Friday Success-2, Failure-1

Happy Friday!!!  I’m pumped for the weekend!

I started this lovely Friday morning off with Day #1, Week #3 of my interval training (2 minutes walking, 4 minutes running for 30 minutes).  Knees are doing really good, which makes me SUPER happy 😀

 

Breakfast #1

GRILLED FRUIT AND NUT BUTTER WRAP!  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Regular PB2 + black raspberries + Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla =

+ George Foreman

= HEAVEN:

SUCCESSSSS.   If you haven’t tried a grilled fruit and nut butter wrap yet… get on it!  They are delicious!

2 more days to post a comment on the PB2 giveaway!!!

Stats on the grilled PB2 + black razz wrap:  129 calories, 14g carbs, 5g fat, 11g protein, 6g fiber

 

Breakfast #2

After seeing the breakfast cookie success Leashieloo had on her blog, I decided it was time for round #2 with the breakfast cookie. 

Last night  I gathered all my ingredients:

That’s:

  • 1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill Extra Thick rolled oats
  • 1 tbsp smuckers organic creamy peanut butter
  •  1/8 cup unsweetened Almond Breeze Vanilla almond milk
  • 1/2 cup Mott’s unsweetened applesauce
  • 1/2 tsp brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp sweetened coconut

I was a little hesitant when I combined all the ingredients because it seemed like it was just going to be a big mushy mess.  I contemplated making back-up overnight oats, then decided to just pack some extra almond milk so I could make on-the-spot-overnight oats if needed.

Well my worries were valid — my breakfast cookie didn’t turn out like a cookie but more of a mushy mess. 

I added a 1/4 cup of almond breeze to the mix to make it more like overnight oats.  Overall, I think I’m just not a big fan of the applesauce in the breakfast cookies.  Not sure why, but it doesn’t jive with me!

Fail 🙁

Stats on the breakfast cookie (including extra almond breeze):  322 calories, 44g carbs, 12g fat, 9g protein, 5g fiber

 

Lunch!

Today I had a very special lunch treat!  My friend & colleague Natalie and I had an outdoor picnic courtesy of Jimmy Johns!

I got the usual:  Beach Club Unwich – Mayo + Onion + Giant pickle 😀

Success!

Weekend plans include shopping, dining, cookouts, R&R, and fam time 😀

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Saturday = QT with the yard

Happy Saturday!      

Early this morning I got a call from my dad saying he was on his way over to help me trim my trees in my backyard.  So I quickly dove into the breakfast cookie I made yesterday.  I think if you approach eating a breakfast cookie with the expectation that it will have the texture of an actual cookie you will be disappointed.  I took two bites and put it back in the fridge–the moist texture just wasn’t doing it for me.      

I quickly threw together an eggwich (1 egg (yolk poked), multi grain english muffin, squirt o’ ketchup).  As the eggwich was wrapping up, I decided to give the breakfast cookie a second go.  I cleared my head of thoughts of chocolately cookies and approached it with an open mind.  This actually worked!  The breakfast cookie is moist and slightly chewy–and I think you could really play around with the things you mix in to make it an A+ breakfast.  I think I might actually pop the rest of the cookie into the oven later — just to see if it would get me the texture of an actual cookie 😉      

Breakfast sammy:      

eggwich

 

 Eggwich Stats:185 calories, 29g carbs, 6g fat, 10g protein, 5g fiber      

Breakfast cookie stats (stats are for whole cookie — I only ate 1/3): 303 calories, 31g carbs, 12g fat, 22g protien 8g fiber      

Back to the yard — I don’t know what happened this year, but my yard hit a major growth spurt.  It seemed over the course of one weekend all the plants and trees in my yard just exploded with new growth.  The trees in the backyard were so overgrown that they were actually laying on the house.  I couldn’t even see out the kitchen window!  Slowly but surely, I’m getting the yard into shape for cookout season.       

yard looks huge now that trees are trimmed up

 

      

      

      

After a couple of hours of work in the yard I was famished.  My doctor tells me I am hypoglycemic, which basically means I have low blood sugar.  There really isn’t anything you can do for low blood sugar–other than regulate your food intake and make sure you eat frequent nutritious meals.       

Up until this year, I never really took the time to plan out my meals and snacks for the day.  I would hardly eat anything in the mornings so that I could over indulge at lunch.  If I hit a lull where my blood sugar bottomed out, I’d chug a can of coke to get it to spike back up quickly.  Obviously, this is not the right approach and it was not good for my body.      

Now I make sure to take the time to plan out what I am going to eat each day.  I usually sit down the night before and enter everything into MyFitnessPal to make sure I’m not over or underdoing anything.  Though I don’t always stick to the plan to a T, I at least have healthy foods on hand to keep me energized and my blood sugar stable throughout the day.      

I don’t always do as good of a job eating regularly on the weekends.  When I’m out and about, food sometimes gets pushed to the wayside.  This is especially true when I am working on the yard.      

By the time I stopped to eat today I was shaking so bad I could barely hold the camera!  I quickly threw together a wrap using some leftover turkey and ham, tomato, onion, banana peppers, hot sauce, and 1/2 a Joseph’s lavash bread.       

      

Yes, I even had to take a bite before taking the picture!      

I think I’ll try out the turkey burger recipe I posted earlier in the week for dinner.  I’m really craving a big juicy burger and some fries right now.  We’ll see what I can whip up 🙂

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Ten Cheese Pizza

Usually on Friday nights, my BF (AKA man candy) and I order up some Gionino’s pizza with hot sauce.  This week, however, we’ve got big plans for dinner Sunday night ( 😉 😉 Tim), so we decided to go the healthy route tonight.  

The BF follows a strict diet and workout plan, which I have declared the “Road-to-Ultimate Fitness.”  He eats the same meals every day.  Day in and day out.  I would never succeed on the road to ultimate fitness.  I love food far too much, and get bored far too easily to do such a thing.  

Although the plan was to eat healthy tonight, there were no pizza sacrifices on my behalf!  I whipped up a flat bread pizza using a Joseph’s Middle eastern Bakery Lavash bread, some Classico Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic sauce, leftover grilled chicken, thinly sliced tomato and onion, and a random assortment of cheeses that have accumulated in my fridge.  

pizza makin goods

 

It’s real easy to go over board on the cheese – so I made sure to measure everything out.  1 tbsp Kraft Italian Style Five cheese blend, 1 tbsp Athenos Reduced Fat Feta, 1 tbsp Digorno Shredded Three Cheese, and 2 tbsp fat free ricotta.  That’s ten — count ’em — ten cheeses 😀   

pizza into the oven

 

Some people hate ricotta cheese but I adore it.  I feel it adds a layer of delicious decadence to any meal.  (Which reminds me — I’ve been wanting to try out this recipe for Lemon Ricotta Cookies)  

So back to the main event–THE PIZZA.  I seasoned the pizza up with some garlic salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and some dried parsley and baked at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  Served up with some leftover cucumber salad.  

  

For a person whose favorite part of a pizza is the crust, I was extremely happy with how this turned out!  The flavors of the cheeses and seasonings were perfection!  Only item to modify for next time will be to put the Lavash in the oven for a few minutes before topping it — that will give it time to crisp up so the sauce doesn’t make it soggy in the middle.  

Stats for the whole lavash pizza (and I was only able to eat 2/3 of it):  431 calories,  35g carbs, 13g fat,  48g protein, 10g fiber  

   

I do want to make side note of my afternoon snack — I had an afternoon meeting so I grabbed a Peanut Butter Cookie Luna bar to take with me.  I’ve heard mixed reviews on this specific flavor, but I thought it was downright tasty!  Though, it did remind me more of a peanut butter rice crispie treat than a cookie, but I’m content with that!  

Luna on the keyboard so I wouldnt forget her 😉

 

After the pizza eatin’, I decided to mix up a breakfast cookie.  I follow a few different food blogs, and I kept seeing this “breakfast cookie” popping up so I decided to look into it.  According to her website, Fitnessista is the brains behind the breakfast cookie.  I’m pumped to give this one a go

My cookie consisted of oats, optimum nutrition chocolate whey, Trader Joe’s crunchy Almond butter, skim milk, some mashed up blackberries, and little brown sugar. 

can't wait to try this puppy out tomorrow
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I got eggs on the brain

TGIF!  :mrgreen:        

It’s Friday, and I’ve got eggs on the brain!  I think my body was upset with me for not taking the time to make eggs yesterday–so I decided to have them for breakfast AND lunch to make it up to myself!        

This morning, I took a look in the fridge to see what I could throw into an omelet.  I decided to go with 1 egg, 3 egg whites, splash o’ skim milk, chopped up red and yellow peppers, black beans, salsa, and spinach.  Kind of an odd combo… but throw some hott sauce on there and you’ve got a Mexicomelet!        

peppers and beans

 

mexicomolet

 

  This was very yummy and very filling.  I should have topped it off with salsa, green onion, and a small dollop of sour cream (duh!) but that didnt dawn on me until I was half through devouring it.  Next time!        

B#1 Stats:  206 calories, 20g carbs, 6g fat, 23g protein, 9g fiber        

         

For breakfast #2 I SLAMMED a Dannon Blueberry Greek Yogurt with some blackberries and 1/2 a 100 cal pack of  Emerald’s cocoa roast almonds crushed on top.        

        

        

     

 Greek yogurt is just amazing.  How did I live without it??  This was my first time trying the cocoa roast almonds–and I’m a big fan.  Went perfectly in the yogurt.        

B#1 Stats:  175 calories, 17g carbs, 4g fat, 18g protein, 3g fiber        

         

Today’s lunch menu:  EGGS.        

When I was young, my mom used to take me to a restaurant called the Sandwich Board.  Their egg salad sandwich had about 13 eggs and 2 pounds of bean sprouts on it, and I absolutely loved it!  So today for lunch I decided to make my own egg salad sandwich.          

I had light mayo in the fridge, but I really wasn’t feeling it.  So, I decided to try and make a healthified egg salad consisting of 1 egg, 3 egg whites, 1 tbsp fat free sour cream, 1 tbsp mustard, green onion, salt, pepper, and dill weed served up with sprouts, tomato, and red onion in 1/2 a Joseph’s Low Carb Pita.         

        

         

This was a quite tasty first stab at healthy egg salad.  Note for next time:  double up on the seasonings, less sour cream, more mustard (as if it wasn’t yellow enough already).        

Egg Salad Pita Stats:  225 calories, 20g carbs, 6g fat, 23g protein, 5g fiber        

On the side I had a dill pickle spear and some cucumber salad (cucumber, red onion, dill weed, and white vinegar).        

On the agenda this weekend are the following:        

  • Give the elliptical a go (and hope my knee holds up)
  • Flat bread pizza using Joseph’s lavash bread
  • Make a breakfast cookie (been dying to try these — it’s like a food blogger phenomena)
  • Make a lightbox
  • Post a bunch of clothes I don’t wear on ebay and hope for high bidders 😉
  • Make a barley breakfast bowl
  • Finish watching season #1 of Will & Grace, start on season #2 😀
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