What I ate

Sunday Sum-up

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Whelp, I didn’t do much cooking this weekend.  I did get a new digital camera and new (free replacement) iPhone though!  WOOOHOO!

I contemplated getting a digital SLR camera, but in the ended I decided to go with the Fujifilm Finepix S2550HD, which is a higher end point and shoot camera.  Down the road I may invest in a digital SLR camera, but I felt I needed to learn more about photography before taking such a big (financial) leap.  Ok, I’m cheap.  🙂

Here’s some random pictures I have taken so far with the camera.  I’m still learning how to use all the functions but I especially liked how these turned out.  I’m looking forward to my free class at Van’s Camera to learn everything!

This weekend was pretty action packed.  And by action packed I mean lots of shopping, driving around, nonstop errands, and eating foods that I didn’t cook 🙂

For breakfast this morning I had a Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla, blueberries, and Trader Joe’s Crunchy Almond Butter that I cooked up on the george foreman grill:

Tried the Vanilla Almond Luna Bar and the Nuts over Chocolate.

Both were pretty tasty (Luna never lets me down apparently), but I wouldn’t rank either of them at the top of the pack because I wished the flavors were stronger in both bars.

Also tried a Pecan Pie Larabar… I ate one small bite and tossed the rest.  Bummer.  I’ve got some good feedback from you guys though, and it looks like Key Lime Pie, Cherry Pie, and Coconut are the flavors I need to keep an eye out for!

After getting my iPhone replaced, we headed to Tropical Smoothie Cafe at Legacy Village for lunch.  I ordered the Jerk Chicken Wrap, apple, and a Very Berry Green Tea Smoothie.  Jarrod got the buffalo chicken wrap and a Muscle Blaster smoothie.

We both loved everything we ordered and definitely want to try the cafe out again since their menu had a lot to offer.

After lunch we hit up Trader Joe’s!  Here’s what I picked up this time:

I had one of the chicken sausages for dinner along with some of Jarrod’s special oven baked cajun potatoes:

Delicious!

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Recipes

Healthified Gyros & Tzatziki Saucziki

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Tonight, I had a craving for gyros.  Mmmmmm…. Can’t remember the last time I had one of those.

The task at hand:  satisfy this craving as healthfully as possible.

I decided to go with ground turkey for the meat to stuff my gyro.  I combined the following ingredients and formed a meat “log” which I cooked on the george foreman grill for about 7 minutes.

  • 5 ounces 99% lean ground turkey
  • sprinkling of dried oregano, S&P, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, red pepper flakes

Then I sliced the meat into long strips and placed atop a Joseph’s Low Carb Pita:

And topped it off with the KEY component of any gyro:  Tzatziki Sauce!  I mixed up the tzatziki sauce about an hour before grilling the meat.  It consisted of:

  • 2 tbsp Oikos plain greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp grated cucumber
  • S&P, Dill weed
  • 1 clove garlic, minced

Tzatziki ingredients in the bowl:

All together now!

I used some of the leftover cucumber to make a small cucumber salad (sliced cucumber, dill weed, white vinegar):

YUM!!!  This really hit the spot!  I do want to note that the meat was a little on the dry side.  I personally didn’t really mind because I doused it in the yummy Tzatziki sauce.  Next time, I’ll either add some of the shredded cucumber to the meat or try shredded zucchini and/or onion.

Stats on the gyro:  278 calories, 24g carbs, 4g fat, 39g protein, 7g fiber

 

Despite this delicious dinner, the night did not end on such a happy note:

What’s that, you ask?  Ohhhh… that….  Whelp, that’s my iPhone, chilling in some rice, because I apparently dropped it on my way in the door and let it sit outside in the rain for three hours.  🙁

Hopefully this rice trick I found on google with do the trick and suck all the water out!

 

QUESTION OF THE EVENING:  What was the dumbest thing you did today?

P.S. to respond to this question click the little blue button that says “Leave a comment” … look right below this line… just a little further… You can do it! 😉

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Fitness, Ramblings

Busy Bee & I miss running

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Tonight has been one of those nights where I haven’t stopped moving since the moment I got off work.  Walked in the park with my sister, grocery shopping, mowed the lawn, laundry… and it’s after 9 and I’m pooped!

Tomorrow I am volunteering with the United Way of Summit County for the Day of Action.  I decided I’d try and pack some healthy snacks to take along since I know they will be providing us with some unhealthy temptations.  (I’m sure I’ll succumb to at least one 😉  )

Walking in the metro parks this afternoon really got my desire to start running churning again.  I would consider myself an active person since I’ve played soccer since elementary school, and I just generally enjoy being outside and moving around.  A few months back I decided to start running and I loved it!  I felt like I had found a new passion.  Running first thing in the morning really energized me for my day, and I felt absolutely great.  But unfortunately I injured my knee.  Still not entirely sure what happened there.  The doctor tells me “some knees just aren’t made for running.”  I’m not ready to accept that.  I hate doctors.  But that’s a different blog for a different day.

I stumbled upon this website which gives a plan for building yourself up from walking to running.  Stamina is not my issue — I can run 5K no problem (well before the knee issues began that is).  I think what I need to focus on is not stamina but strength. 

  

The Plan (3o minutes per day, 3 days per week):

Week #1: Two minutes running/four minutes walking
Week #2: Three minutes running/three minutes walking
Week #3: Four minutes running/two minutes walking
Week #4: Five minutes running/three minutes walking
Week #5: Seven minutes running/three minutes walking
Week #6: Eight minutes running/two minutes walking
Week #7: Nine minutes running/one minute walking
Week #8: Thirteen minutes running/two minutes walking
Week #9: Fourteen minutes running/one minute walking
Week #10: Run the whole time!

I guess the worst that could happen is my knee will hurt, and I’ll have to stop.  I think I’m going to give it a shot!  I’m just hoping the knee can handle it.  Also, how the heck do I keep track of my time in 2 minute intervals?  Maybe there’s an iphone app….  Haha.. of course there’s an app 😉 

As of yet, no big plans for the weekend and no new recipes scheduled for experimentation.  But I did find this little message in a treat I had earlier this week:

Now I have to do something new!  I’m really funny about messages like this, or even messages that come in fortune cookies.  I often carry them around in my wallet as a reminder to think positively and enjoy everyday.  Somtimes you just need a visual.

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