it for an afternoon snack and it was great Free food? Yes please! The fresh pineapple was particularly delicious. Yummmm.

Dinner

Since I didn’t start cooking dinner until after 10:00 pm, I definitely wanted something fast and filling. On the one hand, I was tempted to just have a bowl of cereal or something simple since I was exhausted from the day and didn’t feel like doing a thing.

On the other hand, I was really hungry and knew I would regret not eating a proper dinner if I just went with cereal; so I found a compromise! I wound up cooking a sweet potato in the microwave. Hooray for dinner in 4.5 minutes!

I mixed the insides of the sweet potato with some black beans, a wedge of laughing cow cheese, and some hot peppers that I had in the fridge. A little salt and pepper and it was good to go! This dinner is so good and I love it every time! Plus I got full after only eating half, so I had the other half for lunch today. This is such a great, fast dinner!

Snack II

I’ve been trying to cut down on the amount of sweets I’ve been eating lately because I felt like I was having dessert way too often and it was becoming less of a “special occasion” and more like and “every day (or even every meal) occasion.”

Obviously I can’t turn off my sweet tooth completely, so I’ve been munching on these delicious Sunsweet Prunes whenever a craving hits. I know they look gross, but they taste like big raisins and I love the mushy ones. Seriously, I know it sounds weird but they are soo good! I highly recommend them!

And that’s it! That’s what I ate on Tuesday. It wasn’t the best selection of foods obviously, especially since there was not a green veggie in sight, but sometimes when you are busy busy busy there’s only so much you can do. It could have been much worse for sure!

Weight Watchers

You may have noticed that I did not list the Weight Watchers points for any of my meals yesterday. The simple reason is because I was too busy to track the points, but the more complicated reason is because I feel like once I have been on Weight Watchers for a while, I start to mentally keep track of what’s ok to eat and what’s not, and I don’t really need the program anymore. I lost the few pounds that crept on late last year, and am (relatively) happy with my body right now, so I’ve been thinking of canceling my WW subscription.

The only problem with this is that if I’m not tracking every day, it’s a slippery slope back to splurging or eating too much. This is actually why I had to rejoin WW in the first place; because I feel like without the accountability of tracking it’s too easy to eat a little too much of this and a little too much of that.

I’m not going to cancel my membership just now, but I might soon if I continue to “forget” to use the tracker. What do you guys think?

Question of the day: How do you keep yourself from slipping back into old (and bad) habits?

Also, what’s your favorite cereal?

WIAW #41

WIAW 6 Responses »

Mar 132013

Hello, hello! Things have been super crazy around here! Just when my half marathon training kicked up to 5 runs a weeks, my assignments at work also started to get nutso and I have about a million and one errands to run/chores to finish before going on a quick trip to NYC this weekend (some of those chores involve baking brownies for our friend who will be watching Jack…I don’t think I can ever complain about baking brownies!).

Anyyyyway I just wanted to let you know that things might be a bit helter-skelter this week while I get everything situated. I’ll try my best to retain some normalcy though!

Speaking of normalcy and routine, let’s jump into today’s What I Ate Wednesday post, shall we? I have to thank Jenn as always for hosting the fun blogger linkup. I love being a part of such a big online phenomenon!

Jenn also posted this brief description to her blog today explaining what WIAW is all about:

—-What WIAW isn’t about—-

Comparison – Judgement – Restriction – Guilt

—-What WIAW is about—-

Celebrating one of the glorious things we all have in common: We all eat!

Makes sense, right? Ok so without further ado, let’s see what I ate yesterday!

Breakfast

Look at that! A new breakfast combo! Haha, I’m sure you’re probably shocked at this since I’ve been having cereal for the last few months straight. Yesterday morning, however, I just wasn’t feeling it so I tried something new. Boy was that a good choice!

On my plate was a toasted whole wheat English muffin with a wedge of Laughing Cow cinnamon cream cheese. Sooo good. I love this cream cheese. On the side I had a cut up apple with almond butter. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had almond butter and I remembered yesterday how delicious it tastes with apples. Great breakfast! Also, I stayed really full all morning, which is important!

Weight Watchers Points+: 6

Lunch

So much for trying to new things – yesterday’s lunch was an old favorite! I had the usual turkey and American cheese on a sandwich thin with mustard. I seriously never get tired of this combo. On the side I had baby carrots and hummus (still loving the roasted pine nut flavor). Deeeelicious lunch. I wonder if I will ever get tired of this.

Weight Watchers Points+: 8

Snack

One of my coworkers went to Potbelly’s for lunch and was sweet enough to bring me back half of her chocolate chip cookie since she knew I was having a rough day at work. Isn’t that nice of her? It was so delicious and I slowly savored every bite. Yummmmm.

Wieght Watchers Points+: 6 (I had to guess on this one since the cookie wasn’t in the Weight Watchers’ system. I think 6 seems pretty accurate though for half of the cookie)

Dinner

Dinner was another one of my favorite meals, although I don’t usually talk about it on the blog since it’s not exactly a “recipe.” However, it’s so good and I’ve been eating it a lot lately so I might as well share it now. Let’s just call this roasted veggie chicken salad for now. Haha!

To Make Roasted Veggie Chicken Salad:

Roast a variety of veggies at 375 degrees until they are lightly brown and cripsy. I used a sweet potato, a regular potato, carrots, and brussels sprouts, and roasted them for about 20 minutes.
While the veggies are roasting, grill up a piece of chicken (I used my George Foreman).
Mix up the sauce! You can kind of play around with this until you get the flavors you want, but I used about 1 tbsp. low fat mayonaise (you can’t taste this at all if you’re a mayo hater), 1 tbsp. fat free plain Greek yogurt, 1 tsp. mustard, 1 tsp. honey, 1/4 tsp. curry, 1/16 tsp. cayenne pepper. This created a sweet and spicy sauce that I looooved!
When the veggies are done, toss them in with the sauce until evenly coated. Top with the chicken.
Eat!

By the way, that recipe will make enough for two people

This dinner is so tasty and has become a staple on nights when I am too lazy to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It’s also a great way to use up any veggies that are on their last legs!

Weight Watchers Points+: 6

Dessert

After dinner I snacked on some grapes. I probably ate this amount times 10. I cannot be held accountable when there are grapes around. I wind up eating so many!!

Weight Watchers Points+: 0

Total Weight Watchers Points+: 26 (on target!)

One thing I love about the Weight Watchers program is that you can still meet your goals and enjoy the foods you love (e.g., the cookie from Potbelly’s!). It just teaches you that if you indulge during one meal you have to tone it down for the others (e.g., by having a dinner loaded up with veggies). It’s so nice to know that you don’t have to cut out any foods entirely

Daily Activity: Yesterday Fabio and I had a 2.5 mile run on the agenda as part of out half marathon training. Since 2.5 miles was a relatively easy distance, I wanted to focus more on improving our speed. I tried to throw a few speed intervals into the run and although you can’t see them individually on this RunKeeper screenshot, I think they helped improve our overall pace.

Not too shabby!

Total Daily Activity Points: 2

Overall I’d say yesterday was a pretty good day of eating. I got a lot of fruits and veggies into my meals and everything I ate was deeelicious. The cookie obviously wasn’t the best choice, but it was a kind gesture from a friend and I wasn’t going to let it go to waste. And, hello, it’s a cookie! Why wouldn’t I eat it?!

Question of the day: What’s a nice thing a friend has done for you recently when you were having a bad day?

WIAW #40: No Show Snow

WIAW 8 Responses »

Mar 062013

When I woke up this morning, I expected to see piles and piles of fresh, white powdery snow on the ground. Instead, this is what I saw:

Hm. Winter wonderland? Not exactly.

Once again it seems that the weathermen in my area hyped up an impending storm by telling us that we would get at least 4-6 inches of snow. Ha! Maybe in some areas of Virginia and Maryland, but not here! Instead I trekked my way into the office while flurries flew rapidly by face and refused to stick to the ground. Hmph.

Oh well, I’m not complaining since I’m pretty much ready for spring anyway. Bring on the warm weather!

Anyway today is Wednesday, so let’s jump into today’s What I Ate Wednesday post!

Yesterday was a little weird for me since I wound up having to drive to Baltimore for a client meeting and then talk to a bunch of undergraduates at my alma mater after work, so my eating schedule was a little off. I also didn’t really want to take pictures of my food in front of my coworkers and fellow speakers, so instead I am showing you what I ate on Monday. Whatever works, right?

Thanks to Jenn for hosting, as always.

This month Jenn is encouraging us to “go green” with lots of veggies, so let’s how I did on Monday, shall we?

Breakfast

For breakfast on Monday I had half a serving of Fiber One 80 calorie chocolate cereal (still loving this!) and half a serving of Multigrain Cheerios with fat free milk. I was out of bananas unfortunately, so this breakfast was less filling than usual, but it was still tasty!

Weight Watchers Points+: 4

Lunch

Lunch included the usual: turkey with American cheese and mustard on a sandwich thin with a side of carrots and hummus. I also threw in some pretzel twists (haven’t seen those in a while) since I didn’t have as many carrots as usual. By the way, my hummus of choice this week has been Sabra’s roasted pine nut flavor. It tastes awesome and has just a little crunch for texture. Love!

Weight Watchers Points+: 11

Snack Part I

Later in the afternoon, I snacked on a delicious crunchy and juicy apple, and sipped on some hot unsweetened green tea. This snack was so tasty and it took the edge off of my hunger. Awesome snack.

Weight Watchers Points+: 0 (woohoo!)

Snack Part II

Tagalong girl scout cookie. Guiltyyyyyyy.

Weight Watchers Points+: 2

Snack Part III

After my workout I snacked on a few raw almonds while prepping dinner. I love keeping raw almonds around and they make an awesome snack. Even though they are high in fat (and Weight Watchers points!) I know they are good for my heart so I don’t feel bad snacking on them in moderation. They’re just so tasty!

Weight Watchers Points+: 2

Dinner

For dinner I had a bowl of my light and creamy chicken and rice soup with a few saltine crackers. Even though this is a super old recipe, it remains a staple in my household and I make it all the time. It’s so delicious and comforting! If you are ever looking for a light and creamy soup, definitely try this one! If you’re not a fan of the brown rice, you could always swap it out and add noodles instead Great dinner!

Weight Watchers Points+: 6

Dessert

You would think I would have been satisfied after all the snacking I did on Monday, but after dinner my sweet tooth called to me (I’m sure you’re shocked) so I had a fat free low-calorie pudding cup with a few chocolate chips sprinkled in for some texture. So tasty!! I wish I had had a banana to eat with this :-/ Oh well, next time!

Weight Watchers Points+: 3

Total Weight Watchers Points+: 28 (2 more than goal)

Looks like I didn’t do so well on the green front, huh? In fact the only green thing I ate on Monday was probably the celery in my soup, which is like 99% water anyway. Fail.

This is probably my favorite part about What I Ate Wednesdays; it allows me to see where I can improve! Now that I see what I’m missing, I’ll try harder to eat more greens this week.

Daily Activity: On Monday I ran two miles with Fabio and Jack as part of our half marathon training. It was a pretty good run, but our pace was still pretty slow, despite my efforts to speed it up a bit. I don’t know if this was just because it was a cold and dark Monday night (ugh) or if we were just slacking. Who knows! I have another run on schedule for tonight so I will definitely try to be speedier!

Daily Activity Points Earned: 2

All in all not a great day health-wise, but it could have been worse and everything tasted delicious! There’s always room for improvement!

Question of the day: Do the weathermen get snow reports wrong where you live??