What I ate – Page 10 – Fervent Foodie

Chuggin Along

August 23, 2010 16 Comments

Those of you not in the tax world probably wonder what the heck tax accountants do after the April 15th deadline. Whelp, I wish April 15th were the only deadline during the year, but alas we have several big, BIGGER, and BIGGGGER deadlines through the year. The BIGGGGER deadline I’m referring to is the lovely September 15th, which is fast approaching. Most of the work we do outside of “tax season” relates to businesses who extend their tax returns and/or have a fiscal year end and thus a different due date. I’ll leave it at that. People can only stomach so much tax-talk, especially on a Monday 🙂

On top of the tax deadline, the accounting course I’m teaching at a local university starts next week! When things get busy like this, the first thing that gets sacrificed is exercise. It saddens me to admit that fact, but it’s the honest truth. I know it’s all about making time. My problem is when I’m mentally exhausted, I don’t have the energy to do physical things. I’m still trying to find ways to get myself motivated. The busier I am at work, the greater the need for planning meals and batch-cooking. Thus, yesterday morning I did all my shopping for the week and had a mini cookathon.

Breakfast #1

First up on the Sunday cooking agenda was a 3-serving batch of scrambled eggs and roasted broccoli.

Here’s what went into the scrambled eggs:

3 whole eggs
9 egg whites
splash of water
S&P
Red Pepper Flakes
Frank’s red hot

The broccoli was roasted on a cookie sheet (sprayed down with cooking spray) and then seasoned with garlic salt and pepper. I roasted them in a 415 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Good things come in threes?

I added a dollop of ketchup (mandatory) before eating 1 of these 3 lovelies at my desk at work:

Stats on B#1: 163 Calories, 12g carbs, 5g fat, 19g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

There is one breakfast in the world that would make me actually look forward to a Monday. Overnight Oats, of course!

I made my usual overnight oats to enjoy at my desk at work this lovely Monday.

Keep an eye out for tomorrow’s post which will greatly elaborate on my overnight oats… Can you smell the excitement?!

Stats on B#2: 233 Calories, 44carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

I don’t buy much lunch meat, but yesterday I had a real hankerin for a toasted sub so I picked some Roasted Deli Turkey and Ham up at the grocery store. I also picked up some Arnold’s Fill’ems. Have you guys seen these? They are basically sandwich thins in long rectangles (for use with hotdogs, sausage, etc). How cool!

For lunch today, I piled a couple slices of turkey and ham atop an Arnold’s Fill ‘em along with some tomatoes, onions, banana peppers, spinach, and sprouts and a squiggle of Wasabi mustard:

Stats on Lunch: 275 Calories, 33g carbs, 2g fat, 25g protein, 8g fiber

Yesterday, I made a grilled version of this same sandwich—except no sprouts and I used a little Italian dressing and hot sauce instead of mustard:

It’s crazy how simply grilling a sandwich makes it taste infinitely more delicious. I’m seriously considering bringing a mini George Foreman to work.. You know the ones that are just big enough to cook a single burger? I wonder if anyone would mind… or if it’s a fire hazard or something.

Warm, crispy, and DELICIOUS:

Random

Over the past week or so, I’ve tried out a few new goodies and I wanted to comment on them (mostly to link up to the products I’ve tried page).

First up, the Kardea Lemon Ginger bar. I was really excited to try this flavor out:

But, sadly I HATED it! Of the 3 flavors I’ve tried thus far, this is the only one I won’t be purchasing again. It just didn’t jive with me. I have one bar left (Banana Nut) and I sure hope it tastes better than this flavor!

I also FINALLY found a FAGE yogurt with the fruit mixins:

Another sad story! I didn’t like this yogurt at all! I GREATLY prefer Chobani and Dannon Greek yogurt to the FAGE.

So sad.

As you may recall, I haven’t had the greatest luck with Larabars. When I found two mini lara’s in my HLS swag bag, I wasn’t too excited to try either of them out.

But surprise, surprise, I REALLY liked this cashew cookie bar! I think now that my palate knows a larabar isn’t supposed to taste like a Luna bar, I’ve become more accepting of them.

Besides, look how stinkin cute it is:

Annnnd I also tried the cherry pie larabar:

And I liked it! Crazy talk!

Dinner

Dinner went unpictured, but deserves a notable mention because the BF and I hit up Applebees after work. Now this may not sound too exciting to most of you, but to me it was a definite highlight of the week. Ok, I know the week just started, but I feel confident saying it will be a highlight 🙂 We don’t usually see each other during the workweek, and the past weekend was.. lets just say “not the most cheery.” So it was ESPECIALLY lovely to have a nice dinner together. Not to mention the fact that Applebee’s had a special on cabernet tonight (only $3.50 a glass!!). I went with the steak on the under 550 calorie menu, and it was delicious! By the way, I’m also a BIG fan of the Shrimp & Island rice on the under 550 calorie menu as well. Check ‘em out!

QUESTION: When work/life gets super busy, how do you keep up on your exercise and eating healthy?

Recipes, What I ate

Dinner in under 10 Minutes

August 21, 2010 5 Comments

Change of plans! Due to the torrential down pour that’s being dumped on us in northeast Ohio, there was no cooking out today.

Instead, I was left with the task of cooking myself a dinner using only ingredients I had in the house. I opened up the pantry to find a bag of Carba Nada pasta begging to be eaten:

I also happened to have some grilled chicken breast leftover from Tuesday night’s cookathon, and in the deep dark depths of my freezer I was lucky to find a single serving of Classico Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic pasta sauce. Just another perfect example to validate my love and obsession for freezing foods in individual servings 🙂

Batch cooking your meats saves a TON of time throughout the week, but towards the end of the week the meat (especially chicken) can start to get a little dry. When I make pasta sauce with any sort of meat, I like to steep the meat in the sauce, which makes it nice and juicy and tender.

So, while I was waiting for the pasta water to boil, I put the pasta sauce in small pan and added about 3 ounces of grilled chicken and my typical pasta sauce barrage of spices: S&P, Red Pepper Flakes, Dried Oregano, Dried Basil, Onion Powder, and Garlic Powder. All you really need to do is open up your spice cabinet and toss in a few shakes of whatever sounds good to you 🙂

Once the water was boiling, I dropped a serving of the Carba Nada pasta into the pot. Carba Nada only takes 5 minutes to cook (awesome!) and is only 140 calories (AWESOMER!), 24g carbohydrates, 12g protein, and 6g fiber. And it ACTUALLY tastes good.

While the sauce and pasta were getting their grooves on, I made a small side salad with some lettuce, tomato, onion, and Ken’s Steakhouse Light Balsamic Dressing.

Dinner is served my friends!

Pastalicious

Chow time!

Dinner in under 10 minutes… sure tastes good!

Stats on dinner: 398 calories, 48g carbs, 8g fat, 32g protein, 13g fiber

If you are interested in trying out the Carba Nada pasta, I recommend ordering from Netrition because they have $4.95 flat-rate shipping. (I also order my Mama Lupe low-carb tortillas, PB2, and Joseph’s Bakery products on this site)

QUESTION: What’s your favorite done-in-under-ten-minutes dinner?

What I ate

Fake-Out Dippy Egg(s) & a Giveaway Winner!

August 21, 2010 7 Comments

First off, breakfast!

I’m a big BIG fan of eggs for breakfast. I’m sure you have all heard the debates on whether or not the egg yolk is good for you. Well, I’m no nutrition expert (that is for sure), but I tend to follow the “all things in moderation” type of thinking. In any given week, I eat eggs for breakfast (on average) 4-5 days. In an effort to help out my cholesterol levels, I typically only eat 1 whole egg per breakfast along with a few egg whites (usually 3). This way I get my beloved eggs and my much needed protein without taking in too much cholesterol.

During the workweek, I often make up a large batch of scrambled eggs or baked eggins that I divide up into several containers and then pair with some sort of veggie. I love this grab-and-go breakfast during the week, but on the weekends I take the time to make the eggs fresh and how I actually prefer them: dippppppppppy.

Today, I made my dippy eggs fake out. First, I scrambled up three egg whites that I seasoned with S&P and red pepper flakes. When the egg whites were almost cooked through, I added a whole egg to the pan and seasoned with S&P:

I cooked the eggs for precisely the amount of time it takes my bread to toast (that is an exact unit of measurement 😉 ), then I flipped the whole egg over for just a few seconds until the top set up but the yolk was still ooey gooey.

Egg whites onto the plate:

Dippy egg on top and 12 Grain Bread along side:

Then I broke the yolk and let it ooze down over the scrambled egg whites:

Mmmmmm… I love a good egg yolk.

Using this “fake out” it’s like I’m getting a plate full of dippy eggs, but only the cholesterol and fat of 1 whole egg. YUM.

ADORA GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!

First thing, first, I copied all the comments into Excel because that is what any self respecting accountant would do 😉

Then I removed comments that didn’t count (ahem, Allison… 7 posts still only gets you 4 entries… haha)

Then I used Random.org’s true random number generator to select a winner….

And the lucky winner is:

Hallie at Healthy Twists!!!!!

Yay! Hallie, please email me your mailing address (ferventfoodie@gmail.com) and I will forward to Adora!

Keep an eye out for another giveaway next week! All I can say is I’m super excited :) And thank you everyone for checking out my blog. Each of your comments brightens my day!

What I ate

Back at it

August 16, 2010 7 Comments

First day back to the daily grind! I’m still recovering from the HLS bonanza this weekend! More and more fun pics keep surfacing—like this one Heather @ Hangry Pants posted on her blog of the yoga group after the trainer kicked our butts:

Here are some I snagged from the Arnold & Orrowheat Facebook page:

Since I had zero fresh food in the house, my foods for the day weren’t quite as healthy as I was hoping (and craving)!

Breakfast #1

For breakfast, I tried out the new Toasted Nuts and Cranberry Luna Bar I picked up at Trader Joe’s over the weekend:

This was yummy… and guess what? It actually tasted like toasted nuts! Crazy! 😉 I’d rank this bar as a mid-level Luna Bar. My top picks to date, in order of preference, are:

1.) White Chocolate Macadamia

2.) Blueberry Bliss

3.) Iced Oatmeal Raisin

4.) Lemon Zest

Breakfast #2

Luckily, I had the fixins for some overnight oats. Last night I threw 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats, 1/2 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, 1 tsp Brown sugar, and a sprinkling of cinnamon into a bowl. I didn’t have any fresh fruit (sadness 🙁 ), but over the weekend Erin @ agirlandhermutt mentioned she liked to use frozen fruit in her OO’s so I figured I’d give it a shot. I added 3 frozen strawberries and a 1/3 cup frozen blueberries on top of my OO mix, and put everything in the fridge to chill out over night.

OO’s with frozen (now defrosted) fruit:

Mixed up and ready to chow:

I think the frozen fruit was pretty tasty. In a pinch, I’m glad to know that I can use frozen berries if I’m out of fresh, but I do prefer the crunchiness of the fresh fruit over the mushier frozen fruit.

Let’s be honest. You can’t really go wrong with overnight oats 😀

Lunch

I took some help from Bruegger’s for lunch today and did the salad and soup combo. I usually find Bruegger’s to be a bit pricy, but this is a surprisingly good deal! Only $5.99 for a big salad, cup of soup, and bagel bite!

I did a create your own salad with lettuce, onion, tomato, green pepper, and cucumber. I topped it off with my own Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Italian with Romano dressing.

And for the soup I chose the chicken spaetzle:

LOVE this soup. So darn good 🙂

Dinner?

Well I should be going to the grocery store to stock up on fresh produce… but the BF leaves for an out-of-town work assignment tomorrow AM and I’ve only seen him once in the last week… So what to eat, what to eat?

I’m sure you saw this coming:

Gionino’s. Hot. Sauce.

Sorry Chicago, but you ain’t got nothing on this:

Recipes, What I ate

It’s go time & Chicken Fajita Bowl

August 12, 2010 8 Comments

Guess what I picked up yesterday?

Aren’t they beautiful? 😀 They’re a little darker than I wanted, but I’m just glad they are actually in my possession!

It’s go time my friends! This morning I was scrambling to finish packing for the HLS, pack my overnight bag, pack up my house & perishable foods etc. I managed to squeeze in a 3×3 interval though thankfully! Here’s the stats:

Pretty good on the running times! And a decent improvement from Monday’s interval times–though I think I had a little pep in my step due to the fact that I’m heading out for Chi-town tomorrow!

B#1

Since I was running late this AM, I inhaled a Blueberry Bliss Luna bar on my way into the office. I LOVE this flavor.

I don’t know how else to describe it but this: you know how when you are cleaning your ears with a Q-Tip and it feels so darn good you have to close your eyes? Well that’s kind of how I feel about the blueberry bliss luna bar (and the white chocolate macadamia nut too)… so dang good, I have to close my eyes and enjoy the deliciousness. This poses a problem when I’m consuming the bar while driving, but I work around it 😀

B#2

For breakfast #2 I had a raspberry chobani loaded with fresh blueberries and raspberries (about 1/2 a cup of each–trying to use up everything I have in the fridge!). This is the first time I had tried the raspberry chobani, and I’m a big fan.

Gotta use up those berries!

Prior to starting my mission to healthify my life, I would ONLY eat regular (full sugar/full fat) fruit on the bottom yogurt. I hated yogurt that wasn’t fruit on the bottom because my favorite part of the yogurt was the chunks of fruit. Why did it not dawn on me to add fresh fruit to fat-free yogurt???

Sometimes it can be so EASY to make healthy switches (and have them still taste delicious!).

Stats on B#2: 213 calories, 40g carbs, 0g fat, 16g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

Attempt #3 to use up the rest of the leftovers from Tuesday night’s dinner with my girlfriends. Yesterday, I made a chicken fajita for lunch and a Shrimp and Bean Tostado for dinner… So for lunch today, I figured I’d go for my healthified version of a Chipotle chicken fajita bowl.

My bowl consisted of 1/2 a bag of romaine lettuce topped with 1/4 cup El Paso Fat-Free refried beans:

Then I added 4 ounces grilled chicken and all the leftover grilled onions, peppers, and zucchini:

Next I added chopped up tomato, fresh onion, chopped cilantro, some banana pepper rings, and 2 tbsp fat-free breakstones:

I popped the lid on the bowl and gave it a through shaking.

One big ole bowl of messy fajita goodness:

And that my friends was the end of the leftovers from Tuesday night’s dinner 🙂 FINALLY!

Stats on Lunch: 311 calories, 33g carbs, 1g fat, 43g protein, 9g fiber

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