Tag Archives: strawberries

I put ketchup on my ketchup

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While on vacation in Charleston, we came across several touristy shops selling t-shirts with funny sayings.  Jarrod seriously contemplated buying me this T-shirt:

Hahaha… I do use ketchup quite frequently.  I’m just a class act like that ;)

Breakfast #1

Last in the trio of eggwhite/turkey sausage scrambles I made Sunday night… Served up with a dollop of you-know-what ;)

Stats on Scramble, Broccoli, & Ketchup:  180 calories, 10g carbs, 5g fat, 24g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

I started breakfast #2 off with some Blueberry Cho-cho-chobani:

Then I added some strawberries (in my hunger-tinged excitement, I forgot to use my flash…)

MMMMMMMM…. Come clooosssseeerrr:

So darn good.

Stats on B#2:  157 calories, 24g carbs, 0g fat, 14g protein, 1g fiber

Lunch

 The turkey meatloaf I made last night was so yummy, I immediately had a craving for a meatloaf sandwich!  Needless to say, I was SUPER excited about my lunch today.  

I sliced up one of the turkey meat muffins:

I placed the cold slices of meatloaf on a Pepperidge Farm 7 Grain Deli Flat, and then added the star of the show:  KETCHUP.

That’s what actually made me think of the ketchup on ketchup T-shirt.  Even though my turkey meatloaf had ketchup mixed in and was thoroughly basted with ketchup before baking, I still needed to put some ketchup on my leftover meatloaf sandwich :D

Match made in heaven:

Heinz — if you’re looking for a new “face” for your ketchup, have your people contact my people.  ferventfoodie@gmail.com ;)

On the side, I also had a cup each of roasted cauliflower and broccoli:

One AMAZING lunch:

Makes me feel like a kid again :)

Side note

Over the weekend I made the BF a beautiful banana granola parfait.  Apparently he liked it so much, he decided to recreate it in my workweek absence:

I love that he even went the extra mile and put it in a pretty glass.  Sometimes ya just gotta treat yourself, am I right? 

QUESTION:  What is your FAVORITE condiment?  OR do you like ketchup on your ketchup? :mrgreen:

Pita Pizza & a Green Monster

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Some nights I am really amped to try out a new recipe…. And some nights, I just want pizza.  Tonight was one of THOSE nights. 

I decided to use a Joseph’s Middle East Bakery Low Carb pita as my base.  I topped that off with:

  • 1/4 cup Classico Fire Roasted/Tomato Garlic spaghetti sauce
  • Sprinkling of garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, dried oregano, black pepper, and red pepper flakes
  • 1 ounce thinly sliced grilled chicken (leftover from the batch I grilled up sunday night)
  • 1 light babybel cheese sliced into four super thin discs
  • 1 tbsp fat free ricotta
  • thinly sliced red onion
  • a couple thinly sliced cherry tomatoes

Popped it into a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Then, I topped it with some chopped basil from the back yard garden:

I served the pizza up with a side salad that consisted of romaine, cherry tomatoes, red onion, banana peppers, and 2 tbsp Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Northern Italian dressing with Basil and Romano:

The salad was delicious.  That Ken sure does know a thing or two about dressings ;)

And the pizza was..  in a word… Umm…. YUM.  Ok, that’s two words, but regardless this pizza really hit the spot:

Soooo goood!!!  Why don’t I make pizza more often?!

Check out this huge banana pepper I’ve got growing in the back yard:

He might have to go on my next salad :)

Stats on the pizza: 197 calories, 20g carbs, 6g fat, 20g protein, 5g fiber 

Stats on the salad:  97 calories, 13g carbs, 5g fat, 3g protein, 4g fiber

All together now:  294 calories, 33g carbs, 11g fat, 23g protein, 9g fiber

 

I’ve previously eluded to the fact that I’m a messy cook.  Given the simplicity of my dinner tonight, you’d probably assume that my kitchen would be in pretty good shape.  Whelp, you’d be wrong! 

Take a look at this monstrosity:

I wish I were kidding.  Can you imagine the disasters I could create if I had a big kitchen?

After dinner, I couldn’t wait for late-night snack time to roll around.  I decided earlier in the day that I’d make up a green monster smoothie for my snack to give me lots of energy for my run in the morning.

Threw the following into the blender:

  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk
  • 1/4 cup Oikos plain Greek Yogurt
  • 1 packet Truvia (stevia) all natural sweetener
  • 1/2 cup fresh frozen strawberries
  • 1/4 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1 cup fresh SPINACH
  • 3 ice cubes

It’s green.  It’s delicious.

Mmmmm…

Thankfully, the green monster gave me the energy I needed to clean up that disaster kitchen:

Stats on the green monster: 105 calories, 18g carbs, 2g fat, 9g protein, 5g fiber 

Blog Updates

I recently updated my About Me page to incorporate some comments I had posted on the blog.  I also added a Foodie Q&A page where I plan to keep a running list of questions readers ask.  And as always, I am continuously linking all my recipe posts to the Recipe Page.  This page is actually getting pretty long, so I think I’ll be reformatting it in the near future.

Foodie who is anti-food?

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All throughout my life, I’ve been a big eater. 

Eating minimal food throughout the day so that I could engorge at dinner was commonplace for me for many years.  Family members would tease me about always being the first person in the cookout buffet lines, and the first person to go back for round #2.  I’ve been a foodie for as long as I can remember.  I just love food.  Yes, my world basically revolves around it.  Yes, that may mean I have issues… but I’m ok with that :)

Over the past year, I’ve changed a lot of my old habits.  Nowadays, I take the time to plan my meals out in advance so that I’m sure I’m giving my body the fuel it needs to chug along throughout the day.  And I try as hard as I can to not over do it in one sitting.  I HATE that sickly full feeling you get when you overeat.  (Despite other changes I have made, I am still always the first in the buffet line…  watch out, I throw elbows ;) )

Never in my life have I even been called a person who is “not really into food,” until today that is.  I was incorrectly classified today after I suggested a place with “healthy options” for lunch, and then proceeded to only eat 1/2 of my ginormous plate of food.  I must say, I was a little taken aback.  Dare I say, I scoffed in the commenter’s general direction.  I LOVE FOOD.  LOVE, I say, LOVE! I just try to incorporate as many healthy choices into my day as possible. 

Does that make me anti-food?  I think not!

 

Breakfast #1

I had a leftover link of Jennie-O Hot Turkey sausage from the weekend I wanted to use up, so I decided to make a double batch of scrambled eggs. 

I mixed up 8 egg whites, S&P, red pepper flakes, and some water and got my scramble on.  Once the curds started to form (least attractive word ever), I added some splashes of franks red hot to the eggs and dumped in the diced up turkey sausage.

I also roasted up some broccoli to go along side. 

2 days’ breakfasts & minimal effort.  Love it!

B#1 Stats (1 serving = 1/2 of recipe above):  174 calories, 8g carbs, 5g fat, 24g protein, 1g fiber

Breakfast #2

As I was preparing to make my overnight oats last night, I stood in front of an open cabinet pondering what I could possibly put in my oats to mix things up.  Then a little voice inside me said.. you know you want the same exact oats you made for Monday.  And guess what, that little voice was right.  :)

  • 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened almond breeze almond milk
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • cinnamon
  • fresh strawberries

Heaven.

B#2 Stats:  208 calories, 38g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber

Lunch

Lunch today was courtesy of Aladdin’s Eatery.  I went with the Jasmine’s Favorite Plate (plain)–which according to the Daily Plate only has 400 calories.  I find that hard to believe, given that the plate of food they brought me was overfloweth with food.  What do you guys think of that website?  Reliable?  Not reliable?

Anyway, the Jasmine’s Favorite is “a fresh mix of cooked beans, vegetables and rice seasoned with a blend of herbs and spices,” and it was DELICIOUS.

I wasn’t able to take a pic of everything, but here’s some of what was leftover:

Cold and crunchy Monday

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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 :D

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 :D

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 :D

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 :)

Getcho run on!

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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. :D

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 :)

Canada, Greece, Repeat.

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Around the world and back again in three short meals :)   Geesh, I need a vacation…  Luckily, only two weeks til my Char-Char-cation!!!  (Charlotte/Charleston/Vacation ;) )

Breakfast #1 = Canada

Canadian Bacon Eggins! Last night, I decided to whip up some eggins and use some of the Canadian Bacon I picked up at Trader Joe’s over the weekend.

I sprayed a muffin tin down with cooking spray, and plopped one piece of the Canadian bacon in each of 6 muffin tins.

Then I mixed together 9 egg whites, splash of water, S&P, red pepper flakes, franks red hot and poured it evenly into the 6 muffin tins. (Word to the wise – if you use a container with a spout it makes life A LOT easier :) )

I cooked them for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

I had three of these little guys for breakfast with a dollop of ketchup.

Stats for 3 Canadian Bacon Eggins & ketchup: 147 calories, 6g carbs, 1g fat, 26g protein, 0g fiber

 

Breakfast #2 = Greece

1/2 cup Trader Joe’s nonfat vanilla greek yogurt with 1/4 cup each strawberries and blueberries.

Trader Joe’s greek yogurt was so tasty.  It’s not overly sweet, which I really liked.  I think I could have ate about 3 more servings of this :)

Stats: 133 calories, 23g carbs, 0g fat, 9g protein, 2g fiber

 

Lunch = Repeat

Leftovers from last night’s Chicken Couscous Salad!

So tasstttyyyy…

 

Last night’s smoothie

Since lunch was a repeat, I thought I’d showcase the lovely little smoothie I made last night. Everyday, I have a mid afternoon snack and a late night snack, each of which are around 100 calories. They are usually something simple like an apple or a bowl of low-cal cereal and almond milk, and don’t typically make it into the blog.

Last night, I was feeling up for a smoothie so I put the following into the blender:

  • 1/4 cup Oikos nonfat plain yogurt
  • 1 packet Truvia (Stevia)
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened Almond Breeze Vanilla Almond Milk
  • 1/4 cup each of frozen fresh blueberries, strawberries, and black raspberries

All blended up:

This lil guy was quite tasty, and he is quite the looker too ;) !

Stats on the berry smoothie: 92 calories, 18g carbs, 1g fat, 6g protein, 4g fiber

 

Get those comments on the PB2 Giveaway page!  Pssst… you don’t have to create a blog to get a wordpress account!

Also, check out this Chobani Greek Yogurt Giveaway courtesy of Hillary at Foodie on the Run!!!

Saturday is for the Chirpy

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Hello friends!

Good news!  I woke up this morning, and I literally had a smile on my face :D   The sun was shining and the birds were chirping (which some people find annoying but I happen to love)…   Come to think of it, that is odd for me considering I have a phobia of birds… 

After my rough start to the day yesterday, we thought the best cure would be Gionino’s pizza and their amazing hot sauce for dinner last night (we will take any excuse for the G, really):

After dinner, I walked 2.5 miles at about a 4 mile per hour pace.  I’m not 100% sure the walking is helping me to rebuild the strength in my knee, but it doesn’t seem to be hurting so I’m going to keep on keeping on!

For breakfast #1 today I decided to make up some eggs.  I swear my body goes through egg withdrawal if I am sans-eggs for more than a couple days!  I chopped up a small potato into bite size pieces, then microwaved for 4 minutes flipping the little guys over half way through. 

Then I threw them into a hot pan to crisp up on both sides.  Once the potatoes were crispy, I added the following mixture: 4 egg whites, some Frank’s red hot, S&P, red pepper flakes, and  a splash of water.  

Served em up with a dollop of ketchup :)

Stats on breakfast #1:  215 calories, 36g carbs, 9g fat, 17g protein, 3g fiber

After the eggs, I completed Day #1, Week #2 of my interval training plan which consisted of 5 intervals of 3 minutes walking and 3 minutes running.  No knee pain!  Boo ya!  I got to the 2.5 mile marker in 27 minutes. 

Breakfast #2 today was some overnight oats :D

Last night I threw the following into a bowl then popped it into the fridge:

  • 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened almond breeze vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tsp JIF peanut butter
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • sprinkling of cinnamon

This morning, I topped the oats off with some fresh strawberries.  Mmmm mmmm gooooood :)

Stats on breakfast #2:  233 calories, 36g carbs, 8g fat, 7g protein, 6g fiber

You know what I really love about overnight oats (besides the delicious creamy coolness)?  It’s like a little surprise for yourself.  You take 1 minute of time for yourself the night before, and the next morning you have this little bundle of joy just waiting for you! 

Speaking of preparing, I haven’t been doing a very good job of planning my meals out for the week in advance.  During tax season, I am amazing at this (not to brag or anything ;) ) and not only do I shop for the meals on Sunday, but I also cook EVERYTHING for the week on Sunday.  Lately, it feels like I’ve been going to the grocery store several times a week, instead of one large trip over the weekend.  So, this week I’m going to do my best to sit down and plan everything out.  Speaking of planning… I need to plan out what to make for dinner tonight!

Headed to the yard for hours of glorious yard work :)

Ooey Gooey Love

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This week is just F-L-Y-I-N-G by.  Can’t believe tomorrow is Friday already!      

Breakfast #1      

This morning I was craving something warm and peanut-buttery for breakfast.  I pulled a Mama lupe low carb tortilla out of the freezer to let it thaw out.  Then I topped it with 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Crunchy Almond Butter and some sliced strawberries.       

      

I wrapped it up into a little burrito and put on the george foreman grill until it was hot and the shell was crispy.  Then I wrapped the little guy up in foil and stuck him in my purse.      

      

I got to work about 20 minutes later, and the wrap was still nice and hot and gooey.      

ooey gooey love

 

This was just delicious.  So simple, and so delicious!    

Side note:  If you are obsessed with freezing things like me, before you freeze the tortillas put a piece of parchment paper or wax paper between each one.  That way you can easily grab 1 tortilla from the freezer at a time (and they won’t all be frozen into one tortilla blob).      

Stats on Breakfast #1:  172 calories, 13g carbs, 12g fat, 9g protein, 7g fiber      

       

Breakfast #2      

OO!  That’s right, Overnight Oats!      

I typically use quick oats when I make overnight oats, but this time I tried them with Bob’s Red Mill Thick Rolled Oats instead.  Last night I threw the following into a bowl in the fridge:      

  • 1/2 cup Bob’s red mill thick oats (uncooked)
  • 1/2 cup Almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • cinnamon

This morning, I topped the oats with strawberries and blueberries:      

       

The rolled oats have a different consistency than quick oats.  They really keep their oat texture and are somewhat chewy:      

      

These were sooooo yummmy.  If I had to choose, I’d pick quick oats over rolled oats, but I’d be happy to eat either one :)       

Stats on breakfast #2:  258 Calories, 45g carbs, 6g fat, 8g Protein, 8g Fiber      

       

Lunch      

Healthified Tuna Salad Lettuce Wrap!  This was one of those times were I just kept adding things to the bowl until I found something tasty:      

  • 1 can tuna
  • s&P, rpf, celery seed, dill weed
  • 3 tbsp greek oikos
  • 1 big squirt wasabi mustard
  • couple drops lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup chopped white onion
  • 1 chopped pickle (that’s how my dad makes it!)

I made a lettuce wrap out of the tuna salad and also had some cucumber salad on the side, which was leftover from last night’s gyro dinner.       

      

Stats on lunch:  211 calories, 19g carbs, 2g fat, 29g protein, 6g fiber      

       

For dessert, I had a little unsweetened applesauce with some cinnamon.  When I say little, I mean about 2 spoonfuls.. :)   (Leftovers from the big fat flop protein cakes I made)      

      

Good news!  I think my phone is almost fully recovered! :)      

DAY #3 OF INTERVAL TRAINING TONIGHT!  LET’S HOPE FOR NO KNEE PAIN!