Recipes, What I ate

It’s go time & Chicken Fajita Bowl

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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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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

Sunday Sum-up

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Whelp, I didn’t do much cooking this weekend.  I did get a new digital camera and new (free replacement) iPhone though!  WOOOHOO!

I contemplated getting a digital SLR camera, but in the ended I decided to go with the Fujifilm Finepix S2550HD, which is a higher end point and shoot camera.  Down the road I may invest in a digital SLR camera, but I felt I needed to learn more about photography before taking such a big (financial) leap.  Ok, I’m cheap.  🙂

Here’s some random pictures I have taken so far with the camera.  I’m still learning how to use all the functions but I especially liked how these turned out.  I’m looking forward to my free class at Van’s Camera to learn everything!

This weekend was pretty action packed.  And by action packed I mean lots of shopping, driving around, nonstop errands, and eating foods that I didn’t cook 🙂

For breakfast this morning I had a Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla, blueberries, and Trader Joe’s Crunchy Almond Butter that I cooked up on the george foreman grill:

Tried the Vanilla Almond Luna Bar and the Nuts over Chocolate.

Both were pretty tasty (Luna never lets me down apparently), but I wouldn’t rank either of them at the top of the pack because I wished the flavors were stronger in both bars.

Also tried a Pecan Pie Larabar… I ate one small bite and tossed the rest.  Bummer.  I’ve got some good feedback from you guys though, and it looks like Key Lime Pie, Cherry Pie, and Coconut are the flavors I need to keep an eye out for!

After getting my iPhone replaced, we headed to Tropical Smoothie Cafe at Legacy Village for lunch.  I ordered the Jerk Chicken Wrap, apple, and a Very Berry Green Tea Smoothie.  Jarrod got the buffalo chicken wrap and a Muscle Blaster smoothie.

We both loved everything we ordered and definitely want to try the cafe out again since their menu had a lot to offer.

After lunch we hit up Trader Joe’s!  Here’s what I picked up this time:

I had one of the chicken sausages for dinner along with some of Jarrod’s special oven baked cajun potatoes:

Delicious!

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Ramblings, What I ate

TGI Freakin F!

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Today I feel like a chicken with no head.  Let me recap the last 24 hours in 13 key points:

1.) Went shopping for new pants after work yesterday, ended up buying three shirts.  (I still consider this a success)

2.) Ate a Luna Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar for energy before my interval training.

This was pretty tasty.  It had more of a candy-bar like feel to it than the normal Luna Bars, but I think the taste of the regular bars are better than these protein bars.  Worth a shot, definitely better than the Larabar Flop earlier in the week, but I’ll stick with the regular Luna Bars from now on!

3.) Got locked out.  Super.

4.) Dinner consisted of a cold leftover turkey burger (luckily I had brought this with me to work and subsequently took it with me shopping).  Yes, I took the burger into the mall… Haha 🙂

5.) Phone died (again).  Super!

6.) Completed Day 3 of interval training.  Whoop!

7.) Set alarm clock (since phone is broke). 

8.) Turns out alarm was never changed for daylight savings.  Woke up 1.5 hours late.  Super.

9.) While making coffee, realized I never unplugged the george foreman after making my breakfast wrap yesterday.  Wow, Mary.  Wow.

10.) Ate a Blueberry Bliss luna bar on my way into work.  And it really was blissful!  Things started to perk up after that.

11.) Got to work 1 hour late. Craaaapppppp…

12.) Strawberry Oikos Greek Yogurt with blueberries and Bear Naked Maple Pecan Granola 🙂 Yummmm….

13.) Takeout lunch from Jimmy Johns.  It’s starting to feel like Friday now 😀

Giant beach club unwich, no mayo, add onion and giant pickle:

Me after finishing my grub:

 Blurry, but at least I’m smiling!

*deep breath*

In through the nose, out through the mouth….

😀

Plans for the weekend:

  • Get my frickin phone fixed
  • Yard Work (obviously)
  • New digital camera!!!! YAY!!! Super excited about this one.
  • Fun with friends Saturday night
  • Try new recipes?  I sure hope so.
  • R&R?  Mandatory.

 

QUESTION OF THE DAY:  How do you turn your day around when you start off on the wrong foot?

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What I ate

Big Fat Flop(s)

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 Breakfast #1   

Last night I was apparently in the mood to try 3,000 new concoctions.  I found this recipe for Protein Cakes the other day.  They are super simple to make and work out to less than 100 calories each (before you add toppings) so I decided to make two different kinds to try out for breakfast #1.   

Protein Cake #1   

  • 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 packet truvia
  • 1 tbsp sugar free applesauce
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tsp choc chips

    

Protein Cake #2   

  • 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • 2 drops vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 packet truvia
  • 1 tbsp sugar free applesauce
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/4 cup fresh blueberries

    

They only take 1 minute to cook in the microwave!   

Cakes in the mugs:   

   

Check out the height on the chocolate cake:   

   

As you can see, one of these cakes is not like the other.  One of these cakes just doesn’t belong…   

   

Apparently the blueberries had a negative effect on the vanilla protein cake.  BUMMER!  (PS, that one got tossed, it was just gross looking).   

BIG FAT FLOP #1.   

    

This morning, I was really excited to try the surviving chocolate cake. I heated it up in the microwave for about 15 seconds, and took a big ole bite.  I guess since they have “cake” in the title, I was expecting something moist and delicious.  But this was super dry and not very tasty.  I put some blackberry preserves on top, but still ended up throwing most of it away.   

   

BIG FAT FLOP #2.   

    

Because I’m such a smarty pants, I had planned ahead for such a catastrophe by bringing a Peanut Butter Cookie Lara Bar.  This is the first time I had tried a Lara Bar.  What really intrigued me was the mere 3 ingredients:    

   

Gotta be honest, I wasn’t super happy with it.  If it weren’t for the ingredients list, I probably wouldn’t buy it again.  Maybe some of the other flavors I picked up will be better–but as of now I’m not sure when I’ll be trying them.   

Any of you prefer Lara Bars to Luna Bars?  Looks like I’m a Luna girl…   

BIG FAT FLOP #3.   

    

OVERNIGHT OATS!!!  YAY! 😀 😀 😀    

No let downs here!  My oats today consisted of:   

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 3/4 cup almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1 packet stevia
  • 1 tbsp PB2
  • 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • fresh strawberries

   

 These were coldy, creamy, and delicious, as usual!   

Stats on the oats:  219 calories, 36g carbs, 7g fat, 9g protien, 8g fiber 

    

Lunch   

After the flops I had for Breakfast #1, I was kind of anxious for lunch.  I have always really enjoyed chicken salad with grapes in it, so last night I decided to whip up my own healthified chicken salad using Oikos plain greek yogurt:   

  • 3 oz shredded chicken breast (grilled up last week with McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Seasoning)
  • 2 tbsp Plain Oikos greek yogurt
  • 1 small green onion, minced
  • 1/2 tsp lime juice
  • 1 tsp chopped cilantro
  • Sprinkling of S&P, cumin, cayenne pepper, celery seed
  • 1/3 cup grapes, halved

I put the chicken salad in a Joseph’s Low Carb Pita.   

chicken salad with greek yogurt and grapes

 

SUCCESSS!!!!!!  This was really yummy!  Hooray!   

Stats on the chicken salad:  215 calories, 14g carbs, 5g fat, 25g protein, 4g fiber

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