Tuesday Tastes Good

Today marks Day #3, week #3 of my interval training plan!  I am just flying right along….. Which does make me a little nervous.  I keep waiting for another knee injury to surface… Hopefully with good stretching and elevation while at work I can continue to work my way back up to running the entire time.

I’m really hoping to be able to participate in the Healthy Living Summit group run in August too…  We shall see 🙂

Breakfast #1:  Just-sayin-no to muffin(tops)

I had a breakfast meeting at Panera this morning for the Knowledgeable Network of Women in Akron.  In a previous life, I would have been PUMPED for a muffie and/or bagel from Panera…  Coffee cake?  Bring-it-on.  Nowadays I just stare longingly at these delicious treats through the glass case and drool…. 

BUT there is good news!  Panera carries Stonyfield Farms yogurt!  So, I ordered up some of that with fruit (no granola though) and a TALLLLLL coffee 🙂

Breakfast #2:  Giving low-carb waffles a second go

I made low-carb waffles for the first time last week, and I was really excited to try them again.  There’s lots of things I’d like to play around with, but for the sake of determining what works and what doesn’t I only changed a few minor things this time around.

Last night I cooked up the waffle batter below for 10 minutes on the waffle iron:

This morning, I popped the waffles into the toaster, then topped ’em off with some fresh/frozen strawberries/bananas/blackberries that I heated up in the microwave along with some PB2 (added extra H20 fo’ the drizzle).

YUMMMMMM…..  So tasty, even though the texture is not quite what I want.  Guess I’ll just have to keep on experimenting.  No complaints here!

Stats on waffles with fixins:  206 calories, 31g carbs, 4g fat, 21g protein, 8g fiber

Lunch

Lately, I’m pretty much obsessed with hummus and spinach sandwiches of any variety.  It’s not just me either.  I made a wrap with hummus on it for the BF over the weekend, and he seconded my desire to rub it all over my face and marinate in its deliciousness.  Hahahah… 😉

Today’s wrap consisted of:

Heavenly 🙂

Stats on wrap & sliced yellow pepper:  295 calories, 23g carbs, 10g fat, 24g protein, 8g fiber

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Cold and crunchy Monday

It’s Monday!  Woot. 

😉 actually today has been a pretty decent Monday thus far.  The office is super quiet since many of my coworkers opted to use our floating holiday today.  I decided to bank mine and take my birthday off (next week) instead.

Hope you all have a fabulous fun/food/framily filled weekend!

The PB2 Giveaway ended last night!!!  Read further for the lucky winner 😀

Breakfast #1

It’s been so hot these past few days, that I was craving something super cold for breakfast this morning.  I decided a fruit smoothie would be the ticket to cooling things off.  I threw the following into the blender:

  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Vanilla Greek Yogurt
  • 1 cup fresh frozen strawberries
  • 1/4 cup blueberries
  • 1 packet Truvia (Stevia) all natural sweetener

Once I blended everything up, I opened the fridge to put the almond milk away and saw a lonely half-empty bag of spinach sitting on the shelf begging to be eaten. 

I’ve read lots of posts on the “green monster” smoothies, especially on Julie’s blog, but I’ve never tried one myself… Until today that is!

I grabbed a handful of spinach and threw it into the blender and gave it a good pulse. 

Yes, that is spinach you are seeing

The result:

One huge smoothie with “monster” flecks:

This was surprisingly tasty!  You can’t specifically taste the spinach itself, but it gives the smoothy a hearty fullness.  It also cuts on some of the sweetness of the fruit, so I was glad I used a whole packet of truvia.  I think I’ve officially jumped on the green monster bandwagon 😀

If you’re intrigued — check out the Green Monster Movement.

Stats on the Green Monster:  197 calories, 37g carbs, 2g fat, 12g protein, 6g fiber

Breakfast #2

O…. O…..   mmmmmm…. haven’t had overnight oats in a few days, so I went with the go-to OO Combo: 

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • sprinkling of cinnamon
  • fresh strawberries

All stirred up:

Overnight oats… oh how I’ve missed you :-*

Stats on the oats:  208 calories, 38g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber

Lunch

Keeping on with today’s cold theme, I thought I’d add a little crunch to my lunch with a nice salad.  Last night, I threw together a monster salad that consisted of:

  • 1/2 bag fresh express romaine
  • 1 roma tomato
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1/4 cup white onion
  • 1 serving baby carrots
  • 1 link of Jennie O’s hot turkey sausage

Topped it all off with 2 tbsp of fat free ranch dressing:

Stats on the Monster Salad:  295 calories, 28g carbs, 10g fat, 22g protein, 7g fiber

And the winner of the PB2 Giveaway ……………

Drumroll please……

Based on the random number generator, the lucky winner is:

Monique at She’s Going the Distance!!!

  

Thank you guys for taking the time to post on my blog!  I really love seeing what you guys have to say, and as cheesy as it may sound (who doesn’t love a little cheese?) it really brightens my day 😀

Monique – please send your mailing address to:  ferventfoodie@gmail.com

Everyone else – you can purchase PB2 online at www.netrition.com.  Since it’s flat rate shipping, I’d recommend getting some Mama Lupe’s low-carb tortillas, Joseph’s low-carb pita, and some carba nada pasta 🙂

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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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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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Carb tooth strikes again

Happy July!!!!

Can’t believe it’s already here… There is so much going on over the next few months (my birthday, vaca, parties, get-togethers, HLS!!!), I’m sure they are going to fly by!  Psst… don’t forget to comment on the PB2 giveaway by Sunday!

The first day of every month my firm brings in a “Birthday Breakfast” to celebrate all the employees whose birthdays fall in that month.  The spread always consists of fruits and a variety of carblicious goodies to tempt me:

I really wanted to toast up one of those bagels and smear it in cream cheese and hot sauce (if you haven’t tried it and you like hot food, TRY IT NOW).  Something about baked goods and breads make my mouth water….  I wish I could get past it, but my body is head over heals in love with these unhealthy treats!!!  Darn you, carb tooth!

Since my birthday falls in this particular month, I allowed myself a tiny sliver of a blueberry muffin.  Ridiculous.  I just picked up some Bob’s Red Mill low-carb baking mix, so maybe I’ll try and make some healthified baked goods this weekend 🙂

 

Breakfast #1

For breakfast today, I had the leftover Canadian Bacon Eggins I made earlier in the week.

Just as tasty the second time around 🙂

Stats:   147 calories, 6g carbs, 1g fat, 26g protein, 0g fiber

 

Breakfast #2

For breakfast #2, I had 1.5 cups Trader Joe’s Vanilla greek yogurt with 1/4 cup blueberries.

I love all the fresh fruits and berries this time of year!  Cannot get enough.

 Stats:   171 calories, 28g carbs, 0g fat, 14g protein, 1g fiber

 

Lunch

My sandwich yesterday was so frickin delicious, I decided to make a similar one today.  I took a 3.5 ounce chicken breast, 1 cup spinach, 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Spicy Hummus, tomato, and onion and smashed it into a Joseph’s Low Carb Pita.

Also had some sliced up red pepper on the side.  I looovvveeeeee hummuss…. mmmmm…..

Stats on stuffed pita & red pepper:   240 calories, 25g carbs, 7g fat, 28g protein, 9g fiber

Snack

I tried the Trader Joe’s Mocha yogurt, but was NOT a fan. 

It had a weird tartness about it… and overall was just different than I was expecting.  First thing I’ve purchased from TJ’s that I didn’t enjoy!

QUESTION OF THE DAY:  What are your favorite healthified cookout recipes?

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