What I ate

Starting the week on a roll… a jelly roll that is

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Sometime last week I accidentally downloaded the $10 Runkeeper pro ap on my iPhone…  I was kind of annoyed because the free Runkeeper pro app I had was working just fine… but apparently my right thumb decided I needed to go the extra mile (no pun intended) and buy the pricey app.

I’ve played around with the full Runkeeper Pro ap a little bit, and wasn’t too impressed until I logged onto the website and saw all the cool information that my phone automatically transmits.  As you may recall, I’ve been working on interval training (since my right knee is opposed to me doing a 5k).  So in the past, it’s been hard for me to tell how fast I was running and how fast I was walking during my intervals.

Enter the fancy schmancy Runkeeper Pro ap for the low-low price of $9.99!  When I logged onto the website I was VERY happy to see that I can get a breakout by interval.  Here’s the stats from my interval this morning which consisted of 5 intervals of 3 minutes walking and 3 minutes running:

Not too shabby on the run times.  Now I can actually work on improving my pace AND my knee strength.  I guess this was a happy $10 accident 🙂

Breakfast #1

I was planning to have eggs for breakfast, but time was not on my side this morning.  Instead I grabbed an Earth Grains 100% whole wheat deli flat and topped it with 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Crunchy Salted Almond Butter:

My friends Tim and Jaci hooked me up with some Smucker’s reduced sugar red raspberry preserves to try, and I thought this combo would be fantastic:

AB & J:

I was right, it was fan-friggin-tastic!!  I love these reduced sugar preserves just as much as I love the regular blackberry preserves!  Smucker’s preserves are perfection.

Stats on B#1:  225 calories, 30g carbs, 11g fat, 9g protein, 6g fiber

 

Breakfasts #2

My usual overnight oats with strawberries and blueberries:

OO love 🙂

Stats on B#1:  229 calories, 42g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

When I was making yesterday’s garbanzo bean salad, I saved some of the veggies for my lunch.  CHOP ONCE, EAT TWICE my friends 🙂

Mixins:

I also added 2 ounces grilled chicken, half a bag of romaine lettuce, and 2 tbsp Ken’s Lite Northern Italian with Basil and Romano dressing:

Whole lot o veg:

Stats on B#1:  309 calories, 36g carbs, 7g fat, 25g protein, 10g fiber 

 

Question for ya’ll:  What are your favorite things to pack for lunch?  I tend to get super bored with my lunches and would LOVE new ideas! 😀

 

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Fitness, Restaurants

5 steps forward, 5 steps back

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Over the past 4 months I’ve had on-again off-again knee problems.  🙁

I’ve played soccer since I was in elementary school, and never had any issues.  This past spring, I decided to take up running.  I was AMAZED by how much I enjoyed it!  About a month into my newly found passion, I had a sharp pain in my right knee during my morning run.  I didn’t twist the knee, or land funny, or make any other type of movement to cause the pain.  It just sort of happened.  I attributed the pain to weakness (i.e., “push yourself harder, Mary“) and ran about 1 more mile to my house.  That genius move resulted in me limping around for about a week or so.  I tried several times to pick up where I had left off, with no success.  I even went to see an orthopedic doctor who told me “some knees just aren’t made for running.”

Unacceptable.

Then a couple months ago I developed a plan of attack in the form of my interval training plan.  Basically, the plan was to start off with walking/running intervals and slowly increase the running time over a period of weeks until I was running the entire time.

Things were going super smooth, and I was up to 7 minutes running and 3 minutes walking…. that is until I hurt my knee again on vacation a couple weeks ago.  I think this time it was due to overuse–we did a TON of walking and I was still doing my regular intervals on top of it.

It’s been 2 weeks since vacation, and I’ve tried several times to get my run on.  This was not going well at all — I could only do 1/2 of my regular intervals before feeling the pain start.  At least I have learned my lesson and now stop running at the first sign of knee pain!

So this morning I decided to start the interval all over again… yup… all the way back at 4 minutes walking, 2 minutes running.  Slowly but surely, I am determined to get to running a 5K with no knee issues!

Breakfast #1

Leftovers from yesterday’s eggins–with one new addition:

Heinz reduced sugar ketchup.  After my ketchup post last week, I started thinking about how much ketchup I actually consume in any given week.  As much as I love ketchup, it’s really just a bunch of empty calories.  So I decided to give this reduced sugar version a shot:

The ketchup was pretty good — though it oddly tasted sweeter than regular Heinz ketchup.  I’m going to try and use the reduced sugar ketchup in place of the regular stuff as much as possible.

Stats on B#1:  161 calories, 9g carbs, 5g fat, 21g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

Overnight oats 🙂

Last night, I put the following into a bowl:

  • 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats
  • 1/2 cup almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • sprinkling of cinnamon

I mixed everything up and left them in the fridge overnight.  This morning I added about 6 sliced strawberries (thank you to my mom for hooking me up with these DELICIOUS strawberries) and a 1/3 cup fresh blueberries:

All mixed up:

These overnight oats never get old 🙂

Stats on B#2:  236 calories, 45g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

My all-time favorite hummus comes from Nate’s Deli in Cleveland.  A close second would be Trader Joe’s hummus.  Unfortunately, neither of my long distance relationships with Nate nor Trader Joe are able to satisfy my frequent  hummus cravings, so I’ve been on the hunt for a tasty hummus that I can find locally.

I picked this up at the grocery store last night:

I especially liked the simple list of ingredients (chick peas, tahini, fresh spinach, lemon juice, garlic, and salt) and it is only 33 calories for a 2tbsp serving!  The flavor was a little on the bland side, however.

For lunch, I made up a sandwich with a 3.5 ounce grilled chicken breast, 1 tbsp Amir Hummus, 1/2 a roma tomato, sliced red onion, and 1 cup spinach sandwiched between a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain Deli flat:

Notice that I used my tupperware lid as a plate instead of using a paper plate.  “Kelsy” would be proud 😉

Now that’s what I’m talkin bout:

I could eat this every day:

I also had some cucumber salad on the side.  This cucumber was straight from the BF’s mom’s garden!

Stats on lunch:  323 calories, 37g carbs, 3g fat, 40g protein, 10g fiber

 

Question:  Have you ever had an injury that prevented you from doing an activity you really enjoy?

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Recipes

Blueberry Crumble for One

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Fruit cobblers and berry crisps are one of my most favorite desserts–especially when topped with some ice cream!

A couple of weeks ago I saw a post on the Heather Eats Almond Butter blog about blueberry crumble.  Heather tried out a recipe for the crumble that she found on Yoga is Yummy.

I’m a sucker for a simple list of ingredients, so I was instantly intrigued.   I wanted to scale the recipe back a bit to a single serving that I could fit in a mini ramekin, so I only used the following:

  • 1/2 cup blueberries
  • 1 tbsp Hodgson Mill oat bran
  • 1 tsp Trader Joe’s Crunchy Salted Almond Butter
  • 1/2 tsp Honey
  • 1 drop vanilla extract

First, I sprayed a mini ramekin with cooking spray then dumped in the blueberries.  I added the remaining ingredients to a separate bowl:

Next, I mixed up the crumble and plopped it onto the blueberries little by little to ensure even distribution. 

Popped this baby into a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, and VOILA:

Y-U-M:

This was yummy!  Couple points though — if you are looking for a sweet tasting crumble, you will need to make some modifications as there is no sweetener in the recipe above.  A couple of options for sweetening things up include sprinkling a packet of Truvia over the blueberries and/or using a sweeter peanut butter (as we all know I still love and adore JIF peanut butter to this day).  Of course another option would be to add a big scoop of ice cream to the top….

Stats on the mini crumble:  115 calories, 21g carbs, 4g fat, 4g protein, 5g fiber

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What I ate

Tuesday Tastes Good

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Today marks Day #3, week #3 of my interval training plan!  I am just flying right along….. Which does make me a little nervous.  I keep waiting for another knee injury to surface… Hopefully with good stretching and elevation while at work I can continue to work my way back up to running the entire time.

I’m really hoping to be able to participate in the Healthy Living Summit group run in August too…  We shall see 🙂

Breakfast #1:  Just-sayin-no to muffin(tops)

I had a breakfast meeting at Panera this morning for the Knowledgeable Network of Women in Akron.  In a previous life, I would have been PUMPED for a muffie and/or bagel from Panera…  Coffee cake?  Bring-it-on.  Nowadays I just stare longingly at these delicious treats through the glass case and drool…. 

BUT there is good news!  Panera carries Stonyfield Farms yogurt!  So, I ordered up some of that with fruit (no granola though) and a TALLLLLL coffee 🙂

Breakfast #2:  Giving low-carb waffles a second go

I made low-carb waffles for the first time last week, and I was really excited to try them again.  There’s lots of things I’d like to play around with, but for the sake of determining what works and what doesn’t I only changed a few minor things this time around.

Last night I cooked up the waffle batter below for 10 minutes on the waffle iron:

This morning, I popped the waffles into the toaster, then topped ’em off with some fresh/frozen strawberries/bananas/blackberries that I heated up in the microwave along with some PB2 (added extra H20 fo’ the drizzle).

YUMMMMMM…..  So tasty, even though the texture is not quite what I want.  Guess I’ll just have to keep on experimenting.  No complaints here!

Stats on waffles with fixins:  206 calories, 31g carbs, 4g fat, 21g protein, 8g fiber

Lunch

Lately, I’m pretty much obsessed with hummus and spinach sandwiches of any variety.  It’s not just me either.  I made a wrap with hummus on it for the BF over the weekend, and he seconded my desire to rub it all over my face and marinate in its deliciousness.  Hahahah… 😉

Today’s wrap consisted of:

Heavenly 🙂

Stats on wrap & sliced yellow pepper:  295 calories, 23g carbs, 10g fat, 24g protein, 8g fiber

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What I ate

Cold and crunchy Monday

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It’s Monday!  Woot. 

😉 actually today has been a pretty decent Monday thus far.  The office is super quiet since many of my coworkers opted to use our floating holiday today.  I decided to bank mine and take my birthday off (next week) instead.

Hope you all have a fabulous fun/food/framily filled weekend!

The PB2 Giveaway ended last night!!!  Read further for the lucky winner 😀

Breakfast #1

It’s been so hot these past few days, that I was craving something super cold for breakfast this morning.  I decided a fruit smoothie would be the ticket to cooling things off.  I threw the following into the blender:

  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Vanilla Greek Yogurt
  • 1 cup fresh frozen strawberries
  • 1/4 cup blueberries
  • 1 packet Truvia (Stevia) all natural sweetener

Once I blended everything up, I opened the fridge to put the almond milk away and saw a lonely half-empty bag of spinach sitting on the shelf begging to be eaten. 

I’ve read lots of posts on the “green monster” smoothies, especially on Julie’s blog, but I’ve never tried one myself… Until today that is!

I grabbed a handful of spinach and threw it into the blender and gave it a good pulse. 

Yes, that is spinach you are seeing

The result:

One huge smoothie with “monster” flecks:

This was surprisingly tasty!  You can’t specifically taste the spinach itself, but it gives the smoothy a hearty fullness.  It also cuts on some of the sweetness of the fruit, so I was glad I used a whole packet of truvia.  I think I’ve officially jumped on the green monster bandwagon 😀

If you’re intrigued — check out the Green Monster Movement.

Stats on the Green Monster:  197 calories, 37g carbs, 2g fat, 12g protein, 6g fiber

Breakfast #2

O…. O…..   mmmmmm…. haven’t had overnight oats in a few days, so I went with the go-to OO Combo: 

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • sprinkling of cinnamon
  • fresh strawberries

All stirred up:

Overnight oats… oh how I’ve missed you :-*

Stats on the oats:  208 calories, 38g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber

Lunch

Keeping on with today’s cold theme, I thought I’d add a little crunch to my lunch with a nice salad.  Last night, I threw together a monster salad that consisted of:

  • 1/2 bag fresh express romaine
  • 1 roma tomato
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1/4 cup white onion
  • 1 serving baby carrots
  • 1 link of Jennie O’s hot turkey sausage

Topped it all off with 2 tbsp of fat free ranch dressing:

Stats on the Monster Salad:  295 calories, 28g carbs, 10g fat, 22g protein, 7g fiber

And the winner of the PB2 Giveaway ……………

Drumroll please……

Based on the random number generator, the lucky winner is:

Monique at She’s Going the Distance!!!

  

Thank you guys for taking the time to post on my blog!  I really love seeing what you guys have to say, and as cheesy as it may sound (who doesn’t love a little cheese?) it really brightens my day 😀

Monique – please send your mailing address to:  ferventfoodie@gmail.com

Everyone else – you can purchase PB2 online at www.netrition.com.  Since it’s flat rate shipping, I’d recommend getting some Mama Lupe’s low-carb tortillas, Joseph’s low-carb pita, and some carba nada pasta 🙂

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