Getcho run on!

What is it about running first thing in the morning that makes me feel like I can tackle anything the day brings me?  This morning I completed Day #3, Week #2 of my interval training plan.  Woo hoo!  That means Friday I’ll be up to 2 minutes walking, 4 minutes running… and still no knee pain in sight 🙂

  

Breakfast #1

In honor of the fabulous PB2 GIVEAWAY, I decided to make a grilled fruit and nut butter wrap using Chocolate PB2

I took 2 tbsp of powdered chocolate PB2:

Then added 1 tbsp water:

Then smeared it on a  Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla and topped with 1/4 cup each of strawberries and blueberries

I wrapped everything up, and put it on the george foreman for 5 minutes.  Then wrapped in foil and stuck in my purse:

And enjoyed at my desk at work:

Mmmmmmm…. love love love the grilled fruit and nut butter wraps!!!

Stats on the wrap:  145 calories, 21g carbs, 4g fat, 9g protein, 7g fiber

 

Make sure you post a comment on the PB2 giveaway by midnight Sunday July 4th!

 

Breakfast #2

Bowl of overnight oats consisting of:

  • 1/2 cup quick oats
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze almond milk
  • 1 packet Truvia (stevia)
  • Cinnamon
  • Fresh Strawberries & Blueberries (added this morning)

I <3 overnight oats.

 Stats on the oats:  203 calories, 39g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

 

Lunch

Last night when I was packing my lunch I was really craving a sandwich.  (The carb tooth strikes again!) 

Sunday night I grilled up a big batch of chicken breasts seasoned with McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Seasoning.  So I packed one of the breasts (about a 2.5 ouncer), 1 cup spinach, tomato, onion, a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain deli flat, and 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Spicy hummus.

Can you say YUM?  Yum. 😀

Stats on the sammy:  230 calories, 29g carbs, 5g fat, 22g protein, 9g fiber

 

Women Power

Tonight I’m headed up to Cleveland for the Athena Women’s award dinner.  This opportunity came up through my involvement with the Knowledgeable Network of Women through the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce.

And I’m taking my camera.  First time for me to let my inner food blogger out at a business function… should be interesting 🙂

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Chicken Couscous Salad Salad

Dinner tonight was Chicken Couscous Salad Salad (the food so good they name it twice, right? 😉 )

I stumbled upon this Cooking Light recipe a while back and it sounded really tasty, but I wanted to try and make it a little healthier.  Luckily, I had a great find at the grocery store!  Rice Select Tri-Color Couscous with Sundried Tomato and Spinach, which has about 70 less calories per serving than the whole wheat couscous I compared it to. 

I decided to make up 2 servings of the salad so I’d have something for lunch tomorrow, so I cooked up 1/2 cup of the couscous in 1/2 cup free range chicken broth.  Once the couscous was finished, I fluffed it work a fork and dumped in a bowl to cool down. 

Meanwhile, I got to choppin.  Here’s what I decided to throw into the salad:

That’s:

  • 4 ounces chicken breast (which I cooked up last night with McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Seasoning)
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onion
  • 1 roma tomato
  • 1/2 a chopped cucumber
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley

 

For the dressing, I mixed up the following:

  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp black pepper
  • 1 clove garlic minced

Tossed everything together and put in the fridge to chill out while I cleaned up my kitchen.  I’m one of those people who just makes an absurd amount of messes while cooking… Good thing I like to clean 🙂

This recipe made two big servings of yummyness:

This was really tasty!  I love vinegars, so I especially liked the dressing.  I think I’ll actually try some out on a salad later in the week.  Another great thing about this couscous recipe is you could throw pretty much any vegetable into the mix and it would taste great!  Two thumbs up!

Stats on the chicken couscous salad:  277 calories, 40g carbs, 4g fat, 17g protein, 4g fiber

 Don’t forget to check out the PB2 giveaway!!!

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PB2 Giveaway!!!

In an effort to get all you silent readers out there to post comments on my blog (so I don’t feel like I’m blogging to myself 😉 ) I decided to do a PB2 giveaway!

PB2 is a powdered peanut butter product.  Basically, all the bad-for-you-ness is sucked out of the peanuts.  All you have to do is mix with water, and you have a healthy PB on you hands!

So here’s the deal:  post a comment on this PB2 Giveaway blog post by midnight Sunday July 4th.  I’ll use a random number generator to select the lucky recipient!

So get to commenting!  I’m interested to hear what you all have to say 😀

Pssst… to comment on this post, click the blue “comment” link below.

Good luck!

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Starting the week off on the right foot

Happy Monday 😀

This morning I decided to start my week off on the right foot with a 2.5 mile power walking session.  This was a follow up to Day#1 of my interval running/walking plan, which I started yesterday.  My knee only bothered me slightly during the running intervals yesterday, so I ended up swapping the 5th running interval for a cool-down walk.   I definitely want to err on the side of caution as I start building myself back up to running.

I thought walking today would be good to help keep things loose.  I’m also making sure to not sit in the same position for too long while I’m working so that my knee doesn’t lock up.  I’m determined to get my knee back into running shape!

 

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Loved/Hated Dinner

I wanted to do something adventurous for dinner tonight — so I decided to make these stuffed eggplant rolls.    

Now, this may not sound adventurous to you,but trust me, this is a very out of the ordinary dish for me.    

Remember those meals your parents would cook when you were a kid that you absolutely hated?  You know, THOSE meals where you were forced to sit at the table until you cleared you plate?  Well, eggplant was one of those foods I just hated as a kid.  (In addition to kidney beans and fish)     

I think the last time my mom had me eat eggplant I was about 7 years old.  I can vividly remember my hatred for the weird mushy yet spongy texture.     

Anyway, back to the cookin.  I followed shape’s recipe except I used some leftover classico sauce instead of their sauce and I didn’t have any pine nuts on hand, so those were omitted.  I seasoned it up with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and oregano and served it up with a side of green beans.    

eggplant rolls

  

There were good parts and bad parts to this dinner.     

The good:    

  • the ricotta <3 <3 <3
  • the spinach
  • the sauce
  • the seasonings
  • the green beans
  • the ice cold glass of water I drank while eating dinner
  • the fact that my entire dinner was under 200 calories

     

The bad:    

  • the eggplant. 🙁

     

So sad!  I was hoping my palate had matured enough since the ripe age of 7 that I would enjoy eggplant.  Wrong.  One of the eggplant rolls was sliced thinner than the others, and I found that particular roll to be quite tasty.  If I closed my eyes, I could almost trick myself into thinking I was eating a lasagna noodle 😉    

After dinner, I tried to make some healthy carrot cookies, and they were a big flat flop.    

Sooooo I decided to make myself a nice shake for my late night snack 😀    

Into the blender went:    

  • 1 cup ice
  • 1/2 cup almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tbsp chocolate pb2
  • 1/4 of a serving IntraPro Double Chocolate Pure Whey Protein (leftover from my first ever protein shake)
 

    

  

  

   

protein pb2 shake

  

    

 Delish!    

Stats on the shake:  76 calories, 5g carbs, 3g fat, 9g protein, 2g fiber    

      

Here’s hoping tomorrow brings me better success in the kitchen 🙂   

  

 

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