Growing up with divorced parents, my brother, sister, and I split our time between week nights at dad’s and weekends at mom’s. Everyone once in a while, we’d have to flip flop our schedule, and it seemed when those rare occasions popped up both mom and dad had an unspoken urge to make them special. On those weekends, dad would make breakfast: dippy eggs, buttery toast, and his breakfast potatoes. I do believe my love affair with potatoes started with these very ones around the age of eight. Sure I’d take an egg and a small piece of toast, but the remainder of that 10-inch plate was devoted solely to those piping hot slightly crunchy potatoes and the biggest squirt of Heinz 57 my kid muscles could muster. Recently, I texted my dad to finally, after all these years, ask what he put in his breakfast potatoes. (By the way, it still makes me giggle to think of him texting.)
His response?
“I dono.”
After our bodies worked through the haze of early morning overeating, dad would move on to lunch. Lunches were varied, but one of my favorites were the tuna melts he’d make on cold days, rainy days, or days that otherwise demanded a comforting hot melty sandwich. After the recent potato-text heartbreak, I didn’t bother asking dad what he put in those tuna melts. Rather, I choose to focus solely on the memory: jumbo kaiser rolls loaded with mayonnaise-laden tuna, hunks of fresh cheddar cheese, and chopped up dill pickles. He’d wrap those giant sandwiches in foil and toss them right into the oven—no cookie sheet needed (which I remember wordlessly opposing). After a half hour or so, he’d reach into the oven with a giant pot holder. We’d line up, plates held tightly in our little hands, and dad would plop a massive foil pack on each one.
The low down: This week marks week four of my self-proclaimed Kick the Knee Pain running program. I started off this new program with intervals of 2 minutes walking 1 minute running, and each day I run I bump my run interval time up by 1 minute. Sunday I completed 3 intervals of 8 minutes running and 1 minute walking.
Status: Other than some mild tightness in my knees, I haven’t had any knee issues so far!
Contributing “Success” Factors:
Buying new running shoes BEFORE starting to run.
Running primarily on softer surfaces (trails, paths, etc.)
NOT running every day and giving my knees a chance to recuperate
Being conscious of my natural tendency to heel-strike and focusing on NOT
Strength training. Building up the muscles in my legs and my core supposedly takes stress of the knees.
Conclusion: Boo ya.
*Note that stretching is not on the list above… feel free to leave angry comments about the importance of stretching. Maybe that will get it through my stubborn brain.
Short-Term Goal: Be at 30-minute running only intervals (i.e., no walking) with no knee pain by August 15th.
And now on to more exciting things… like this lovely tuna wrap I had for dinner
Isn’t it perdy? This was a quick hodgpodge I threw together after work and consisted of:
1 can chunk tuna in water, drained
1 tbsp light HELMANS mayo (none of that miracle whip crap )
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).
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 🙂
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! 🙂
I think we all know I adore eggs for breakfast. No arguments here. Bad news is I sometimes can’t find the time in the morning to whip them up. I’ve been wanting to try cooking eggs in the oven for a while, so last night I decided to give it a go. I mixed up my typical scrambled egg mixture: 1 egg, 3 egg whites, S&P, Red Pepper Flakes (RPF?), and some Frank’s Red Hot. I poured the mixture into two miniature ramekins, and popped in a 350 degree oven for 26 minutes.
How cute are these lil guys?
They look like little egg muffins! Little eggins! 🙂
This morning, I decided to turn the lil eggins into a wrap. So I pulled a Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla out of the freezer, heated that puppy up, and topped it all off with some ketchup.
That looks like an eggin massacre…
all wrapped up
Portable and delicious!
These eggins are just so cute! What I really like about this cooking method is you could make a whole muffin tin full of lil eggins! If you had friends over for brunch, everyone could toss in their mixins of choice! Love this idea! Who’s ready for a brunch party? 😀
Breakfast #2
Recently, it was brought to my attention that peanut butter may make an amazing mixin for greek yogurt. Today my friends, I put this to the test.
Friggin’ deliciousness! This reminded me of a peanut butter cheese cake for some reason. Some crushed up nilla wafers on top would have been fabulous. Let’s just say I licked the container clean, and it’s not exactly easy to reach the bottom of a yogurt container with your tongue. But I made it happen. 🙂
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Lunch
Alright… Here’s where the just-trust-me factor comes in.
Let me preface what’s about to go down on my blog with the following: I wanted to try something new for lunch today.
Repeat it with me: I wanted to try something new for lunch today.
I’m going walking with my sister after work, and knew I was packing a chicken sandwich for dinner. Soooo, I was leaning toward the other white meat AKA tuna fish for lunch (NOT a fan of pork, and therefore it is NOT the other white meat in my life). You may recall that I have a long jaded relationship with fish (case in point: my fight with fish). Tuna happens to be the only fish I have found to date that I actually enjoy.
So Tuna it was.
I subsequently noticed I had some cottage cheese in the fridge that was nearing the end of its useful life.
I decided to google tuna + cottage cheese + recipe just to see what might turn up.
At this very moment, you are probably disgusted thoroughly intrigued by this concoction.
I added some chopped up tomato, red onion, and banana peppers right before serving. In an effort to keep my carb-tooth (located directly next to the sweet tooth) under wraps, I served the tuna salad up in a red pepper instead of your typical sandwich:
Me and the tuna pepper:
Up close:
I know those cottage cheese chunks look a little funky, but rest assured my friends, it was down right tasty!
Stats on the tuna pepper: 218 calories, 18g carbs, 2g fat, 36g protein, 4g fiber
Last night it dawned on me that I consume more onions than is socially acceptable. I don’t know when this obsession with onions started, but you’d be hard pressed to find a day in any given week where I don’t incorporate onions into atleast 2 of my meals each day. And I’ve also been known to indulge in the occasional onion sandwich…
I <3 Onions
Breakfast #1: ONIONS!
glorious!
😉 maybe that will be tomorrow’s breakfast. Today’s breakfast #1 actually consisted 1 egg, 3 egg whites, whole grain toast
This looks familiar....
Side note = almost out of flax pita… need to get my next netrition order together pronto! Any suggestions?
Breakfast #2: Oatmeal with strawberries/blueberries
Fruits by oatsFruits + oats + cinnamon = 🙂 .... eggs + cinnamon = 🙁intermingledUp close and gooey
Lunch: “I’m in a hurry tuna salad”
1 can drained tuna
1 tbs ken’s steak house lite ceaser dressing
A few shimmy shakes celery seed, black pepper, red pepper flakes
A big ole handful of ONIONS (I may be in a hurry, but there’s always time for a lil onion choppin’)
Tasty tunatoday's spread
Up close and stinky
I think I need to invest in some decorative plates and placemats for my photo shoots. Maybe I can get my talented sister to contribute to this cause… 😉 jmnpottery
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