Fervent Foodie

I’m doing this for ME.

August 18, 2010 16 Comments

Last night, I set my morning alarm for 6am to give myself ample time to get an interval training session in. This morning, after hitting the snooze several times, I rolled out of bed at 6:40. All the while, I was mentally debating with myself. I’m too tired to run… I’ll do the elliptical after work… I’ve got sooo much work to do, I should just head into work early.. on and on.

I walked into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. Why was I trying to prevent myself from exercising? I stood in the bathroom for a good 5 minutes, and finally said (out loud) I am doing this for ME. Not for my job, not as my duty, not for any of you lovely readers out there or any of my friends and family. I am doing this for ME. That was the swift kick in the butt I needed. Out the door I went!

Stats on the 3 x 3 interval:

As you can see, I wasn’t able to do the last interval of running. I was feeling some stiffness/tension in my knee so I decided to walk it. Honestly, I’d be happy with myself even if I walked for the whole 30 minute straight. At least I got my toosh out the door!

Breakfast #1

During last night’s cooking bonanza, I cooked up 3 servings of scrambled eggs & roasted broccoli for B#1 Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

This batch consisted of 9 egg whites, 3 whole eggs, a splash of water, S&P, Red Pepper Flakes, and Frank’s Red Hot.

I divided the scrambled eggs and broccoli evenly into three containers, one of which I enjoyed at my desk this morning:

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

Breakfast #2

At the Healthy Living Summit this past weekend, the conversation inevitably turned to overnight oats. Many of the ladies I talked to said they prefer to use whole oats over quick oats. When I told them I preferred quick oats because of the awesome creamy consistency, Andrea @ Can you stay for dinner asked if it was like Muesli. Whelp, I’ve never had muesli before so last night I picked some up at the grocery store!

The back of the package has a recipe for “Swiss Oats” which consisted of 1/4 cup muesli + 1/2 cup liquid (milk, water, etc). So I went with:

1/4 cup Muesli
1/2 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk
1 tsp brown sugar
Sprinkling of cinnamon

This morning, I added 3 large strawberries + 1/3 cup blueberries to the mix:

This was pretty tasty! I do prefer my quick oats though.. but I definitely want to give the Muesli a shot warm instead of cold. Mmmm I can picture myself eating warm museli on a cold morning… speaking of which, who’s ready for Fall? I am!

Stats on B#2: 189 Calories, 37g carbs, 5g fat, 5g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

Also during the Tuesday-Night-Cookfest, I cooked up a burger for lunch today. The burger consisted of:

1/2 lb 95% lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped red onion (I usually use white onion, but didn’t have any on hand)
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

I put the burger on a pepperdige farm 7 grain deli flat, then topped it with ketchup, mustard, tomato, onion, banana pepper rings, and a big handful of alfafa sprouts. On the side, I had some cucumber salad (half a sliced cucumber + dried dill + white vinegar + water):

I don’t think I’ve ever put sprouts on a burger before… But you can’t deny that this looks AWESOME:

Stats on Lunch: 340 Calories, 35g carbs, 6g fat, 33g protein, 8g fiber

Snack Time!

Today, I tried out the Chai Spice Kardea all natural cholestorol management bar:

For some reason, chai always reminds me of pumpkins! I LOVE pumpkins, and I loved this bar. I just wish the flavors were a little STRONGER.

Speaking of things I’m doing for ME, I bought my ticket to FitBloggin today 🙂

QUESTION: Do you guys ever “mentally” debate with yourself over whether or not to work out? How do you get past it?

Recipes

Spaghetti Squash with Spicy Meat Sauce

August 17, 2010 14 Comments

You know those work days where things are a nonstop whirlwind from the moment you walk in the door? The days where you are lucky to down any sort of nourishment, and only at the risk of not meeting a deadline? Today was one of those days!

Luckily, I packed some snacks to hold me over!

Guess what runs in my family besides blue eyes and big brains…. Cholesterol problems 🙁 Which is why I was super excited to try out the Kardea natural cholesterol management bars! Today, I went with the cranberry almond Kardea:

The texture of the bar was slightly chewy with little crispy bits, which I was a big fan of. This bar curbed my hunger throughout the morning and it was definitely tasty, though the flavor was a little on the mild side. I am pumped to try out the other three flavors!

Post madness work:

After work, I made a beeline for the grocery store. FINALLY! I literally got a big smile on my face as I walked from my car into the store. Check out the loot:

Why, hello healthy food! I have missed you! 😀

l decided to go with spaghetti squash for dinner tonight. I actually wasn’t planning on buying a spaghetti squash, but they had some tiny little squashes that looked like the perfect size. And by tiny, I mean a 1.5 pounder. Usually my grocery store only carries spaghetti squash the size of a small child!

First up, I halved the squash taking precaution not to stab myself 😉

Next, I scooped out the seeds and placed both halves cut side down on a cookie sheet that I sprayed with cooking spray, and popped into a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes (I like my squash to have a little “bite” to it).

Meanwhile, I browned a quarter pound of 95% lean ground beef that I seasoned up with black pepper, garlic salt, and red pepper flakes.

Then, I pulled out some Classico Fired Roasted Tomato & Garlic pasta sauce from the freezer:

I’m kind of obsessed with freezing things into individual servings. It makes life a zillion time easier in the long run! And for this exact reason, I froze up 1/2 of the ground beef I purchased today into single serve mounds:

When the sauce was defrosted, I added 1/2 a cup to the browned meat, then seasoned with black pepper, red pepper flakes, dried oregano, dried basil, onion powder, and a little bit of fennel seed (this makes it taste like sausage). Use whatever spices sound good to you!

In the meantime, I roasted up a huge pan of broccoli. This consisted of spraying a cookie sheet with cooking spray, tossing on the broccoli, seasoning with black pepper and garlic salt, and popping it into the over for 15 minutes. E-A-S-Y.

Once the spaghetti squash was done cooking, I used a fork to scrape out the flesh. For those who haven’t had spaghetti squash before, this is SUPER easy. Just be careful not to burn yourself! Half of the squash made for quite a LARGE plate (about 1.5 cups)!

DSCF2397

I topped the squash off with the spicy meat sauce and added my broccoli:

And dinner was served!

In addition to the dinner I made, I was a SUPER productive foodie and also did the following:

Made a hamburger for lunch tomorrow
Cooked up 3 servings of scrambled eggs
Cooked 3 chicken breasts
Made muesli for breakfast
Packed B1, B2, and L for tomorrow

I must say, I’m quite happy with all I’ve gotten done tonight 🙂

Stats on dinner: 293 calories, 29g carbs, 7g fat, 30g protein, 7g fiber

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:

Travel

Last Day in Chi-Town

August 15, 2010 8 Comments

Today was my last day in Chicago! The morning started off with a Fun Run Walk along the lakefront. Many of the attendees set out on 10K or 5K runs, but there were many of us in the walking group.

After the walk, we headed to breakfast, which was sponsored by Thomas’ bagel thins. Part of the breakfast was a create-your-own cream cheese contest. We had our very own chefs on hand to do all the grunt work:

Here’s what went in to my combo:

Reduced fat cream cheese
Fresh tomatoes
Onions!
Jalapenos
Carrots
Cucumber
Pinch ‘o salt

The goods:

I was really graving protein at breakfast, so I thought I’d make a little breakfast sandwich out of my bagel thin and veggie cream cheese. I loaded my bagel with the veggie cream cheese:

Then I sliced my two turkey sausage links in half length-wise, and piled them on the bagel:

All I needed was a little hot sauce 😉

After breakfast, I headed back to the hotel room to get my pack on. We got SO many freebies this weekend, I can’t believe I was able to cram it all back in the suitcase!

My roommate, Haya, and I headed to Trader Joe’s where I picked up a new Luna Bar flavor and some Quinoa. Cannot wait to experiment with the Quinoa (which I had for the first time at Saturday’s lunch).

After the TJ’s excursion, a group of us gathered together to head to Giordano’s for some Chicago pizza (FINALLY!).

First up, I had a jumbo side salad (my body is literally in vegetable withdrawal) and some garlic bread:

Stuffed pizza:

YUM. Any time I go to a new city, I like to try out the foods the area is known for. While Pittsburgh’s Primanti sandwiches, South Carolina Shrimp & Grits, or Chicago style pizza may not be my #1 choice they are definitely tasty and REQUIRED food stops!

Besides, pizza definitely makes for happy bloggers:

(Erin @ a Girl and Her Mutt)

Overall, the HLS was a really interesting experience. I went into the weekend expecting to get the most value out of the Saturday Seminars, but it turns out my favorite parts of the weekend were hanging with bloggers and getting to know each of their stories behind the blog. I met a few bloggers whose sites I’ve been following for some time, made many new friends, and had my first first-person exposure to this crazy food blogging community that I’m a part of!

What surprised me most about this weekend was the mental list I began gathering of things I don’t want to be and things I want to work on or change in my life Odd, right? Over the course of the weekend, I told dozens and dozens of women my story: who I am, what I do on a daily basis, why I blog, etc. I think that sort of self reflection is a good challenge for us all. It forces us to internally take a step back and determine whether or not we’re happy with our own story.

In the time-management session, Sarah asked us to write down our list of priorities in life. I stumbled on this task. At first I wrote nothing on my list. Then, whether for fear of admitting the truth to myself or for fear of someone else seeing my true list, I wrote what I thought my list should be. I internally compared my “ideal” list of priorities to my true list, and I was bothered by the blatant discrepancies between the two. Time is a finite resource (thank you, Sarah!), and I want to work on using mine in ways that match my ideal priorities in life!

All-in-all a terrific weekend, full of terrific women, and terrific food!

(thank you Sarha @ theSHUbox for the photo!)

(thank you Jennifer @ RunningWithCake for the photo!)

Fitness

Healthy Living

August 14, 2010 4 Comments

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