WIAW #7

Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday and more importantly, Happy Fourth of July! I hope you are all enjoying your day off (hopefully you’re not working) and can take advantage of this special holiday. The Fourth of July is always one of my favorite holidays and I hope you get to do something fun!

I am currently writing this post from the comfort of my dad’s air conditioning (I still don’t have power) and am planning to spend the day at my grandparent’s house on the boat. There is also a Fourth of July parade in their neighborhood where all the kids ride in decorated golf carts and bikes up and down the street. My little sister will be riding her bike, whereas I plan to take Jack’s collar hostage and tie some nice red, white, and blue ribbons around his neck. Fabio of course does not approve of this plan and is insisting he can only wear an American flag bandana in the parade. We will see how it goes! Obviously I will document it with plenty of pictures!

Anyway, it’s time for everyone’s favorite Wednesday tradition, What I Ate Wednesday! A big thank you goes to Jenn for hosting the link up like usual. This week’s eats feature everything that I ate yesterday. Because I don’t have power, my food selections were a bit different than usual. It wasn’t an ideal day of eating, but it was the best I could do in a pinch!

1. For breakfast, I had one of my light peanut butter banana muffins. They have really come in handy this week since my milk and fruit all went bad from the power outage. Thank goodness for easy, grab and go breakfasts!

2. For lunch I headed over to Pret A Manget near my office for a spicy shrimp and cilantro salad wrap. It was so flavorful and delicious and I tend to get this meal a lot when I don’t have a packed lunch. It’s only 290 calories which is pretty good considering I can just pick it up, take it back to my desk, and it’s technically “fast food.” It’s one of my favorites! I also had a side of fresh fruit.

3. Number three is actually what I ate for dinner since I messed up the numbering on the picture above (woops!). But dinner last night was some beef stroganoff that my stepmom made with a side salad and small piece of French bread. It was really tasty, but not one of the healthiest meals I’ve ever eaten. I’m not sure what my stepmom puts in it, but I know there is some cream of mushroom soup in there. While that is not so good for my waist-line, at least I was able to balance out the creamy pasta with a side salad and kept my portions small.

4. Number four is a snack that I ate at work- a small handful of raw almonds. Thank goodness these don’t need electricity to stay fresh. I would die without my almonds (yes, ok, I’m obsessed…)

5. After dinner I had a few fresh blackberries for a pop of sweetness. They are so good right now!!

So anyway, that’s what I had to eat yesterday. Not too bad considering all of my food got thrown away and I had to basically eat out for all of my meals. I definitely needed a lot more vegetables in my meals yesterday, but I had to work with what I had! Beggars can’t be choosers, right??

So tell me, how do you handle eating healthy when you’re in a bind? Luckily I have a ton of healthy restaurants near my work (Chopt, Salad Greens, and Pret A Manger, to name a few) but I bet it’s really difficult to make healthy choices when the restaurant selection is slim. Please share your tips with me!

Hey people! I hope your Wednesday is going well. Mine has been pretty busy but not too crazy, just how I like it! Plus the weather is beautiful, I got a good workout in this morning, and I have some yummy dinner plans for tonight All together I’d have to say my Wednesday is going smoothly!

And, as part of a regular Wednesday tradition around here, it’s time for this weeks What I Ate Wednesday Post (WIAW). Thanks to Jenn from Peas and Crayons for hosting the link up, as always. It’s so fun to participate and I’m glad I can be a part of such a big phenomenon.

Also, for the month of June Jenn wanted us to focus on how we snack healthily (which I have sucked at recently since when I’m busy I don’t snack) but this week I managed to capture at least a couple of my healthy snacks. Progress? Anyway, without further ado, here’s what I ate yesterday!

1. For breakfast I had a failed attempt at overnight oats, although it actually turned out delicious. I wanted to make overnight oats (which usually involves oats, milk, yogurt, and chia seeds mixed up and refrigerated overnight) but I didn’t have any chia seeds on hand. Knowing that chia seeds absorb liquid and were probably essential to overnight oats, I did some research online to see if it would work without them and I found a few people who made overnight oats with just oatmeal, yogurt, and milk. I gave it a try but when I checked on it this morning it was still watery mush. Womp womp. I quickly nuked the “overnight oat-mush” in the microwave until it was cooked just like regular oatmeal (only with the added benefit of yogurt) and threw a few raisins and some peanut butter in for flavor. The oats were really delicious but I was sad that they weren’t the cold refreshing summer breakfast I had planned. Oh well, I will just have to break down and buy chia seeds! Oh, and I had a banana on the side :-p

2. For lunch I headed to Sweet Green, the new salad place near my office, with a coworker. I had a buy-one-get-one-free coupon (and I still have another coupon for a free salad) so it was perfect for a quick , cheap lunch date with my friend. I chose the “June Salad Special” which was made of spinach, goat cheese, peaches, toasted almonds, and grilled chicken. I enjoyed it with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing and it was amazing!!!!

3. When I got home from work I was starving, so I munched on a few raw almonds to tide me over until dinner time. Raw almonds are my favorite and I could literally eat the whole bag in one sitting. Luckily I was careful of my portion size since I knew I’d be eating dinner soon.

4. For dinner I had some spinach ricotta raviolis that we brought back from New York and had in the freezer. They were so delicious! I had them along with some extra spinach, tomato sauce, and grilled chicken. Yum yum yum. Those Italian New Yorkers are geniuses.

5. For dessert I had two spoonfulls of Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Banana Greek FRYO. O M G. This stuff is phenomenal. It’s a delicious banana-flavored Greek froyo with peanut butter swirled throughout. I was originally going to only have one spoonfull but somehow that morphed into two. Two, rather large, spoonfulls, I should add. Oh well, it was so worth it! Yum!!

And that’s all I had to eat yesterday! I had originally packed myself some strawberries to munch on at work, but I was too busy and forgot to eat them. Luckily they were still there this morning and I am devouring them right now. Strawberries are on sale and SO GOOD right now! Hooray!

So, what did you guys eat this week? Did you try anything new? The new-to-me Ben & Jerry’s was totally the highlight of my eats yesterday and I’m already looking forward to having more for dessert tonight. I’ve heard the other Greek FROYO flavors are good too but I haven’t tried them yet!

Well everyone, remember that cough that I talked about last night? Unfortunately it got worse and I am currently sitting on my couch taking a good ol’ sick day from work. When I woke up this morning I felt achy and groggy, the way only a bad cold can make you feel, and I had some serious trouble breathing (there was a lot of gross coughing going on). I took some decongestive medicine and am feeling a little better, but I am far from feeling perfect. Oh well, I will take this opportunity to relax, catch up on some sleep, and hang out on the couch with Jack. Not a bad way to spend a sick day, if you ask me.

Anyway, even though I’m taking the day off from work, the blog world never rests, so I couldn’t miss a round of What I Ate Wednesday! If you are new around here and are unfamiliar with the phenomenon, Jenn over at Peas and Crayons posts a blog linkup each Wednesday where bloggers post about what they’ve eaten that week. This week I’m showing off all my food from yesterday, which included two new recipes!

1. For breakfast, I made a new fruity spinach smoothie which included mangoes, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, a banana, yogurt, skim milk, honey, and spinach. It was delicious and incredibly thick (like eating ice cream for breakfast!). It. Was. Awesome. Now that it’s summer time I will definitely be enjoying a lot more smoothies!

2. For lunch I had the usual: turkey lunch meat on a whole wheat sandwich thin with low fat American cheese and mustard. On the side, I had almonds, pretzel twists, and three yogurt-covered pretzels for dessert. This is a very typical lunch for me, as you have probably seen from all my past What I Ate Wednesday posts, but it’s so simple and delicious! I never get tired of this combo.

3. About an hour after lunch, my sweet tooth started kickin’ in, so I munched on a small handful of Reese’s Pieces. They were a great treat and I enjoyed them immensely Smile . However, I had make sure to watch out for the portion size because a tiny handful of candy is perfectly fine, but it’s so easy to get off track. I had to be careful!

4. At around 4:00 p.m. I was feeling like another snack so I ate a banana and drank a big cup of green tea. I was hoping the tea would cure my cough, but since I am sitting here on the couch today, I guess it didn’t really work. Oh well, it was delicious and helped boost my metabolism!

5. For dinner I had a bruschetta turkey patty (recipe coming soon!), roasted potatoes with rosemary, and asparagus. YUM. This dinner was so flavorful and filling. I promise to post the recipe as soon as I can!

So that’s it! That’s everything I consumed yesterday (plus about 6 large cups of water). After looking back at everything I ate, I am realizing I still need more fruits and veggies. I had a lot of fruits in my breakfast, plus a serving of spinach. In my dinner I had asparagus, tomatoes (from the turkey patty), and broccoli (which is hidden in the patty). And at least my snack was a banana. But lunch? Ugh. I think I need to start revamping my lunch to start including more fruits and veggies. I guess I’ll have to break out of my comfort zone!

So, how do you break out of your comfort zone? How do you switch up meals that are easy and tasty so you can try something that you aren’t sure if you’ll like? I’d appreciate any tips you guys have!

Don’t forget, the slow cooker giveaway closes tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.!