Weekend Fail.

Going into the weekend, I had one goal:  to find the new Luna Bar flavors and devour mass quantities of them.  For those who aren’t maniacally obsessed with luna bars ….   For those who have been living under a rock!!! …  ahem…  for those who aren’t aware, the new flavors are Chocolate Chunk and the highly coveted Chocolate Dipped Coconut.

Saturday afternoon I was out running errands when I got wind of a winter storm a brewing.  So I decided to high tail it to Whole Foods in Cleveland so that I could snag the new Lunas.  I even called the store ahead of time to make sure that they had the new flavors in stock.  As an added bonus, I planned to swing by Trader Joes which is right down the road from Whole Foods.  It’s not often I make this trip up to Cleveland, so I had already started mentally drafting a lengthy list of goodies to pick up.

About 20 minutes into my drive the freezing rain started.  No worries I thought.  I’ve got this.  Zoom zoom Mazda, zoom zoom. 

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A few miles passed.

Ok Mazda, perhaps a little less zoom.

Let’s creep like a turtle instead, shall we?

The closer and closer I got the Cleveland the WORSE AND WORSE the weather got.  At one point traffic was stuck at a dead stop for a good 15 minutes, which I soon realized was due to an accident that had resulted in a car completely flipped over on the snow embankment.  I counted four accidents on my journey north.  And I’m not talking fender benders.  I’m talking the kind of accident you drive by and say “holy cow! how the heck did that happen!??!?”.

Perhaps this was a bad day to go to Cleveland…

 

When I finally arrived at Whole Foods, I was literally shaking.  I bolted inside and headed for the Luna Bars.  I quickly spied the Chocolate Chunk and grabbed two with gusto.  As I reached victoriously into the Chocolate Dipped Coconut box I realized, to my utter horror, that the box was empty.  They were sold out.  They were sans coconut goodness, if you will.

I had just risked my life, and they were sold out.

I stood in front of the Luna Bars motionless as defeat washed over me. 

As I turned to leave, I remembered that I was also super excited to try out the new blueberry muffin LaraBar.  Just as I headed to grab one, an old lady swerved her cart into the aisle and picked up the ENTIRE last box of blueberry muffin Laras and dumped them into her cart. 

 

I kid you not.  It was like a scene from Walmart’s toy aisle on Black Friday.

I turned away concealing my internal rage, bought my 2 chocolate chunk bars, and headed to the car. 

I immediately tore into the Chocolate Chunk Luna Bar.

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This Luna Bar was definitely tasty, like a big chocolatey chewy graham.  It reminded me of the smore Luna a little too much though….

After all that nonsense, I decided to just go home.  No TJ’s shopping spree.  That’s right.  I drove all the way to Cleveland in an ice storm for 2 Chocolate Chunk Luna bars.

Fail.

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Something old, something new x2

Breakfast #1

For breakfast this morning I was craving one of my standards:  dippy eggs and potatoes.  So, I cooked up 1 egg over easy, heated up some of Jarrod’s special cajun oven potatoes, and a Thomas’ multi-grain english muffin. 

Served up with a dollop of ketchup, of course! 😉

Delicious as always!  Sometimes you just gotta go with the tried and true.

Stats on breakfast #1:  219 calories, 39g carbs, 6g fat, 12g protein, 9g fiber

 

Breakfast #2 = Healthified Low-Carb Waffles

I recently picked up some Bob’s Red Mill Low-Carb baking mix, so I decided to try and make some low-carb waffles this morning.

I mixed up:

  • 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill Low-Carb baking mix
  • 1/4 cup + 1 tsp Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 egg white
  • Sprinkling of cinnamon

Poured the mix onto the waffle iron, and let it cook for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I mixed up half a serving of PB2 and made it a little on the runny side (for drizzling!).  I also microwaved 1/4 of fresh frozen strawberries.  Once nice and hot, I added a sprinkling of Truvia to sweeten them up and a drizzle of Smuckers sugar free syrup.

All together:

This was a good first stab at low-carb waffles!  Next time, I think I’ll add half a packet of the truvia to the actual waffle batter and also 1/8 tsp of baking powder to help the waffles perk up a bit.  Definitely gonna play with this idea some more!

Stats on just the waffles:  126 calories, 12g carbs, 3g fat, 18g protein, 5g fiber

Stats on waffles with all the fixins:  170 calories, 21g carbs, 4g fat, 21g protein, 6g fiber

 

Larabar success!!

Yesterday, I was feeling adventurous (albeit hesitant) and decided to try the Peanut butter & Jelly Larabar that I’ve been neglecting for the past week due to Larabar Fail #1 and Fail #2

Every other larabar I’ve tried to date, I’ve taken 1 bite and tossed the rest.  I actually enjoyed this one!  Wow!  I’m so surprised!  And I LOVE the simple ingredients:  Dates, Peanuts, Unsweetened Cherries, and Salt.  Still keeping an eye out there for the coconut and key lime flavors…

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Sunday Sum-up

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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TGI Freakin F!

Today I feel like a chicken with no head.  Let me recap the last 24 hours in 13 key points:

1.) Went shopping for new pants after work yesterday, ended up buying three shirts.  (I still consider this a success)

2.) Ate a Luna Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar for energy before my interval training.

This was pretty tasty.  It had more of a candy-bar like feel to it than the normal Luna Bars, but I think the taste of the regular bars are better than these protein bars.  Worth a shot, definitely better than the Larabar Flop earlier in the week, but I’ll stick with the regular Luna Bars from now on!

3.) Got locked out.  Super.

4.) Dinner consisted of a cold leftover turkey burger (luckily I had brought this with me to work and subsequently took it with me shopping).  Yes, I took the burger into the mall… Haha 🙂

5.) Phone died (again).  Super!

6.) Completed Day 3 of interval training.  Whoop!

7.) Set alarm clock (since phone is broke). 

8.) Turns out alarm was never changed for daylight savings.  Woke up 1.5 hours late.  Super.

9.) While making coffee, realized I never unplugged the george foreman after making my breakfast wrap yesterday.  Wow, Mary.  Wow.

10.) Ate a Blueberry Bliss luna bar on my way into work.  And it really was blissful!  Things started to perk up after that.

11.) Got to work 1 hour late. Craaaapppppp…

12.) Strawberry Oikos Greek Yogurt with blueberries and Bear Naked Maple Pecan Granola 🙂 Yummmm….

13.) Takeout lunch from Jimmy Johns.  It’s starting to feel like Friday now 😀

Giant beach club unwich, no mayo, add onion and giant pickle:

Me after finishing my grub:

 Blurry, but at least I’m smiling!

*deep breath*

In through the nose, out through the mouth….

😀

Plans for the weekend:

  • Get my frickin phone fixed
  • Yard Work (obviously)
  • New digital camera!!!! YAY!!! Super excited about this one.
  • Fun with friends Saturday night
  • Try new recipes?  I sure hope so.
  • R&R?  Mandatory.

 

QUESTION OF THE DAY:  How do you turn your day around when you start off on the wrong foot?

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Big Fat Flop(s)

 Breakfast #1   

Last night I was apparently in the mood to try 3,000 new concoctions.  I found this recipe for Protein Cakes the other day.  They are super simple to make and work out to less than 100 calories each (before you add toppings) so I decided to make two different kinds to try out for breakfast #1.   

Protein Cake #1   

  • 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 packet truvia
  • 1 tbsp sugar free applesauce
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tsp choc chips

    

Protein Cake #2   

  • 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • 2 drops vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 packet truvia
  • 1 tbsp sugar free applesauce
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/4 cup fresh blueberries

    

They only take 1 minute to cook in the microwave!   

Cakes in the mugs:   

   

Check out the height on the chocolate cake:   

   

As you can see, one of these cakes is not like the other.  One of these cakes just doesn’t belong…   

   

Apparently the blueberries had a negative effect on the vanilla protein cake.  BUMMER!  (PS, that one got tossed, it was just gross looking).   

BIG FAT FLOP #1.   

    

This morning, I was really excited to try the surviving chocolate cake. I heated it up in the microwave for about 15 seconds, and took a big ole bite.  I guess since they have “cake” in the title, I was expecting something moist and delicious.  But this was super dry and not very tasty.  I put some blackberry preserves on top, but still ended up throwing most of it away.   

   

BIG FAT FLOP #2.   

    

Because I’m such a smarty pants, I had planned ahead for such a catastrophe by bringing a Peanut Butter Cookie Lara Bar.  This is the first time I had tried a Lara Bar.  What really intrigued me was the mere 3 ingredients:    

   

Gotta be honest, I wasn’t super happy with it.  If it weren’t for the ingredients list, I probably wouldn’t buy it again.  Maybe some of the other flavors I picked up will be better–but as of now I’m not sure when I’ll be trying them.   

Any of you prefer Lara Bars to Luna Bars?  Looks like I’m a Luna girl…   

BIG FAT FLOP #3.   

    

OVERNIGHT OATS!!!  YAY! 😀 😀 😀    

No let downs here!  My oats today consisted of:   

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 3/4 cup almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1 packet stevia
  • 1 tbsp PB2
  • 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • fresh strawberries

   

 These were coldy, creamy, and delicious, as usual!   

Stats on the oats:  219 calories, 36g carbs, 7g fat, 9g protien, 8g fiber 

    

Lunch   

After the flops I had for Breakfast #1, I was kind of anxious for lunch.  I have always really enjoyed chicken salad with grapes in it, so last night I decided to whip up my own healthified chicken salad using Oikos plain greek yogurt:   

  • 3 oz shredded chicken breast (grilled up last week with McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Seasoning)
  • 2 tbsp Plain Oikos greek yogurt
  • 1 small green onion, minced
  • 1/2 tsp lime juice
  • 1 tsp chopped cilantro
  • Sprinkling of S&P, cumin, cayenne pepper, celery seed
  • 1/3 cup grapes, halved

I put the chicken salad in a Joseph’s Low Carb Pita.   

chicken salad with greek yogurt and grapes

 

SUCCESSS!!!!!!  This was really yummy!  Hooray!   

Stats on the chicken salad:  215 calories, 14g carbs, 5g fat, 25g protein, 4g fiber

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