Ramblings

Athena Awards — Success in Sisterhood

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Tonight I attended the Athena Awards dinner in Cleveland, which honored local women helping women.  Those who know me know I’m all about female empowerment.  There’s just something amazing about getting the opportunity to surround myself with strong successful women in leadership roles, and tonight’s dinner was one of those events where I left feeling like I can tackle anything that comes my way!

This was the first business function I have whipped out my camera to take pictures of the grub…  I got a few funny looks, but I simply told people I was working on an article for the company newsletter 😉

None of these pictures are very good, as I was more concerned with snapping quick pics than getting clear images (due to all the staring).

Pretty vase on table:

Salad with goat cheese:

Pecan crusted chicken (tasty,  but too sweet so I scraped it all off) with potato wedges and green beans:

Also had a few bites of dessert, which tasted like a big fancy fudge round 🙂

Some thoughts from the dinner to leave you with tonight:

“It’s important to have an enthusiasm for life.”

 

“Simply be the best that you can be.  It’s usually enough to get you where you want to go.”

 

“I hope that when we ask the next generation of women what challenges they face in their workplaces, that they will look at us with quizzical eyes and say ‘Challenges?  What Challenges?’ “

 

My personal favorite:

“Wellness and balance are just as important as growing huge brains.”

 

Goodnight friends!  🙂

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Fitness, What I ate

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. 😀

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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Recipes

Chipotles in adobo don’t mess around

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Since I had a post-work meeting today, I was amazingly proactive last night 😉 .  Not only did I cook up my dinner ahead of time but I also packed a Berry Almond Luna Bar to hold me over til dinner:

This was pretty tasty, and the berry flavor was really strong.  However, the blueberry bliss Luna bar tops this bar hands down.  That is for darn sure!

For dinner tonight, I tweaked and further healthified a recipe I found in this month’s Cooking Light for Spicy Shrimp Salad.  The recipe called for two ingredients I had never used:  bibb lettuce and chipotles in adobo.

For those of you who have no idea what bibb lettuce is, it looks kinda like a little bouquet:

I was just going to use romaine, but this little guy was so cute I decided to give it a shot.

Last night, I grilled up one serving of medium sized shrimp seasoned with salt and pepper.

Then I tossed the shrimp with:

  • 2 tsp lime juice
  • 1 tsp fat free mayo
  • 1 tbsp chopped chipotle in adobo
  • 2 tbsp chopped red onion
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin

After my post-work meeting, I heated the shrimp mixture up in the microwave and threw it on top  a bed of bibb lettuce and added some tomatoes.  I tasted a bit, and realized it was pretty spicy, so I topped it off with a dollop of fat free sour cream to cool things off.

I consider myself a lover of spicy foods.  Case in point, I put black pepper, red pepper flakes, and franks red hot on  pretty much everything but my yogurt and overnight oats.  Despite my love and affection for hot foods, about two bites into the salad I literally felt like my entire face was on fire!  Chipotles in adobo seriously do not f’ around.

After my mouth cooled down, I tried to give it another go, but one bite in and the insane heat was back in full fury.  I quickly downed half a tomato trying to calm the fire engulfing my face.

Needless to say, I didn’t finish the salad.  I think this could have been really tasty if I cut the chipotles back to 1 tsp and also used a different type of lettuce.  The bibb lettuce was kind of soft and didn’t have much crunch to it.  I prefer a crunchy romaine for my salads.

Stats on the salad I wasn’t physically cable of eating:  205 calories, 20g carbs, 3g fat, 21g protein, 5g fiber

Upon some deliberation of my freezer inventory, I decided my back up dinner would be a Gardenburger black bean burger on a Joseph’s low carb pita with onion, tomato, ketchup, and mustard.

boring

It was ok… but I was really craving shrimp.  Maybe I’ll make a smoothie later to compensate 🙂

Stats on the burger:  210 calories, 36g carbs, 5g fat, 12g protein, 10g fiber

 

Chipotle Peppers on Foodista

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What I ate

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!!!

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