Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!
I was up and at 'em super early this morning. I got to the office at 7:35 this morning - whoo hoo! I wanted to get to work really early so that I could leave work early, and hopefully miss the horrible Halloween rush hour traffic. Have you ever realized that traffic after work on Halloween is the absolute worst ever!? It is seriously up there with the Wednesday before Thanksgiving if you ask me!

Today I am really tired, and when that happens I usually do not eat well. I guess I will not be too upset about it, since it is Halloween!

This morning I bought a bagel from the caf this morning at 8:30. It was good, and I had not prepared oats last night, so it was one of my only choices..... ugh. But it was good - even though it was my second bagel of the week!

The bagel kept me full for a long time! At 12:15 I went for a lovely walk. It was only about a twenty minute walk, but it was so beautiful out (maybe 60 degrees and a cloudless blue sky!) and I was just thrilled to be outside for a bit. My friend Anne went with me and we had a nice talk during the walk.

I did not end up having lunch until around 1:30 and I could not believe that I was able to wait that long! I had a great cup of soup from Trader Joe's. It was their Organic Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Soup. I was not sure if I would like it or not - but it was sooo good! I am thrilled that the soup is low sodium, as well. To go along with the soup I had a piece of cucumber, a 'normal' sized carrot and a piece of french bread to dip in the soup. (By the way, I fully admit that the lunch pictures today are horrible looking - my apologies!)

So, to celebrate Halloween I totally enjoyed a few pieces of candy. After lunch I had a "fun sized" Snickers and two Starbursts. I was not able to leave at 3:30, as I was planning but was still able to get out at 4pm. The highway was a total parking lot by that time, of course! But I still got home in thirty minutes.... not too bad. I was starving when I got home, so I made a big cup of tea which kept me satisfied for a while.

I am so exhausted and as I'm re-capping my food for the day, I can see that my usual "tired eating" trend came true again today. When I'm tired, I eat carbs! Tonight for dinner, I made homemade pizza. (Pictures to come later!) We have only had a couple of trick or treaters tonight - and Ben and I have definitely snacked on a few pieces of candy while we are waiting for the door bell to ring!!

I hope you are all having a spooky Halloween and have a great weekend - I'll post more tomorrow!

Thursday's food...

This morning it was pretty hard to get out of bed. Ben was a sweetheart and made coffee for us and that was quite a treat! A lot of times I don't have coffee until I get to the office... so having it at home and for the drive was really nice.

I had another awesome batch of oats for breakfast this morning. I did not add almond butter this morning. I enjoyed the vanilla, cinnamon, and pumpkin spices. For some reason, I did not take a picture this morning. I think I was super hungry...?

Because I had such a blah night on Wednesday and I was so tired this morning, I did NOT pack a lunch today! Luckily there was an awesome sandwich in the caf today... I had a sandwich of oven roasted tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil on Ciabatta. The sandwich had a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, too which added just enough moisture and extra flavor. Thankfully I remembered to take a picture this time..! The sandwich was $4.50 and I did not mind paying it since I had not bought lunch in a while... it was a very nice treat.

Later in the afternoon I needed a snack. The first thing I had was a bartlett pear... Yet again, I did not take a picture of it - but here is a "file photo" (from www.bctree.com) and my pear looked very similar. It was soo nice and juicy, really fantastic.

At around 3:30 I was hungry (again!? seriously!?) but I was in luck. Before Ben's parents left on Wednesday afternoon, they went over to Bread & Chocolate and bought Ben and me amazing chocolate brownies!!! I did not know they had done this until I looked in the refrigerator this morning and saw a little white paper bag... which I always know means there is something from B&C inside. I took one brownie to work with me, and it made the perfect afternoon snackie.

I had half of the brownie, and gave the other half to my colleague Mara. I had never had one of the chocolate brownies from B&C - and of course it was amazing! It was soft and chewy, and over all perfect. Of course I could have eaten the entire thing, but thought better of it. It's always great to share a chocolate treat with a friend!

Tonight was my scheduled "break" from the gym. I was trying to take it easy because my ankle was still giving me some problems. I got home from work at 5 this afternoon and ran into the house and changed into my running clothes. It was supposed to be my day OFF from running! But I changed and ran out the door. I could not go for a long run at all, but I did run around my neighborhood for twenty minutes. I figured it was better than nothing. After the running, I walked around town for another 25 minutes. Fun times.

Ben was in charge of getting stuff to go with our eggplant parm leftovers. We had baby spinach salad with carrots, cucumbers and croutons along with a couple of slices of french bread with Earth Balance spread. It made for a really good dinner. (Oh, before I forget - remember the peanut and candy corn mix Ben makes? I had two hand fulls of that after my run / walk around town!) I heated the entire pyrex dish of eggplant parm in the oven for a while to heat everything up again. My eggplant serving looks large tonight, but that might be because I put the amount on a sandwich plate instead of a dinner plate...

OK, I just did three blog entries and I'm done for the night! I am so psyched that tomorrow is Friday!

Internet Reading for you!

Hi Everyone:

Tomorrow is Friday, so if you are looking for a couple of things to read on the internet while you are waiting for the weekend to begin here are a couple of things for you!

Today Boston.com published a list of 15 Health Tips for the New Year... click here to read more and see the slide show. I have been meaning to write a blog entry on a few of these ideas, so stay tuned!

The New York Times published an article yesterday on calorie consumption.... it's worth reading. Click here to see the article.

One more thing!!! I just discovered this awesome blog / website! It's 101 Cookbooks.... and this recipe looks sooo good. Ten Minute Couscous Soup... I have already told Ben that I'm making this next week! Check out the recipe.

OK, enough extra reading for the day. I just wanted to make sure I got these out to ya'll!

A recap for Oct 29

It is Thursday evening, and I'm playing catch up once again - notice a trend??

On Tuesday night I was suddenly inspired to be pro-active in my lunch preparation! I went into the kitchen around 8:30 or 9PM that night and started preparing a couple of servings of oats for Wednesday and Thursday morning breakfasts! I took a page from Jenna's playbook and made the oats with light vanilla soy milk instead of water or just normal skim milk. Wow, that did make a huge difference!! It adds just a little bit more flavor (and a little sweetness!) to the oats. I also added a pinch of salt and vanilla while the oats were cooking on the stove top. These were "quick oats" that we already had - but making the two servings, I used the last of them.

Once the oats were done cooking (only took a couple of minutes) I divided up the portions into my two small glass Pyrex dishes and let the oats cool. It is really unhealthy to put hot things directly into the refrigerator, because of the sudden temperature change, it can promote quick bacteria growth. Yuck!

So I had the oats cooling in the individual serving dishes, and I started in on lunch. I had a can of chicken which I used to make chicken salad. OK, I have to say that I was so glad to see Tina write an entry about this the other day. She prefaced her blog entry with the fact that canned chicken sounds weird. See her entry from the other day here. Anyhow, I agree with Tina that the ability to make your own chicken sandwich is a good option once in a while, especially because of the extra protein it gives you. I used the can of chicken, a tablespoon of miracle whip and a celery stick to make my chicken salad. Once I had it mixed up, I added some ground black pepper, garlic and onion powder just to spice it up a little more. Yum. With these two things done, I felt set for Lunch for Wednesday.

On Wednesday, getting ready for work was so much easier since I had prepared a lot of my lunch the night before. I was at my desk by 8am on Wednesday morning with a travel mug of coffee to enjoy!

For Wednesday's breakfast, I enjoyed one of the servings of oats. Before I put the oats in the fridge, I added pumpkin spice, cinnamon and nutmeg to the top of it. Unfortunately, you can't see it here because when I re-heated it in the microwave, I mixed it all in. To re-heat oats, just use milk and pop your dish in the microwave. I used about a fourth of a cup of soy milk and heated the oats for a minute in the microwave, stirring after 30 seconds.

Once the oats were warmed up enough, I added one packet of Barney Butter to the oats, and that made them fantastic! I could definitely taste the cinnamon, pumpkin and nutmeg spices I had added last night, too. It was a really satisfying breakfast. A lot better than the instant oatmeal I had been eating before!

For lunch I enjoyed my chicken salad on a whole wheat wrap with a tablespoon of roasted red pepper hummus. I also had pepper slices and grapes (all produce from Wilson Farms!)







I had to eat lunch at my desk on Wednesday because I went for a twenty minute walk outside. It was cold and windy, but it was still really nice to get outside. I love taking walks at lunch, to get up from behind my desk and get the heart rate going a bit! Even just a fifteen minute walk will help everyone get more energy for the rest of the afternoon!

For an afternoon snack, I had a cookie that Ben's mom had made. The cookie had peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. Yum!

After work I got myself to the gym... whoo-hoo!! The bad news is that my ankle is acting really weird! I could only run half a mile on the treadmill, because the ankle was causing me a lot of pain... I have never had a problem with my ankles before, so I am a bit concerned.
But I did not give up on my gym workout. I switched from running to weights. I did legs and arms for twenty five minutes. Once that was finished, I hoped on the elliptical for twenty minutes. The ET was a lot easier on the ankle, so I am glad I did that for a while to get more cardio in.

After the gym, I stopped by Trader Joe's to pick up oatmeal (the "non-quick" kind!), low fat mozzorella cheese, "no salt added" tomato sauce and a couple of other items. I had dinner in mind all day. I was making the eggplant parmasean that I posted about earlier today... check out the recipe!

The eggplant dish came out well and Ben and I enjoyed a really nice dinner. For Wednesday night we had whole wheat pasta with the eggplant. I was full for the rest of the night. I really wanted a milkshake (what!? it's freezing outside!) but did not make one.

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Wednesday!

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Well, I am behind in my posts again!

Last night for dinner I made my baked eggplant parmesan... it's a healthy take on the normal eggplant parm! Instead of frying the eggplant in a skillet, you bake it which makes the eggplant just as soft and crispy without adding the fat. Another fat saving tip is to dip your eggplant in egg whites instead of a full egg!

So, to get things started I heated up the oven to 400 degrees. Then I skinned and sliced the eggplant into 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick slices. I dipped the eggplant in egg whites and dredged it in bread crumbs. I then placed the eggplant slices on a cookie pan that I had sprayed with olive oil cooking spray (fat free and basically calorie free). Once all of the slices were done (they usually have to fit on two cookie sheets) I placed them in the oven. You can let them cook for 15 minutes at 400 degrees and then take them out of the oven and flip each piece onto their other side. Put them back into the oven for 15 more minutes.

While they are baking, get out your other ingredients. I use a low sodium plain tomato sauce (usually a jar and a half gets the job done) and low fat or fat free mozzarella shredded cheese. I sprayed the glass pan (9" x 11" or 8" x 8" will work). Once the eggplant comes out of the oven (you can then reduce the heat in the oven to about 300 degrees!), I start layering it in the pan. Eggplant, cheese, sauce, and repeat. I like to put extra sauce and cheese on the very top layer along with seasonings (garlic, basil, etc.)

Once you've finished layering your eggplant, put the pan back in the oven for a few minutes. Since the eggplant is fully cooked, you are really just heating up the sauce and the cheese. I usually leave mine in for 15 minutes.

The end result is a nice Baked Eggplant Parmesan! Last night Ben and I enjoyed this with a side of whole wheat pasta. Yum.

Well, that is all I have for now. I will do a recap for Wednesday and Thursday tonight.

Hope you are all having a great Thursday!

Tuesday - leftovers, fruit and a rainbow!

Hi Everyone -
Hope you are managing to stay warm! They are calling for snow in Boston tonight and tomorrow - SNOW!? It was almost 70 yesterday... what a sudden change.

Food was definitely not all that interesting today. I broke down and bought an everything bagel at Au Bon Pain...! It was so fresh and delicious, so perhaps worth it! I brought a bit of my own Earth Balance to work, so I would not have to use butter. (Much less saturated fat in EB!) I also had a wonderfully perfect coffee with 2% milk from ABP this morning.

Lunch was my left over tofu pad thai. After having the left overs, I do not think I will be having pad thai again for a while! I definitely filled myself on it.

I also bought some fruit at ABP in the morning to have with lunch, because I really wanted either fruit or veggies today, since I did not have time to bring them from home. Unfortunately, they did not have veggies out early in the morning, but the fruit was nice. Grapes, cantalope, orange and grapefruit slices.

At around 3pm I needed an afternoon snack. I had a peanut butter cookie Lärabar, which was very good. One thing I love about Lärabars is that they keep me so very full for such a long time!



At 4:45 I left work, and took my walk to the train station. It is somewhere between 1.1 - 1.2 miles to South Station from my office. Today I did the walk in about 20 minutes. While I was arriving at South Station, I looked up at the sky and saw an amazing rainbow!

It was such a nice sight to see on my walk to the train.

I got home at 5:45, to a warm house that smelled amazing! Ben's mom had been cooking and baking most of the day. She made a lovely veggie stew for us for dinner. (Well, it was really a beef stew, but I had the broth and the veggies mostly!) We had great french rolls along with the stew, and fruit. Ben's mom sliced up pears (that I bought from Wilson Farms - they were amazing!) and apples to go on the side. They really were great with the stew.

Ben's mom also made chocolate chip cookies for dessert. But somehow I am still full from dinner (and it's 8:45 already - I'm usually always hungry by now!) we shall see if I can have a cookie in a little while.

My only exercise was the walk to the train, and my walking around during work. But I guess the afternoon walk to South Station was better than nothing! Hopefully tomorrow I will be back at the gym.

I hope you are all having a great night!

Tuesday - Top 100 Blogs for Foodies!

Hi Everyone -

Hope you are all having a fantastic Tuesday! It was raining here most of the day, but wow has it cleared up nicely!! Just in time for my 1.2 mile walk to the train station! I was sad that I might have to take the bus today instead of getting a nice walk in... thankfully the weather has decided to cooperate!

OK, I only have a moment to post before my "major" re-cap post tonight. But I just saw this cool Top 100 list, and thought I would share. Click here to see the Top 100 Blogs for Foodies via The Culinary School Guide website. ENJOY!

Monday: fast walk, run, and food!

I hope everyone had a good Monday - I know a few friends that had a "case of the Mondays" but hopefully most of us had a good day!

I got off to a super early start. I was able to get up out of bed at 6:25 this morning. I was sad to see that it was still dark when my alarm went off at 6:15! After my shower, I noticed that my cell phone had a new text message - and oh of course, it was the T telling me that my train to South Station was running twenty five minutes late! UGH. At that moment I decided to drive to work, since I could not be late today! After getting ready, making and packing lunch I left the house at 7:15 this morning and got to work at 7:40! It was a great drive.

I had a productive morning, and did not end up getting to breakfast until 9:30 when I had half a cup of coffee with soy milk and a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with soy milk. What a yummy breakfast! We do not usually have HN Cheerios - but they are Ben's parent's favorites, and I'm happy to have them!

At lunch I took one of my "fast walks" with my friend Katherine. We walked our route "all the way" ... everyone at work thinks that if you walk the entire route it is three miles. However, on our walk today, Katherine and I were discussing if we actually thought it was three miles or not. We both think it is probably a little less - but probably still 2 1/2 miles. We walked for 40 minutes, so it was a good workout. We were hot when we got back inside - it was a beautiful day, probably near 70 degrees.

I was happy that I walked before I ate lunch, because it made everything I

had brought to work taste even better.
I did not have a super healthy lunch, I was sort of at another loss. But I made a peanut butter and preserves sandwich on Arnold's high fiber bread.




For snacks I had green pepper slices, roasted red pepper hummus, and eight honey wheat pretzel sticks. It was a great lunch!
For some reason, by the afternoon I was feeling like I was snacking a lot! Which is sort of strange, because I only had two snacks.... At 2:30 I had a handful of trail mix that had almonds, raisins, cashews, and a couple of small pieces of dark chocolate.

At 4pm I had a strawberry Chobani... for some reason, I forgot to take a picture of that - but by now you probably know what that looks like! Today for a brief moment, as I was eating the yogurt, I studied the nutritional info on the strawberry Chobani. It has 140 calories, 20 g carbs, and 14 g of protein! Of course, it's fat free. I was telling my friend Nicole today, that it is sort of my new miracle food!

Because I got to work so early, I was able to leave work by 4:15 this afternoon - woo-hoo!! I was sooo excited to get to leave in the afternoon instead of the evening! I got to the gym by 4:45 and was running into the gym, when all of the sudden I realized that I forgot my RUNNING SHOES!!!! I went back to the car, to see if I had an extra pair of asics in the car.... and I did not!

I got back in the car, and started driving home. I was so annoyed with myself for forgetting my sneakers. I was so sad to not be able to get to the gym. But by the time I got home, I was newly inspired. I changed into my new running clothes, and hit the sidewalk. I did a half hour run through my neighborhood. It was GREAT! After a half an hour, Ben and his parents had returned from an afternoon adventure in downtown Boston. I was able to get his parents to walk with me for another half an hour, so I was walking/running for a total of one hour. I felt like I had accomplished a good work out!

For dinner we ordered Thai food. Our Thai place in Newton Centre is now under new management. The food was still good, but my tofu was not quite as crispy as it was the time before. But we are looking forward to the new menu that is coming out next week.... Fingers crossed that it will still be amazing!

I had tofu pad thai, a chicken dish and some of a fresh spring roll with shrimp. Oh, my one sad point with the new management is that they no longer offer Jasmine rice... it's just brown rice or white rice. But at least brown rice is an option still. Dinner was good tonight, and we had a fun time being together.

Ok, I have to sign off for now. I am missing out in the pumpkin carving festivities! I'm going to start heating up the oven to make pumpkin seeds - yum!

So, I'll catch you all tomorrow - have a great rest of your Monday evening!!

Sunday

Greetings everyone!

We had a lovely Sunday here. I slept in until 9am and got up just in time to watch George and his round table...

I re-heated my oats that I made yesterday. They came out a lot better than I thought they would! I added a bit of soy milk and put them in the microwave to heat them up a bit. Once they were heated up, I sliced up a banana, mixed that up and then put a tablespoon of peanut butter.... the PB really made it spectacular!

While I was catching up on Saturday's blog entry, Ben's mom made an apple pie! I cannot wait to try some tonight...

In the afternoon we went to Concord to meet up with some friends from the U.K. We had lunch around 3pm, I was a bit hungry by the and had a great meal - a chicken caesar sandwich on a whole wheat wrap. It was great - and the protein really held me over for a long time! The sandwich came with french fries (and there was not another option!) and I had a couple, and shared the rest with the rest of the table. The sandwich was soooo good! There were a lot of options for lunch, so I am really happy that the one I picked made me happy.

We spent the afternoon in the shops around Concord, and going to the Old North Bridge along with a few other Revolutionary War sights.

When we got home we all had a snack. I ate grapes (that I picked up from Wilson Farms yesterday - they are amazing!) and had a quarter of a ginger cookie from Bread & Chocolate that Ben had picked up earlier in the day.

It's now 7:35 in the evening, and I am currently in search of something for dinner! I'll update more later... but I have a feeling that dinner will be really small so that I can enjoy the apple pie! Good night everyone!

Busy Satruday

Hi All -

Yesterday was a super busy day, so I was really pleased with myself for getting to the gym for a little over an hour. While I was at the gym I did my walk, jog, run warm up for 15 minutes to get started. Then I moved on to weights for 30 minutes (arms and legs) and then did another warm down on the treadmill for 15 minutes after. It definitely felt like a quick work out - but I was glad that I got it done with such a busy day ahead of me.

My mom came up to visit and to see Ben's parents! We all hung out a bit in our house before we started out on our afternoon of adventures.

During this time I had lunch, and I was definitely hungry after the workout at the gym. I had one piece of pizza that was left over from dinner last night with a glass of soy milk. I heated up the pizza in the oven instead of the microwave and it made the pizza super crispy and more enjoyable!

Before the pizza was ready I had a snack of some Rold Gold honey wheat pretzel sticks. They are super good, and not bad for you. The last time I was at the grocery store, I wanted to get one of my old favorites Rold Gold Cheddar Tiny Twists... but I looked at the ingredients before I put the bag into the cart. I found partially hydrogenated soybean oil on the list! Ugh. So, I went with the Honey Wheat pretzels and they are healthier, and a great snack.

Ben made his fall snack mix of candy corn and peanuts. I had a handful of those as well! Normally I do not like candy corn because they are soooo sweet - but the mixture with the peanuts really cuts down the sugary taste of the candy. It is quite a fun mix.

After we were all done snacking, we piled into Ben's car and started out on our afternoon outing. Our first stop was at L.L.Bean in Burlington, Ma. I had been so excited to get to L.L.Bean to get a new fleece jacket. I was disappointed that they did not have the fleece I wanted - but I just found it online. The one thing I was thrilled about was a new selection of athletic clothes I found at L.L.Bean! I bought two pairs of yoga / running pants and a couple of other things. Right now L.L.Bean is having a special, that if you buy $50 you get a $10 gift certificate! I will use my g.c. for my new fleece.

Our second stop was our all time favorite place Wilson Farms. We all had such a great time exploring the farm stand, the pumpkins, and so on. We ended up getting a few pumpkins, an egg plant, a few bell peppers, hot loaf of french bread, a cucumber, scallions, spices, cider donuts, and chocolate milk. Here is a picture of the cider donuts my mom enjoyed. I had the smallest nibble of Ben's donut, but didn't have one of my own.

Once we got home we fixed up some of the snacks that we bought from Wilson Farms. Everyone else enjoyed some Havarti cheese with dill, and horseradish with some of the fresh french bread (both things from WF). For myself, I cut up some of the green bell pepper, roasted red pepper hummus, cucumber along with some of the french bread. Here is what my plate looked like (after I had taken a few bites!)

Even with all of our awesome snacks, we decided to go out to dinner. I convinced the gang to go to Needham for dinner at Sweet Basil. This place is amazing. They make everything fresh - including their pasta! For some reason, even though I had my camera with me, I forgot to take photos of our dinner! Ben ordered an amazing risotto as an appetizer to share... For dinner I had chicken piccata and it was wonderful. Thankfully it came with a side of their freshly made pasta. If you ever go to Sweet Basil, we highly recommend the veggie lasagna, the handmade ravioli, chicken parmasana, and just about anything else - oh and make sure to try their fresh pesto - it is amazing!

Ok, that is my super long Saturday! Sorry for all of the reading. I will be back later to update you on Sunday! Until then, Go Patriots!

Bitten Blog - Check it out

Good morning everyone - happy Sunday! More about my food later....

I wanted to pass along the information about a fairly new blog by the New York Times. Emily Weinstein from the Bitten blog now has a special section entitled How to Cook... Something. Emily is not a professional chef, in fact I guess she is not much of a cook at all. Her editor wrote the following about the blog:
How to cook.... Something
In which Emily Weinstein, Bitten’s producer, begins what we hope is the long and enjoyable process of learning how to cook. Go Emily! –MB

Her first entry was for Butternut Squash Soup. Click here to check out the blog.

The other day the NY Times also had an interesting article discussing the new cookbooks being published this season. Click here for the link for the article.

Ok, well I have to figure something out for breakfast... so I'll be back in a bit. Enjoy the New York Times stuff for now!

Lots of Sleep!

Hi Everyone -

Happy Saturday! Last night Ben's parents arrived in Boston from Colorado. They are staying with us until Wednesday. I picked them up at the airport, and drove them back to our house. After we got home we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and take a walk around the neighborhood.

While we were on our walk, we stopped at Starbucks where we all enjoyed pumpkin spice lattes. I ordered mine with skim milk, and only two pumps of syrup - I always ask the barista to make my drink with only half the amount of syrup they would normally put in whatever size drink I order. My drink was delicious and full of pumpkin flavor - I could not imagine ordering a full flavored drink!

Ben came home, with Daisy in tow. She has nearly fully recovered from her surgery. She was very hungry when she got home and enjoyed her Science Diet kitten food!

We decided to order pizza for dinner. We had two pizzas, one veggie pizza (green peppers, onions and mushroom) and a pepperoni pizza. I also ordered a big salad for myself which filled me up. But I still did have two pieces of pizza! The salad was wonderful! I used Newman's Own Lighten Up low fat Sesame Ginger Dressing which is perfect on anything.


Last night we were all exhausted from a long week. I ended up going to bed at 9:45 last night and I had a wonderful night of sleep.

This morning I woke up feeling completely re-energized! For breakfast I skipped Bread & Chocolate for a bowl of oats. I made the oats on the stove top with a mixture of water and 1% milk. I added a touch of vanilla, pumpkin spice and plenty of cinnamon. I also added blue berries to the oatmeal, once it was in my bowl. I made enough for two servings, and will save the second portion for tomorrow's breakfast.

Now I am fueled for the gym. I hope everyone is having a fantastic Saturday morning!

Friday - meals on the go!

Thank goodness for lunch time. I started getting hungry at 11:30 this morning, so I was pleased when lunch time arrived!

This morning I made my weekly trip over to Bread & Chocolate to celebrate it being Friday morning! I was happy to see Eunice when I walked in. Today I ordered an apple sauce / cranberry muffin and it was wonderful! I also had a medium coffee with soy milk. Both things really hit the spot. I had consumed most of the coffee by the time I got to work, but still had a little bit to enjoy with my muffin. I really love soy milk in my coffee - it adds just a little bit of sweetness without being too much, and without having to add sugar.

For this morning's picture of the muffin, I did something a little weird. I put my cell phone next to the muffin to give you some idea of the size of the objects. One of the many things I love about Bread & Chocolate is the portions of their items! I am so happy that someone makes muffins the size that muffins are actually supposed to be! This way I do not have to feel guilty for having a muffin for breakfast once a week. It is the perfect size, and keeps me going until lunch time.

I could tell it was Friday this morning because it was hard to get out of bed and get the day started. I was exhausted! Ben and I went to a concert last night, so we were home late and I did not have time to prepare anything for lunch ahead of time. Thankfully, I had some emergency frozen lunches in the freezer - and I grabbed one this morning before I left the house.

Today's lunch was something I had never tried before. It was a Lean Cuisine Southwest-Style Chicken Panini. I rarely eat frozen things, because there is often a very high sodium content in meals that are frozen (have you ever checked the nutritional contents on one of those boxes??) But I do like having a couple in the house for the days that I cannot think of something for lunch, or do not have time to make something...

The panini was actually very good! The sandwich had cheese, chicken, peppers, tomato, onions and was on sourdough (my favorite bread ever!). Here are some pictures:

The nutritional information is as follows:

330 calories

7 grams fat (2 saturated, 2 poly, 2 mono)

35 mg Cholesterol (from the chicken and cheese)

750 mg sodium (30% of your RDA!)

44 g Carb (5 g fiber!)

22 g Protein

30% RDA Calcium (thanks to the cheese!)

Besides the sodium content, I think it's over all not a bad lunch on a rare occasion. The protein definitely helped to fill me up. The sandwich tasted great, and "grilled" up nicely in the microwave.

I have an apple, Chobani and a Larabar for later... Will post more tonight and let you know what snacks I actually ended up having!

Food for Thought

Happy Friday!

I will have a more in depth catch up during lunch... but wanted to give you all some food for thought.

Recently I have happened upon a few articles that I thought might be interesting to everyone.

The first article came from my weekly Health Magazine e-mail update. It was a fun and fast article / slide show about the ten best foods for your heart. Everyone should know that these foods are great for you - and you should do your best to incorporate them into your diet. A couple of the foods on the list are: salmon, spinach, soy, oatmeal....

Check out the entire Health article here. See what heart healthy foods you eat on a regular basis and try to add at least one more to your diet!

The second interesting item was a post from one of the blogs I follow:Je Mange la Ville. The blog had a recent post with a recipe from Julia Child for French Onion Soup -one of my all time favorite cold weather meals!! It is not uber healthy, but it would certainly be a treat to make... I am definitely going to try to make the recipe soon. Click here for the full recipe (along with amazing photos!)

The final item that I thought was worth sharing is a recipe I came across yesterday in the New York Times (still my all time favorite publication!). It is a recipe for Potato and Leek Gratin with Cumin. Get the full recipe and write up (all of the information about why this is a healthy dish for you!) here. ENJOY!

OK - hope everyone is enjoying Friday morning. Let the count down to the weekend begin!

Thursday

Today was a pretty hectic morning in our house! I had to drive to work today, so that I could drop Daisy off at the vet. (she is being spay today!! but our wonderful vet called at 12:30 to let us know that she is out of surgery and that everything went very well - we get to pick her up tomorrow afternoon!) So I was running around, trying to pack lunch, get Daisy in her carrier (she totally knew something was up!) and with all of my self-imposed madness, I forgot to grab my morning coffee.

Thankfully things seemed to turn around. On my way to work from the Vet's, I saw a Dunkin' Donuts that had easy parking and was able to grab a spot and go in for a coffee. Thank goodness! I don't know if I would have survived the day without a little coffee!

Over all, breakfast was a little disappointing. I saw an everything bagel while I was at Dunkin' Donuts, and it was calling my name. But I decided to be good and stick with my morning plan... which was oatmeal and almond butter. Unfortunately, I was trying a rather new oatmeal from TJ's and I did not like it at all. I will have to report back later today to let you know which oatmeal it was.... will have to check the box to be sure. But it was so dissapointing!

Thankfully the oatmeal kept me full until lunch. What I had packed for my mid-day meal was so much better than breakfast! I had some baby carrots, roasted red pepper hummus and a salmon salad sandwich on Arnold's high fiber bread - and a few Kashi crackers. YUM.

Lunch was fantastic and really filling. I am wondering if I will even need my Chobani yogurt for an afternoon snack.

I hope you are all having a great day and I will post more later about dinner, etc.

Happy Thursday everyone!