WIAW #51

May 222013

First of all, I just want to take a moment to send my thoughts and prayers to everyone who was affected by the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma. I can’t begin to imagine what they must be going through, and it really makes me stop to think about how lucky I am. In case you’re interested, here’s a link with tips for how to help victims.

Hey guys. I have to admit, I’m feeling a bit down today.

Work has just been super, super stressful lately, and then to top it off we just got out of a meeting with the head of our department where we all got yelled at for not working hard enough. Apparently there are some people on our team who are shouldering all the work (read: me) and some people who have been seriously slacking off (enough to gain the attention of our finance department and get us all in trouble).

Even though I know the meeting wasn’t about me, and I know I have been working by butt off at work, it still sucks to be a part of a meeting where you’re disappointing your senior-level management. No one wants to be a disappointment, especially when you are already overworked and stressed.

At least I have an awesome manager, who said the following to me after the meeting:

“Hi – in case I don’t see you before I leave for the doctor, I wanted to let you know that meeting was not about you; they just needed everyone to be there to hear it. You’re wonderful and everyone loves you. I’m happy to talk with you tomorrow about any questions you may have.”

She is amazing. She seemed to know exactly what I was feeling after the stressful meeting and said exactly the thing to cheer me up (at least a little).

I know I usually try not to ~~talk~~ rant about my real job on here, but sometimes it really affects the way I’m feeling and I can’t just brush it off and go on cheerfully like usual. This week has been one of the most difficult weeks I’ve ever had at this job, and I’m having a little trouble staying positive. I know things will slow down again, but it’s hard to keep that in sight when I’m running around like a crazy person.

But you didn’t come here to read about my work life, so let’s get back to today’s regularly-scheduled programming. It’s What I Ate Wednesday, after all!

Thanks to Jenn for hosting the link up! Here’s a little peek at what I ate on Monday.

Breakfast

Check that out- new cereal! In addition to my usual Multigrain Cheerios, I recently bought some Oatmeal Squares and have been enjoying them for breakfast this week (I measure out 1/2 cup of each, Cheerios and Oatmeal Squares,) with skim milk, a banana, and blueberries. I love this breakfast. I actually get really excited in the morning when I think about eating it (it’s one thing that helps get me out of bed in the morning – is that weird?).

Lunch

Luch was pretty standard around here on Monday- I had turkey, mustard, and American cheese on a sandwich thin, with carrots & hummus on the side. I also had a mini Babybell cheese. This lunch is definitely my favorite go-to It never gets old!

P.S. I hate when my carrots get like this. Why do they turn all white and gross-looking??? I washed them before putting them in the container…so weird.

Snack

A little later in the afternoon I headed into the kitchen to chop up my apple and make some unsweetened green tea, when I saw there were some pretzel crisps leftover from a meeting. Score!! I had a few pretzel crisps with my apple and tea and was very satisfied with my snack. Yum.

Dinner

My dinner on Monday was pretty good, but admittedly not my favorite. I had a piece of tilapia (seasoned with a few herbs, salt, and pepper), some cilantro-lime quinoa (this actually was really good), and roasted brussels sprouts and yellow squash mixed with some goat cheese. Everything about this meal should have been delicious, but for some reason it just wasn’t doing it for me.

Oh, I still ate every bite, but it just wasn’t my favorite dinner ever.

Dessert

Ahhh, nothing like a bowl of low-fat cookies & cream ice cream to end a hard day

Daily Activity: Now that my half marathon is over, I’ve gone back to running 1 mile every morning with Jack and completing Jillian Michaels workout DVDs in the evening. I’m going to try to do all 90 days of the DVD program as scheduled this time (since I actually have 90 days and am not training for anything), so you know I’ll keep you posted. Right now the DVDs seem too easy and I’m actually missing my runs a lot, so I put a 5 mile run on the schedule for this weekend. I hope I get to it!! I’m missing my running!!

Question of the day: What do you do when you’re stressed at work??

Psst…I was really hoping to get my half marathon recap up for you guys yesterday, but with my work schedule that just didn’t happen. Hopefully I can get it up tomorrow!!

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 #7

WIAW 1 Response »

Jun 132012

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.!

WIAW #5

WIAW 12 Responses »

May 302012

Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday! I am starting to notice that every week when I write my WIAW posts I am insanely busy at work. I used to think Thursdays were there really busy days around here, but I guess it depends on what projects I am working on. Anyway, I’ll keep this brief so I can get back to ~~being a slave~~ work.

If you’re new around here, WIAW stands for What I Ate Wednesday and it documents what I ate for a whole day. The idea was started by the ingenious Jenn over at Peas and Crayons and it’s a fun thing to participate in each week so you can keep track of your eating habits. So, without further ado, here’s a compilation of everything I ate yesterday!

1. My morning started out with a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats cereal with fat free milk. This is one of my favorite breakfast cereals because it has a lot of fiber but doesn’t taste like crap. I first bought it when my Fooducate app (everyone needs to download this app!) showed me that it was a better choice than many cereals, and I’ve been buying it ever since! It also fills me up for the entire morning, which I know from experience that a lot of cereals don’t (at least for me). I’ve tried switching up my cereals a bunch of times, but this one always finds its way back onto my shelf. It’s a keeper!

2. For lunch I had another staple for me: turkey breast on a whole wheat sandwich thin with reduced fat American cheese and mustard. I also, not surprisingly, at this with a handful of raw almonds from Trader Joe’s, pretzel twists, and yogurt-covered pretzels for dessert. I know, I know, this is a very boring lunch and I eat it almost every day, but I like it! And that’s all that matters, right?

3. Midway through the afternoon I was feeling hungry again so I munched on a banana. I was happy that I remembered to bring one to work because sometimes if I’m running low on fruit or rushing out the door, I forget. Nom nom nanner

4. I also sipped on half a bottle of All Natural Nantucket Nectars Apple Juice. I didn’t drink the whole bottle because I was saving the rest for later (mostly because there was too much sugar in it for me to consume in one serving), but the juice gave me a quick boost of energy when that end of the day drag started creeping up on me.

5. Apparently I was really tired at work because I also munched on two Hershey kisses. These kind are the air delights, which have more air and less chocolate so they kind of break down when you eat them. They taste pretty similar to the regular ones but are only 200 calories for 11 of them. Yes, I said 11. Who eats 11 Hershey kisses in one sitting anyway?? For two little kisses it’s only about 35 calories, which is not bad at all if it cures my chocolate craving.

6. For dinner I had Chicken Orzo Summer Salad with asparagus, tomatoes, and bell peppers. If you missed this recipe yesterday you should check it out immediately. It. Was. Awesome.

And that concludes today’s WIAW post! As my friends will tell you, it’s a good thing I didn’t decide to write a What I Ate This Weekend post because it would have included a ton of fattening foods like chicken tenders and pizza. Ugh! I’m trying to squeeze a lot more fruits and veggies into my meals since we’ve been back, and last night’s salad definitely helped! Hopefully I can keep the streak going

How do you guys recover from crazy weekends? I’m thinking a detox shake might be in order. You should see all the greens I picked up yesterday. Oy!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Recipes 3 Responses »

May 152012

Healthy cookies can be kind of hit or miss for me. I’ve attempted a few recipes before, but usually I wound up feeling disappointed in the flavor or texture and threw them out in the end (not true for my one minute peanut butter cookies, but those only serve one person).

But what’s a girl to do when she has two mushy, brown bananas? I would have liked to make some chocolate peanut butter banana bread, but that requires three mushy bananas, not two. Thankfully I turned to Julie’s website where I remembered seeing a healthy cookie recipe that she recently posted involving peanut butter, oatmeal, and two ripe bananas! Perfect! Last night I had all those ingredients on hand and the bananas were getting gross, so I pulled out my mixer and got to work.

First I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Then I mashed the two bananas in a bowl until they were soft. They were pretty lumpy still, but since they would be mashed more with the mixer I didn’t mind.

I added the bananas to a large bowl along with some peanut butter, oil, brown sugar, vanilla, and an egg. I mixed everything up until it was smooth. In a separate bowl I combined oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. I mixed all the dry ingredients together really thoroughly because I hate the bitter taste of baking soda, which you can sometimes taste if it’s not mixed properly.

When the dry ingredients were well combined, I slowly poured them into the bowl with the wet ingredients and used my mixer to stir everything up (I was initially concerned because the batter was pretty wet, but it all firmed up in the oven).

I used a spoon to drop the cookies onto parchment-lined cookie sheets and baked them for about 10 minutes. I had to make my cookies pretty large since I only have two cookie sheets, but I definitely would have liked to make them smaller and use another tray.

The scent of banana wafting through my kitchen was heavenly. Yum!!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies (Adapted from Peanut Butter Fingers)

Yields two dozen large cookies or three dozen small cookies

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Mash bananas, and mix with peanut butter, vegetable oil and brown sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
In a separate bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir well.
Slowly mix oat mixture into banana mixture until everything is combined.
Spoon dough onto cookie sheet and bake for approximately 10 – 12 minutes.

These cookies were moist and delicious! Be warned that although they are made from relatively healthy ingredients, you should not start chowing down on these like they are raw carrots. They should still be treated like a cookie and you should only indulge when your sweet tooth is ravaging. I just think they are a nice alternative to decadent buttery chocolate chip cookies, for example

Oh, and happy National Chocolate Chip Day! I’m going to celebrate by….er…eating peanut butter banana oatmeal cookies instead? Lol.

Elvis-inspired Breakfast Sandwich

Recipes No Responses »

Apr 232012

Good afternoon! I hope your day is going well despite the fact that 1. It’s Monday 2. It’s cold 3. It’s rainy 4. It’s Monday.

Well, to cheer you up I decided to give you this extra post today which will highlight my breakfast and lunch (both of which were amazing). Why am I adding an extra post you may ask? Here’s what I was thinking. My evening posts are always really long since they cover my workout for the entire day and a full recipe with step-by-step photos. By the time I am done writing it I never really get around to talking about anything fun. I figure if you made it all the way down to the end of my post you probably don’t really want to stick around to read about additional health topics. Am I right?

So, what’s the solution? I’m going to add afternoon posts! They will sometimes feature my breakfast and/or lunch recipes, but sometimes they will just have random thoughts or tips on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. There will still be a regular post in the evenings with my workout and a recipe. Sound good? Mmmkay so…

Recipe

Here’s what I ate for breakfast.

Can you guess what I made with this? I think it’s pretty obvious…

Yummmm! It was so easy to make and kept me full all morning. Plus I was able to get fiber from the Thomas’ English Muffins (Light multi-grain kind), potassium and Vitamin C from the banana, and protein and heart-healthy fats from the peanut butter. And the organic honey…well, it’s supposed to be good for allergies right? Anyway, for consistency’s sake here’s how you make this yummy breakfast although it’s really not a recipe at all.

Ingredients

1 Thomas’ Light English Muffin
1 tbsp. peanut butter (I like using reduced fat or all natural but all we have at the moment is regular creamy since it was on sale)
1/2 banana, sliced
1/2 tsp. honey

Instructions

Slice English muffin in half and lightly toast.
Spread peanut butter on toasted muffin.
Place sliced bananas evenly over the surface of the muffin.
Drizzle honey on top.

(see I told you it wasn’t really a recipe…oh well!)

Lunch

Today’s lunch was really different and delicious. See, I usually pack my lunch and bring it to work with me so that a) I can save money and b) I can eat healthy foods I prepare myself. However, imagine my surprise when I got to work this morning and realized my lunch was not in my bag as I expected but conveniently sitting in my refrigerator where I left it. Wah!! So what did I do? I could have gone to Pret, Subway, or Potbelly’s like I usually do when I don’t bring a lunch, but today I wanted something different. Different but still healthy. I turned to Twitter and tweeted to Lisa over at DininginDC.net. She instantly tweeted back and recommended Java Green Cafe. It was only two blocks away from my work and somehow I’d never been! Crazy!

I looked up the menu online which explained it was an Asian-inspired vegetarian cafe serving up tons of veggie and vegan options. Sign me up! I headed over and purchased the Chick’n Java sandwich. It was made with soy chickn’, roasted red pepper, spinach, organic provolone cheese, veg-mayo, and Chili Java. Here’s what it looked like:

Thank you so much Lisa for recommending Java Green to me! I will definitely be a returning customer!

See you all later tonight with my workout summary and a recipe. Any ideas for Meatless Monday?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Recipes 1 Response »

Apr 172012

Wow. Just wait until you guys try this recipe. I mean really. Wow. Doesn’t the title say it all? But ok, more on that later.

Workout

Yesterday’s workout was nice and relaxing. I’m not even sure I would consider it a workout, but since I am trying to document any type of physical activity that I engage in, I will include it on here. Yesterday Fabio and I walked Jack up to the dog park and meandered around Arlington along the way. We took “the long way” to the park and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. At the dog park, Jack met another black lab mix, whose name was also Jack! Our Jack could not get enough of his twin and he followed him around the whole time.

After we got home from the park, we dropped off Jack and walked over to the store to pick up some groceries for the week (remember the aforementioned car trouble? That’s why we walked to the grocery store). Luckily there are a number of grocery stores within walking distance from our apartment so the walk wasn’t too bad. I’d say by the end of the day we probably walked around 3 miles. Not too bad for a lazy Sunday!

Recipe

Ok so now that I’ve bored you with my “exercise” from yesterday, it’s time for today’s recipe! A few weeks ago I saw this recipe for Reese’s Peanut Butter Banana Bread on Pinterest. Even though I knew it wasn’t healthy at all I couldn’t stop thinking about the delicious bread. By the end of last week we just happened to have three overly-ripe bananas. You could say it was a coincidence…or you could say that I purposely avoided eating them throughout the week just so that I could make this recipe over the weekend Winking smile . You tell me what you think happened!

So anyway, I decided to make this recipe on Sunday and I plan to have it as my dessert all this week. I honestly think it’s ok to indulge sometimes and just bake whatever treat you are craving, as long as you eat it in moderation. I made this banana bread because I knew otherwise I would never stop thinking about it and even if I made a lightened-up version I would have just been disappointed that it wasn’t the decadent chocolatey peanut-buttery version that I was dreaming of. So in the end, I made the bread and do not feel one bit guilty. I will eat the bread in small portions and only after eating healthy and exercising that day. My belief is that if you are constantly restricting your food choices you will never stick to a healthy diet. Anyway, enough talk! Here’s how to make it:

First preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan with butter or shortening. Then pour all dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and whisk until combined (I forgot to photograph this step- woops!). In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients and mix until smooth. I used a fork first to mash the bananas and then switched to an electric mixer (no, I do not own a KitchenAid mixer…but one day I will!).

The mixture was pretty lumpy at first, but soon it was smooth.

Once the wet ingredients are combined, slowly add in your dry ingredients. The mixture should be lumpy, so I just used a spatula to fold in the dry ingredients.

Once all the dry ingredients are incorporated, you can add in your chocolate chips and pour the batter into your greased loaf pan.

Bake the yummy, delicious cake bread for one hour or until the top starts to brown. Let the bread cool for about 10 minutes (or impatiently cut into a piece before allowing it to cool and have it fall apart all over your plate like I did).

Eat a small portion (if you can…) with an ice cold glass of skim milk and you are set for dessert for the week! Hey, at least there’s some fruit in there right?? Winking smile

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Adopted from Cookies & Cups

Ingredients

3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup oil (the bread was pretty moist so I might eliminate this next time)
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
About 1 cup of chocolate chips (I eyeballed it)
About 1 cup nuts (I omitted)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Grease your loaf pan (I used an 8 x 4 pan) with butter or shortening.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl stir together your bananas, peanut butter, oil, egg and sugars (I used a fork first and then switched to an electric mixer).
Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Batter should be lumpy.
Fold in your chocolate chips and pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake for about 1 hour or until top starts to brown.
Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes (if you can) before diving in.

Enjoy!