Trader Joe’s – Page 5 – Fervent Foodie

Ooey Gooey Love

June 24, 2010 4 Comments

This week is just F-L-Y-I-N-G by. Can’t believe tomorrow is Friday already!

Breakfast #1

This morning I was craving something warm and peanut-buttery for breakfast. I pulled a Mama lupe low carb tortilla out of the freezer to let it thaw out. Then I topped it with 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Crunchy Almond Butter and some sliced strawberries.

I wrapped it up into a little burrito and put on the george foreman grill until it was hot and the shell was crispy. Then I wrapped the little guy up in foil and stuck him in my purse.

I got to work about 20 minutes later, and the wrap was still nice and hot and gooey.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — ooey gooey love

This was just delicious. So simple, and so delicious!

Side note: If you are obsessed with freezing things like me, before you freeze the tortillas put a piece of parchment paper or wax paper between each one. That way you can easily grab 1 tortilla from the freezer at a time (and they won’t all be frozen into one tortilla blob).

Stats on Breakfast #1: 172 calories, 13g carbs, 12g fat, 9g protein, 7g fiber

Breakfast #2

OO! That’s right, Overnight Oats!

I typically use quick oats when I make overnight oats, but this time I tried them with Bob’s Red Mill Thick Rolled Oats instead. Last night I threw the following into a bowl in the fridge:

1/2 cup Bob’s red mill thick oats (uncooked)
1/2 cup Almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 tsp brown sugar
cinnamon

This morning, I topped the oats with strawberries and blueberries:

The rolled oats have a different consistency than quick oats. They really keep their oat texture and are somewhat chewy:

These were sooooo yummmy. If I had to choose, I’d pick quick oats over rolled oats, but I’d be happy to eat either one 🙂

Stats on breakfast #2: 258 Calories, 45g carbs, 6g fat, 8g Protein, 8g Fiber

Lunch

Healthified Tuna Salad Lettuce Wrap! This was one of those times were I just kept adding things to the bowl until I found something tasty:

1 can tuna
s&P, rpf, celery seed, dill weed
3 tbsp greek oikos
1 big squirt wasabi mustard
couple drops lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped white onion
1 chopped pickle (that’s how my dad makes it!)

I made a lettuce wrap out of the tuna salad and also had some cucumber salad on the side, which was leftover from last night’s gyro dinner.

Stats on lunch: 211 calories, 19g carbs, 2g fat, 29g protein, 6g fiber

For dessert, I had a little unsweetened applesauce with some cinnamon. When I say little, I mean about 2 spoonfuls.. 🙂 (Leftovers from the big fat flop protein cakes I made)

Good news! I think my phone is almost fully recovered! 🙂

DAY #3 OF INTERVAL TRAINING TONIGHT! LET’S HOPE FOR NO KNEE PAIN!

What I ate

Taco salad does the trick

June 16, 2010 4 Comments

This morning started off on the right foot: Trader Joe’s coffee for the road as I headed to a breakfast meeting for Akron’s Knowledgeable Network of Women.

Check this guy out, he thinks he lives at my house:

I also have a stray cat who calls my side porch home. I’ll take these guys over the possum who had a brief stint in my backyard :-/ Ugh, possums are so creepy!

On my way to the breakfast meeting, I started to recall the days where I loved breakfast/lunch work meetings. The more the better! Bring on the free food! Pass the rolls! Dessert? I’ll take one of each, thank you! Nowadays I dread them. It’s so hard to make healthy choices when you have no idea what the restaurant is actually putting in the food. Unless I’m at a chain restaurant that posts the nutritional data online, I have thee hardest time picking out the healthy choices on the menu. It can be downright frustrating!

Today’s meeting was at a small locally owned restaurant, so I was left to fight the battle on my own. I went with a plain english muffin (no butter, thanks) with blackberry preserves and a bowl of fruit. What I REALLY WANTED was the strawberry stuffed french toast… Maybe I’ll attempt a healthified version this weekend 🙂

Check out the KNOW by clicking here. I always encourage people to get involved and do something that is outside their comfort zone. That’s exactly why I joined the KNOW a few years back. I HATED networking events and always felt uncomfortable entering a room full of unknowns. I’ve made drastic improvements since then.

For breakfast #2 I decided to go with my newly declared indulgence: Dannon Vanilla Greek Yogurt, blackberries, and 1/2 a serving of Bear Naked Maple Pecan granola.

Stats of B#2: 190 calories, 31g carbs, 2g fat, 15g protein, 3g fiber

Lunch

I really didn’t have a plan of attack for lunches this week. While scrounging around in the freezer looking for hidden treasures, I found some frozen lean ground beef I had cooked up with taco seasoning a while back. So I decided to make a taco salad using romaine lettuce, tomato, onion, banana peppers, and black beans (STILL trying to use these up from the stuffed peppers I made last week!). Topped it all off with some hot sauce and some fat free breakstones sour cream.

The best part of eating salads for lunch is you can consume an enormous amount of food and still feel good 😀

Stats for the taco salad: 326 calories, 32g carbs, 10g fat, 29g protein, 9g fiber

Ramblings

Confession

June 15, 2010 6 Comments

So, I have a confession to make.

…

Before we get into that matter, let’s recap lunch and dinner:

As posted earlier, I was ill-fated this morning so I decided some pizza for lunch would help me come around.

Lean cuisine cheese pizza with leftover gionino’s hot sauce… Pretty darn close to the real thing:

If you haven’t tried hot sauce on your pizza, I am begging you to give it a try!!! Soooo good!

On to dinner. Things just keep getting better! I don’t mean to brag, but hot damn my dinner was good! (said with midwest hillbilly accent while simultaneously throwing in an arm jab)

I had a leftover turkey burger from the weekend I wanted to use up, but I wasn’t feeling the typical ketchup and mustard fixins. So I decided to make a quesadilla burger — and let me tell you it was glorious!

Here’s what went into the quesadilla burger:

The sauces I used were 1 tbsp fat free breakstone’s sour cream, 1 tsp (AKA all I could scrape from the container) of Trader Joe’s Jalapeno Cilantro Hummus, and some Frank’s red hot. I threw it all in between a Mama Lupe’s Low Carb tortilla I had ordered from Netrition.

I also decided to take a second stab at turnip fries. This time, I cut them into larger wedges and cooked them at 450 degrees for 35 minutes.

I threw the quesadilla burger on the waffle iron (that’s right, waffle iron) to crisp up the tortilla and heat everything through. Why dirty the george foreman when the waffle iron was just sittin there begging to be used?

All together on the plate:

Not the most appealing photo, but trust me this quesadilla burger was awe-inspiring.

The turnip fries still didn’t have the fry texture I was shooting for. Crunchy? No. Tasty? Yes. I actually preferred the smaller skinny fries we made last time over these. Could be because the larger fries reminded me of the rooty texture of you know what.

Dinner Stats: 298 calories, 23g carbs, 9g fat, 36g protein, 9g fiber

On to what you are all really here for: the confession.

About a week ago, I discovered what may be the most amazing cereal on planet earth. I have secretly been enjoying sporadic handfuls of this glorious cereal since then, yet I have not posted anything about my discovery on my blog!

Well here it is.

Barbara’s Peanut Butter Puffins.

Lets take a few moments and discuss why this cereal is utterly amazing.

First the limited list of ingredients (which is pretty darn good for a cereal).

Second, one serving is only 110 calories, 23 carbs, 2g fiber, 6g of sugar, 3g of protein!

Third, the taste is pure peanut butter amazingness.

Fourth, the puffins are shockingly large. For comparison purposes:

Go. Buy. Now.

What I ate

(good) Case of the Monday’s

June 14, 2010 1 Comment

It’s Monday, and I am surprisingly cheery today! Even despite the gray and dreary weather we’ve got going on outside.

Maybe my good mood is due to the delicious Trader Joe’s coffee I had this morning on the way to work… That Trader Joe… Sure knows how to put a smile on my face 🙂

Almond butter sounded good this morning, so I went with a toasted Pepperidge Farm Deli Flat (that I had leftover from the turkey burgers) with Trader Joe’s crunchy almond butter and a little smear of Smucker’s Blackberry preserves (my favorite! love the seeds!).

Motivational poster I drew for the BF:

For breakfast #2 I went with a barley breakfast bowl again, which consisted of Stoneyfield Farms Greek Yogurt, Barley, and Red Raspberries:

I still have some leftover barley, so I think I’ll try and incorporate that into dinner somehow…

Today for lunch I had a very special treat 😀

Jarrod made me a GINORMOUS salad with romaine, grilled chicken, black beans, tomato, onion, cucumber, and carrots:

He has an uncanny ability for chopping things into perfect shapes 😉

As I’m eating my lovely salad, I realize that I haven’t really planned anything out for lunches this week. Do you ever fall into sack-lunch-doldrums? I know I do. I’ll have to do some brainstorming and see if I can spice things up this week.

What I ate

B#1, B#2, L

June 8, 2010 2 Comments

I’ve never really tried to make an omelet before, but this morning it sounded like just what my belly was craving! I’m sure there is a technique behind omelet making, but I decided to just throw everything in the pan and see what turned up.

Breakfast #1 Omelet: 1 egg, 3 egg whites, splash skim milk, 1/2 cup broccoli, 1/4 chopped spinach, 1/8 cup salsa, Frank’s Red Hot

Pleasantly surprised by how tasty the omelet was. I was worried the top/inside wouldn’t cook through, so I ended up covering the pan with a lid for most of the cooking time. This worked perfectly–the eggs were fluffy but not underdone. Think I’ll pick up some canadian bacon at the grocery store to throw into my next omelet creation!

Breakfast #1 Stats: 153 calories, 9g carbs, 5g fat, 20g protein, 2g fiber

Dessert Breakfast #2 – I’ve been wanting to try a Luna bar for quite some time. I usually eat breakfast/granola bars as snacks rather than meal replacements, and these bars are kind of high-calorie in my opinion (well they are if you eat the whole thing). Several times over the past couple months I’ve picked up a Luna bar in the store, looked over the package, placed it in the cart, then subsequently put it back on the shelf and walked away as quickly as possible. Yesterday, I happened to see them at a discount store so I grabbed a few. I’m a sucker for a good deal 😀

When I unwrapped the Caramel Nut Brownie Luna Bar I was presently surprised. It looked and smelled like a big fat candy bar.

So today’s dessert breakfast #2 consisted of 1/2 a Caramel Nut Brownie Luna Bar on top of some Dannon vanilla greek yogurt along with some blackberries.

Stats for B#2: 215 calories, 34g carbs, 3g fat, 17g protein, 4g fiber

Lunch

Lunch today is a repeat of yesterday (boring, yet tasty) with some steamed broccoli. Lettuce wrap in action:

I also brought some carrot sticks and Trader Joe’s Jalapeno Cilantro hummus. The hummus is so freaking good! I can’t wait to try out some of the other hummus flavors they sell.

I literally licked the container clean. This is why it is good I sit by myself at work 😀

Trader Joe is my homeboy 🙂

On the agenda this evening:

Mow my crazy overgrown backyard
Finish cleaning for the Jewelry Partayyyy (which is tomorrow evening)
Start Prepping food for party… menu selections to be posted this evening.