Sugar and Spice...

New Home

2008-12-09T22:54:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone:
After a lot of thought - I have given Sugar and Spice a new home.
Please see this link for the new "work in progress" home for the blog:

http://sugarnspiceblog.wordpress.com/

The site is not perfect yet - but there are a couple of posts already, so check it out. From now on, I will be posting to this site. I will have the e-mail subscription up soon, I hope and I will keep you all posted.

Like I said - this is certainly a work in progress right now. I have not gotten the blog to where I want it to be yet - but it is coming together.

Thanks to my few friends who actually read this blog on a semi-regular basis, I really appreciate the support! Please keep reading - and thank you!

Tuesday - too far behind!!

2008-12-09T13:13:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone:

What is going on with me this week? Sorry for not posting yesterday.
I'm doing an oh so brief post during lunch - and sorry for not including the pictures!

I am proud to report that I had breakfast at home this morning!! I had only been up for twenty - thirty minutes when I had my bowl of Kashi Vive with 1% milk. Woo-hoo! That was at 7:35 this morning. I remained full until 10:45 which is pretty good for me!

I will devote a special blog entry about my morning snack, which will be post-gym workout tonight!

At lunch I had a peanut butter & jam sandwich (options are slim at home!) on two pieces of fresh (and wonderful!) Arnold double fiber bread! I was looking for double protein when I went to the store last night - but there were only two loaves left in the store, and their "eat by" date was smudged and I couldn't tell if the date had already passed. I HATE IT when that happens! I am yet to get my hands on Arnold Double Protein Bread!!! Next week, hopefully will be the week!

Anyway - back to the sandwich. I had a tablespoon of Teddy peanut butter on the sando along with a tablespoon of TJ's reduced sugar raspberry jam and it was a great combo.

I also had half a cup of plain (yuck) TJ's Greek yogurt. I do not like eating plain yogurt of any kind. But I make myself do this because it's the best type of yogurt. I put some add-ins to make it a little easier to eat! Some slivered almonds, peanut butter puffs (Pandas!) and just a few (10) semi-sweet chocolate chips. I am hoping this will go a long way to filling me up!

After the yogurt I had a clementine. Ben and I bought a box of them last night at Stop & Shop. This one and the one I had last night after dinner were not quite as good as the ones my mom had at home - but they are definitely pretty good. Now that we have an entire box, I will probably start eating about two a day!

That about covers lunch.
Now for my Question of the day:

I just finished reading Sammy's House by Kristin Gore. It was such a fun read, and I am sad that it is over. I am looking for book recommendations!

What should my next read be? Fiction, non-fiction, political, historical, any of these will do!

If you have any ideas for books - please leave a comment below. Thanks!

Ok - I am done with lunch and must get back to work. Enjoy the rest of your day! I will post more tonight.

Snowy Sunday!

2008-12-07T16:39:00.003-05:00

Hi All -

Happy Sunday! I was expecting some snow when I woke up this morning, but there was only a dusting on the ground. However, it did continue to flurry most of the morning and afternoon - but we did not get any accumulation.

I woke up around 9 o'clock this morning. The first thing I did was warm up the small amount of oats left over from yesterday's breakfast. I added raisins, a couple of slivered almonds, semi-sweet chocolate chips and a small bit of Teddy. Yum. I knew that Ben was making a brunch later today, so I did not want a huge breakfast - but I also did not want to be starving by the time brunch came around! The bowl has about a half cup of oats, which I warmed in the microwave with a couple of tablespoons of milk to re-hydrate them.

Ben later made us homemade whole wheat waffles! I had two and they were amazing. The recipe Ben used was from his childhood in Iowa. I love the recipe because it does not call for sugar! Ben also bought fresh fruit from the grocery store - I had a helping of cantaloupe which was really great. The other thing on my plate is a Morningstar Farms veggie sausage patty - great protein!

We enjoyed brunch around noon time today. It was so great!
Today we discovered that Daisy is as big a fan of Barack Obama as Ben and I are! She enjoyed listening and watching him today on Meet The Press... seriously - isn't this a little strange? She looked at him on the television for a few minutes. I am glad I had my camera to capture the moment!

Around 4pm I had a snack - the last clementine in the house! I will have to get some more this week. They have been my go to snack this week.

What is not pictured are a couple of other snacks I have had today as well. Five Kashi whole wheat crackers and a Holiday sugar cookie left over from the party last night!

I am beginning to think of the Turkey chili that I am going to make for dinner tonight. I will post the recipe if it turns out well!

While I did not get to the gym today, I did spend most of the day cleaning and organizing, so I feel like I have got a bit of exercise! I definitely should have gone for a run this afternoon, but I will definitely get back to the gym tomorrow.

Hope you are all having a great Sunday! I will post more tonight.
So long!

Saturday continued & Holiday party #1 of the season!

2008-12-06T22:10:00.005-05:00

Hi All -
Hope you're all having a great weekend! Ben and I worked on cleaning and picking up the house a bit today. Ben is an amazing person when it comes to picking up and organizing! Our living room looks amazing now, thanks to him.

I had lunch around 2:30 this afternoon. I used our oh so useful toaster oven to make an amazing sandwich! I toasted a whole wheat English muffin, and then melted one slice of reduced fat American cheese on the muffin after toasting it a bit. I then added some of the tuna from yesterday, spinach and a bit of mustard. YUM!

For some reason I put some kettle baked potato chips onto my lunch plate. They were super and made lunch great!

Soon after lunch, Ben and I left for Salem. We spent about an hour and a half walking around the historic district of the town which was soo beautiful. I just loved the historic homes in this town!

Later in the evening we went to our friends Laurie and Trent's home for a holiday party. We listened to very interesting holiday music - has anyone heard of Johnny Bowtie?? Wow - if you ever find a holiday music CD with Johnny Bowtie on it - pick it up and you'll be in for a treat. It's sort of "bad" holiday music - but seriously entertaining!

Laurie and Trent put together a great party!

My plate of goodies includes a handful of kettle corn, sliced apples and pumpkin dip (awesome Laurie!) dark chocolate covered pretzels, a couple of tortilla chips, and a cinnamon graham cracker. I later went back for a helping of an amazing artichoke dip made by my friend Jenny. I cannot believe I forgot to take a picture of it... it was fantastic!

For dinner we had an amazing salad, homemade macaroni & cheese, and a turkey casserole. I tried a bit of all of these, along with a piece of sour dough bread. I did not quite finish the turkey casserole, but I went back for seconds of the salad because it was amazing. Yum.

A little while later we all went back for dessert! Here is what my plate looked like - wow!

The Trader Joe's peppermint cookie was incredible! The chocolate disaster on the top of the plate was a great chocolate cake - I'm not sure what I did when I cut it and put it on my plate! I was trying to make my piece a small sliver - and I succeeded - but made a mess as well! The piece of dessert on the right side was apple cake which was also fantastic! The brownie in the middle might have been good - but I was not able to eat it. I made the brownies, so at least I got to try all of the other dessert options. We actually had to take home a few of the brownies after the party - so maybe I will eat one tomorrow!

Here is a great picture of Ben and his new friend Benny (Laurie and Trent's cute dog!) They got along famously!

Right now we are finally home, from a sort of long day. I am enjoying a mug of tangerine orange zinger tea!

Tomorrow they are calling for snow... our first snow of the season and I'm sort of excited. I love snow on the weekends - when I do not have anything to do and when I do not have to go to work!

Ok, my bloggies - I'm off to bed soon. Have a great night everyone!

A beautiful Saturday morning

2008-12-06T12:06:00.002-05:00

Hi All -

I slept until 9:45 this morning, after a few early morning wake ups...

Once I was up and ready to start my day, I made a bowl of oats. It was an interesting morning in the kitchen. I have a new Calphalon one quart sauce pan, which I am now in love with. However, when you've been using "normal" or less expensive pots and pans most of your life, you have to be prepared for the change over to the new quality of Calphalon products! The water and milk I was heating up for the oats over-flowed while I was making Daisy her breakfast.... so I had a bit of a mess to clean up, and then had to add more water to replace the lost liquid. It all turned out just fine and the oats were amazing as usual.

This morning I topped my bowl of oatmeal with raisins, a couple of semi-sweet chocolate chips, slivered almonds and a spoonful of Teddy's peanut butter. For some reason it looks like a huge glob of peanut butter - but it was actually less than a tablespoon. Weird!

So, after finishing this awesome bowl, and catching up on the other food blogs that I read, Ben and I got ready for our day.

Today we are going to Salem, MA to walk around and enjoy the holiday decorations in the town. I have not been to Salem as an adult, so I am really looking forward to it!

It is now 12:15 on Saturday afternoon, and I'm a bit hungry already. I think I am going to enjoy the banana that was pictured in yesterday's blog since I never got around to enjoying it yesterday!

I will be back either later today or tomorrow to recap the rest of the day. Hope you are all having a great Saturday!!

A belated TGIF!

2008-12-06T11:51:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone -

Well, I'm almost always happy when it is Friday - but this week I am especially celebrating! I cannot wait for the weekend!! Tonight I am planning a trip to the gym to get a little more running in this week. I have packed my bag, and brought it into the office with me today so that my clothes and shoes won't get super cold out in the car today!

So, for a foodie re-cap of the day:

Last night I did not think ahead to pre-set the coffee maker, so when I finally got out of bed this morning I had to make the coffee and wait for it to brew. Bleh. Oh well, it worked out. I took my shower and when I was done the coffee pot was full of hot coffee. Yum! I love our Cuisinart coffee maker. I have had it for a few years, and it is a dream. It has a water filter in it as well - which I think is pretty cool. It's like an internal Brita for your coffee maker! I just have the original Cuisinart coffee maker - because when I was in the market for a new one, I had heard not so good things about the grind and brew model. I am very glad that I went ahead and bought the original model!

Hypothetically you are supposed to eat breakfast within the first half hour of waking up. This is sort of a signal to your body that you are ingesting calories and that you are not depriving your body of fuel. I guess that your body could go into "starvation mode" if you do not have breakfast, and thus your body will not start burning calories. The sooner you eat breakfast, the sooner your bod will start burning calories! I am certainly not an expert on this subject - but it is what I have read recently.

So, this morning I woke up at 7AM and did not actually consume breakfast until 9AM. As I was eating my whole wheat English muffin with a tablespoon of Teddy Peanut Butter, I got to thinking about the fact that I had been up for two hours before consuming anything substantial.

I don't really know what to say about this. But it is something I am going to work on - and I will get back to you.

Having breakfast so late worked out for me because I was not hungry until lunch time at 12:30. I had a lovely looking banana at my desk, just in case I needed a mid morning snack. Hopefully I will get around to eating it for my afternoon snack before my run.

At 11:55 Katherine and I set off for our walk. We walked for half an hour. Today was such a better day for our lunchtime walk! It was sunny and the wind was a lot calmer. We were not walking directly into the wind like we were yesterday. The water was so beautiful - it is a picturesque day out!

Two of my colleagues and I ate lunch at 12:30 this afternoon. Here is what I had:

I actually took the time this morning to make a tuna sandwich and to make my carrot sticks - which I was so happy about at lunch! I put spinach on the sandwich, and really enjoyed the carrot sticks. They really are so much better than baby carrots. I do not know why - but baby carrots always taste sweet to me. Carrot sticks are the real thing - and what I grew up on, since we did not have baby carrots when I was bringing a lunch to school as a kid.

I also enjoyed a bag of kettle baked potato chips. Wow, these were amazing. The flavor was rosemary and olive oil and they were divine!

Unfortunately, after the carrots, chips, spinach, and small tuna sandwich, I was still hungry! When I got back to my desk I enjoyed another clementine and a piece of Dove dark chocolate - and more water!

At around 4 o'clock I needed my pre-work out snack. I had a honey graham Zbar. It really hit the spot.

I left work around 5:30 and was at the gym by 6pm. I ran a really easy 2 1/2 miles and then did a quick arm workout with the weights. I was at the gym for an hour. After the gym, I walked down the street from our house to Newtonville Pizza and ordered a cheese pizza for dinner. It was so nice to relax on Friday night and realize that I had survived the week and I had a lovely weekend ahead!

Unfortunately, I was too exhausted and out of it as I had dinner to remember to take a picture. I had two pieces of cheese pizza - and I put our Trader Joe's red pepper flakes and garlic powder on the pizza which made it perfect! So yummy. When Ben got home from his happy hour, he had a pizza for dinner as well. We relaxed for the rest of the night and watched one of our favorite holiday movies, Home For the Holidays. Unfortunately, I fell asleep in the last twenty minutes or so of the movie, and then slept on the couch for an hour. Thankfully Ben woke me up at 11 to get me to go to bed.

I did not get to posting this blog last night (Friday) so I'm posting today (Saturday morning!) - happy weekend everyone!

Thursday's lunch, dinner & cake!

2008-12-04T22:11:00.005-05:00

Hi All -

Wow, another stressful day at work and by the time I got home I was totally wiped out. I know I would have probably felt better if I had gone to the gym - but I just did not have it in me today! My body was a bit achy, and I was just exhausted when I got home.

But the re-cap of the day continues:

At lunch my friend Katherine and I went for a walk for 15 or 20 minutes. Walking by the water was sooo windy today! It was cloudy, and looking a bit like rain, so we cut the walk a little short. Meh! I wanted to be able to walk for longer, but we had a one o'clock meeting and still had to get something to eat before hand - so we were a bit short of time today. After the walk, Katherine and I split a sandwich - and due to the lack of time, I totally forgot my camera again! I have no idea why I keep forgetting my camera at lunch - it must be due to the constant LACK OF TIME I have been experiencing ALL WEEK!!

Ok, so the sandwich was really good! But I am so glad that we split it. It was a curry chicken salad wrap - and the wrap was whole wheat. Yum. It's my favorite sandwich our caf offers, I think. The curry chicken has a little bit of mayonnaise, I am sure - but it isn't much, thankfully. The other things in the chicken are celery, red grapes (yay!) and walnuts. It is awesome.

The half a sandwich held me over for a while. At 2:30 I had another clementine - soo good.
At 3:30 I finally got to my whole wheat English muffin with a bit of peanut butter. Wow, that kept me full for a really long time - until dinner around 7:45 tonight.

Before dinner tonight, I borrowed a recipe from Tina at Carrots 'n' Cake. It is a holiday cake recipe - and we can now say that we've made it, tried it and loved it. Thanks Tina! I love this cake because there are spices in it! I did follow the recipe - which called for ginger, nutmeg, vanilla and cinnamon... four of my favorite flavors! Check out how our cake turned out:

While the cake was baking, I put some leftovers into the microwave. The chicken & broccoli with brown rice was better today. This looks like a big plate - but that's because it's a lunch plate - not a dinner plate. Just had to clarify for the record!

Along with dinner, I had a glass of milk with a teaspoon of chocolate syrup. I do not like the taste of dairy milk - so I often flavor it with just a little bit of syrup so I can get the protein and calcium!

During Grey's Anatomy Ben and I enjoyed some of our holiday cake with some Friendly's low fat vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Well, it's 10:40 and I'm pretty much ready for bed. I am so hoping that tomorrow will go quickly, so that I can get to the weekend!

I hope you all have a great Friday. See you tomorrow, my bloggies!

Thursday:

2008-12-04T22:05:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone -

This morning I enjoyed yet another new breakfast creation! I am very happy that I went to Trader Joe's last night after working out... it has certainly helped to have some food in the house!

Last night I picked up a container of Trader Joe's plain Greek yogurt. I had not tried the TJ's brand of Greek Yogurt yet - but I had heard from other bloggers (thanks Kath!) that it is quite good. I have to also say that I do not like plain yogurt - but I eat it anyway!

So, this morning I put half a cup of the yogurt in my to go container to start with. I topped it with a drizzle of honey, a dash of cinnamon spice, a palm-ful of granola and some amazing fresh raspberries!! All of the toppings also came from Trader Joe's (but not from last night's shop except for the raspberries - which are amazing!!!)

I ate this creation at 8:30 this morning. The yogurt itself only measured in at between 60 - 80 calories and 12 grams of protein (awesome!) and with the toppings I'm sure it added another 100 calories at least. But that is still a very low cal breakfast for me.

I am pleased that it kept me full until 11am. At that time I had my small banana and a teaspoon of peanut butter with it. This is one of the most satisfying snacks in the world. Super yummy. It's noon now, and I am getting ready to go for a walk. I will certainly be ready for lunch in half an hour - but I am not dying of starvation, which is great.

My lunch choices are still slim at home - and I did not have time to make a tuna sandwich, which is what I really wanted for lunch today. Booo! Tonight I will definitely prepare lunch ahead of time, so I will not be forced to buy another cup of soup at the caf. Luckily today they are serving chicken and vegetable soup, which is usually good. It will go well with the English muffin and clementine I have packed!

I will be back in a bit...

The remainder of Wednesday...

2008-12-03T21:45:00.002-05:00

Hi All-

Well, I'm not sure if there will be any photos tonight and that is too bad - because that is what makes the posts fun! But my photo web tool is seriously acting up - and I can't seem to get the pictures uploaded - UGH!

Anyhow, so the waffles did the trick - I did not get hungry again until about 11:35 this morning... not too bad considering I ate them at 8:30. At that point I ate a few almonds, and they definitely held me over for the hour I had to go before lunch time. The waffles are definitely one of my new favorite options for breakfast - it's always good to mix it up! However, I am hoping that next week (when I get back on track and start getting up at a normal time again!) I will be back to making my daily bowl of AM Oates :) I miss them!

Ok - finally! Here is a picture of the waffles!

And here are the almonds I had as my pre-lunch snack:

Ok, so the pictures are still acting weird - but at least they are here!
The not so good news is that I forgot my camera as I was running to lunch. I had such a busy day today, so much going on - so I definitely didn't have the blog on my mind the whole day - shame on me!
But for lunch I had a cup of soup (our "small" size in the caf) and the soup of the day was a lean beef and veggie soup with just a bit of rice in it. I wish that it had been barley because that would have been awesome - but the rice wasn't too bad either. It was spicy, too which I loved. Apparently eating spicy foods will fill you up quicker than eating bland foods... I read that in a study somewhere recently... but I can't tell you where. If I remember, I'll post it! The soup came with a small whole grain roll (about half the size of your palm) which I ate plain (yay - no butter for me!). I also enjoyed yet another amazing clementine! They are really making my lunches so perfect these days - I am so glad that they are in season once again!

This picture is from the other day - but I just had to add some sort of image for lunch today!

I have to say my lunch was pretty good today. I hardly ever eat beef, so I think I probably scored some extra iron and protein that I would normally miss out on. It was very lean, so there wasn't too much added fat - but the sodium content could be another story all together. I won't go there for now!

When I got back to my desk, I had my post lunch treat - a piece of Dove dark chocolate. I love these little pieces of dark chocolate. Tomorrow I will examine and give you a basic calorie / nutrition break down on a single piece of the chocolate. But I know that I did it once - and I think it came out to about 35 calories for one piece.... I hope I am right about that - because that would be great for a piece of oh so good chocolate! Totally worth it, in my book!

I had my afternoon snack at 3:15 today. It was another awesome vanilla Chobani and peanut butter puffs. It is the most perfect snack in the world. I am not sure - but I think I have to thank Jenna from Eat live run - I am pretty sure I remember reading about this snack back in the day, I just can't believe it's taken me this long to finally try the creation myself!

This snack kept me going until Ben and I ate dinner which was around 8pm tonight! I had such a busy day at work - and then after work, too. I made it to the gym - yippee! It was a lot of fun. Ben and I did weights for the first twenty minutes.... then I went downstairs to run (and break in my new running shoes!) Because it was the first day I was running (or wearing at all) the new shoes, I only ran 1.5 miles today. But the shoes did well! I heart them for sure. After the short run, I went back up to the third floor of our gym and did the bike for ten hard minutes - and then some stretching to warm down. It was a good visit to the gym.

After the gym, I stopped by Trader Joe's and left Ben in charge of ordering dinner. At TJs I picked up some whole wheat English muffins, TJs Greek yogurt, carrots, milk, bananas, pot stickers, raspberries (I cannot wait to have them for breakfast tomorrow!) and some other things that I can't remember right now!

Ben ordered Chinese food for tonight because neither of us had the energy to cook tonight. My order was chicken and broccoli and brown rice. I also had two pieces of scallion pancakes - which were amazing!

Well, it's 10:10 and I am done with the blog, and I have programmed the coffee maker to start doing its thing at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed that I will be able to wake up bright and early!

I do realize that I still have to blog about my great night out with Stephanie and our dinner at Figgs. It was amazing (as always) and a lot of fun. I will definitely get to the pics and all of that fun stuff tomorrow.

Until then, my bloggies, have a lovely night and a great Thursday morning!!

Wednesday - a new discovery

2008-12-03T09:16:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone -

NO pictures this morning, but I wanted to get started with a really quick post. I'm getting everything back on track today if it's the last thing I do! I was able to get up half an hour earlier than yesterday- so that is an improvement (let's not discuss the fact that I set TWO alarms this morning - one at 6:25 and one at 6:35 and I managed to ignore them and get up at 7:25!)

This morning I made a new (and amazing) discovery!! Thanks to one of my best friends (GILL) I tried Kashi Strawberry and Flax waffles a while back. I bought the box, and the first morning I tried them I prepared two with a little bit of Earth Balance and 2 tablespoons of reduced sugar syrup. I was hungry in a couple of hours - and it was a bit of a struggle to make it to 12pm for lunch.

So today I switched up the preparation a bit! I still had two waffles - but instead of EB and syrup I added a little bit of Teddy Peanut Butter to each piece! (It was just under a table spoon of PB) Wow - not only did it taste amazing - but I can tell the extra substance might be able to keep me going for a while - at least until 12:30 today when I'll be able to have lunch. I'll keep you posted! And later (at lunch or tonight) I will post the pictures - yes, I did remember to take them today!

I took the time to pack my gym bag (which is actually one of the super nice bags from LuluLemon, which I love) and brought it to work with me... that way I can go to the gym straight from work - it's the only way to insure that I will get there! I need to run and do some weights - I can't wait to get started!

OK - I hope everyone is having a good start to their Wednesday! Happy hump day!

Tuesday - not yet back in the swing of things...

2008-12-02T16:43:00.008-05:00

Hi Everyone!

Happy Tuesday... for some reason, this is feeling like a really long week to me! But I wanted to get one post up for you today.

SO, this morning (yet again) I was not able to get out of bed at the correct time. What is wrong with me!? I got to work again at 9am.... but I was able to eat breakfast on the run which was a treat! I forgot to take a picture, but I will tell you what I made. It was a Kashi Go Lean protein shake - the vanilla flavor. I was scraping the bottom of the container today, but still had enough to get a great shake and 26 grams of protein! I love this stuff. Two scoops has 220 calories, .5 grams of fat, 33 G carb (ok, so there is a bit of sugar in the mix - but it is cane sugar which makes it a little better!), 7 grams of FIBER and 21 Grams of Protein! The extra protein came from mixing the scoops with skim MILK. (which of course added about 70 calories as well - but still less than a 300 calorie breakfast which is fine on a day that I"m not working out in the morning).

For lunch I had a boca burger sando with whole wheat bread (toasted) and a piece of low fat American cheese (melted via the toaster oven at work!) along with half a cup of spinach on top of the sandwich and a teaspoon of mustard and ketchup. YUM!

After the sando I realized that I needed something else to tide me over until my afternoon snack. Chobani vanilla to the rescue. It was a great day for Greek Yogurt - and I added a few peanut butter Pandas to the top of it. What a treat! This was the best Part II of lunch I have had in a long while.

After lunch I did get outside for a quick ten minutes... it wasn't too cold, and my face needed to see the sun for a few minutes. I hope that I got some vitamin D even though I was only out for such a short time this afternoon! Tomorrow hopefully I will be able to walk at work. Exercise and Sun - you can't beat that combo in December!!

My afternoon snack today was a Blueberry Cliff Zbar. I'm meeting my friend Stephanie for dinner tonight - and we'll probably be eating around 7:30 or 8pm... I'm hoping my snack will be enough to get me to dinner!

I am so excited for dinner tonight! Stephanie and I are going to Figgs on Charles Street and I am sure we will enjoy some sort of amazing Pizza tonight!

Until then, my friends - have a good rest of your Tuesday!

Monday - back to the grind!

2008-12-01T20:41:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone -

Ok, so I've been away for a while! I had a lovely five day "mini-holiday" which was a lot of fun. Thanksgiving was great and the other days were also really fun and relaxing. I did not take pictures of the food I ate over the holiday, which is too bad because there was some great food! Ben and I had Thanksgiving with my family (mom and sister) and we all had a part in preparing food for that day. I did some of the side dishes (green beans, mashed potatoes), my sister did hors d'oeuvres (an awesome spinach dip with Fage Greek yogurt, garlic and water chestnuts!) in a pumpernickel bread bowl and veggies... mom and Ben did the turkey together and my mom made an amazing pumpkin cheese cake for dessert! Wow! Oh, the other things we had are creamed onions, and sweet potatoes that had nutmeg and cinnamon - that was one of my favorite dishes...

After a lot of fun, eating, exercise and reading, today was back to the grind. Ugh! It was so hard to get up this morning. Ben was once again a life savor - up so much earlier than I was, he put started the coffee, thank goodness! If it wasn't for my cup of coffee, I never would have gotten started this morning.

So, I got to work a little later than normal and ended up having breakfast around 9am. I felt the need for some protein, and luckily I had a Pure Protein bar in my bag.

It was the S'mores flavor, and it was good! It kept me going until 12:30 this afternoon when I finally stopped to have lunch.

I had a few errands to run at lunch, and ended up going out to get a salad while I was out and about. It is strange to have a car at work again - and it was so much fun to actually have a productive lunch hour!

The salad I ended up with was fantastic. I do not know what was wrong with my camera at lunch - the photograph is definitely not the best. Sorry guys!

But here is the basic idea of what was in the salad.... broccoli, red pepper, roasted red pepper, orange pepper, cucumbers, carrots, artichoke heart, lettuce, mushrooms, chick peas, sunflower seeds (just a couple) and for a dressing I drizzled a touch of olive oil and then added a bit of balsamic vinegar. Along with the salad, I had a piece of fresh (and so soft!) pita bread - that was also fantastic!

I am guessing that my lunch might not have had enough protein in it.... but it was still amazing. I could not find a good protein item at the salad bar today (especially since I rarely eat cheese). A couple of hours later I was ready for a snack.... I had a fun sized Snickers bar (yikes!) and an amazing clementine.

Wow, the clementine was soo amazing! I really have enjoyed these for the last week (my mom had a ton waiting for us when we got home for Thanksgiving - thanks Mom!)

About an hour later (around 3:30 this afternoon) I did enjoy my second snack... a few almonds.

I find it so hard to get back on track with healthy eating after a holiday!
Today I was rushed in the morning, and it kind of threw me off for the rest of the day. I did not have enough time to pack a lunch, and plan out what I was going to eat for the day. Even though it looks like I've eaten a lot today - I think most of the things I had to eat were a pretty good choice...

I had to work late tonight, and got home after 6pm. Today is my 2 year anniversary with Ben (yay!) and he made us an amazing dinner to celebrate! We had salmon, whole wheat pasta, and spinach for dinner and it was fantastic!

I really enjoyed dinner tonight. Ben makes salmon soo well. I always enjoy how he prepares it and what he pairs it with for dinner.

So, it's Monday and I've finished my blog for the evening. I'm so hoping to get back on track with eating, exercise and the blog this week! Hope everyone is getting back to work, school, life without too much trouble today. Happy December 1st everyone!

A little more inspired...

2008-11-23T19:39:00.003-05:00

Is it really Sunday night already??

Well, I went to the gym this afternoon and ran 3 1/2 miles!! It took me a while, but I did it and I am so glad that I did - it felt great and I still feel awesome now, four hours later. It certainly helped to watch the Patriots game while I was running.

After running I did weights for 25 minutes (leg press, calf exercises and arms). When I got home I ate a small banana right away. After showering and looking around the kitchen for a while, I finally came up with a brilliant idea! I made a boca burger sandwich on two pieces of Trader Joe's fiber Whole Wheat bread. I put the pieces of bread in the toaster oven and melted one piece of low fat American cheese on one side. With a little bit of ketchup and mustard the sandwich was amazing! The picture leaves a bit to be desired, but still - here it is:

Thankfully my other afternoon activity was just as exciting - picking Ben up from the Airport. Yay! He was actually half an hour early - and I was early, too since I used the Massport website to check on his arrival time. Sweet!

On our way home we stopped at Whole Foods where Ben got a "salad" for dinner and I got a piece of pizza - that turned out to be really big (and a great Whole Foods bargain for 2.25!) Ben helped me finish the pizza - it was really good!

To celebrate Ben's home coming I stopped by Bread and Chocolate to see Steve.... and pick up two cupcakes to enjoy later tonight!! I can't wait to enjoy a little bit of each of them!

Well, I'm going to say good night for now. I'll be posting something tomorrow - but I can't promise that it will be too interesting, since I don't have a clue what is for lunch or dinner tomorrow!

Enjoy what remains of the weekend!

Uninspired, yet again

2008-11-23T11:45:00.003-05:00

Hi All -

Well, this is a struggle today! What did I have for breakfast? A bowl of cereal. 3/4 cup of Kashi Vive and a top layer of EnviroKidz Peanut Butter Panda Puffs, with Silk Light Vanilla Soy milk.

For the second day in a row, my coffee didn't taste all that great. I think I've been making it too strong for the 1% milk I've been adding to it... but I'm missing my coffee. I might have to swing by Starbucks to get a latte later today.

Well, I have no idea what I will be having for lunch - but I'm hoping to be inspired to make something that can be popped into the toaster oven

I will definitely be going to the gym for a run and some weights. I wish I could run outside, but the temps are still hovering at about 30 degrees and the wind is so strong. No running for me outside this morning!

Hopefully I will return later today with some truly inspired ideas for lunch and dinner. I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Saturday errands, tuna and tofu!

2008-11-23T11:13:00.004-05:00

Hi All -

Wow was it cold yesterday!! I had a few errands to run, and it was just so cold. Today is supposed to be a few degrees warmer - thank goodness! The other great thing about today is that Ben is coming home!!

Yesterday after the oatmeal, I went to Natick to Bed Bath and Beyond to finally get a toaster oven. I have been wanting a toaster oven for two years (since I moved out of my apartment with Rachel - since we had one there!) so yesterday I picked up a new Cuisinart toaster oven! I can't wait to use it.

After getting the toaster oven and a couple of other things at Bed Bath & Beyond, I went to Petco to pick up some things for Daisy. (dry food, wet food, kitty litter, fun stuff!)

On my way home I stopped by Brueggers which is a pretty good bagel shop. It doesn't compare to H&H Bagels, but for Boston it's a great bagel option. My sister and I just love the Bruegger's tuna sandwich on a bagel - and that is what I got for lunch yesterday. I had cucumbers, tomato, and sprouts on the sandwich on a just baked everything bagel!! It was sooo good. It had been about two years since I had a tuna sandwich from Brueggers and I was so excited to enjoy it!

Needless to say, the sandwich did not let me down. The picture is just of half the sandwich because I ate the first half before I could even get the camera out to take the lunch pictures!! Oops!

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading a fun book by Kristin Gore... Sammy's House. It has been such a fun read for me (as a poli-sci major) and a great follow up to her first book (Sammy's Hill). After reading for a while, I decided to watch some of Season 3 of the West Wing. In particular I was searching out episodes where Mary Louise Parker's character of Amy Gardner was featured. Her character was definitely my favorite on the series. Why could not she have ended up with Josh!?

For dinner I decided to do a semi-stir fry. I cut up a piece of Trader Joe's teriyaki tofu and a cup of broccoli. Since the tofu was already seasoned, I didn't want to add much more to it (and I didn't want to add much more sodium!) but I added a splash of lite soy sauce and a splash of rice wine vinegar mostly to add some flavor to the broccoli. The end result was divine! I also had a side of cold sesame noodles which were fantastic.

A bit later in the evening I made popcorn - but I forgot to take a picture. I assure you it was not that interesting at all.

That is a re-cap of yesterday's food. Even though I had three really good meals, I have to say that I have been feeling uninspired lately. I am going to have to figure something interesting for lunch today and for Monday and Tuesday. I find it challenging to figure these sorts of things out around Thanksgiving - because I do everything in my power to avoid the grocery stores!

More later. Hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday morning!

Saturday Oatmeal

2008-11-22T10:47:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone!

I am happy to report that my camera charger finally arrived. I have no idea why it took Amazon nearly two weeks to get my order to me. Slightly annoying!

So this morning I decided to change the oatmeal around a little bit. The jury is still out on this new invention - but I think it's because I was not exactly sure about the correct proportions.

So, today I made the oatmeal with a cup of Silk light soy milk, a half cup of oats and a 1/3 cup of canned pumpkin. Once it was all cooked up I added a spoonful of Teddy Peanut butter and a couple of dashes of cinnamon. The oatmeal was really thick - due to adding the pumpkin I think.... so I had to add a little more milk, and things went down from there. It tasted good - and it was super filling - I couldn't finish the bowl!

Along with the oatmeal I'm having a strong cup of coffee. I'm very happy to have my camera working again!

Today I will be running a couple of errands and trying to pick up the house a bit. It's been a long week on my own, but Ben is coming home tomorrow - yay!

So here is more of an update of what I have been up to. Yesterday I stopped by Lululemon to pick up my new running pants. They were being tailored for me this week. I am so in love with my new running pants!! I took them to the gym and ran 2 1/2 miles and it was great. I wish I could have run outside last night - but the sun set around 4:30 and it was pitch black and COLD when I got home.

Why is it so cold right now in Boston?? Today with the wind chill they are saying it feels like 9 degrees outside. I hate it! I love winter weather - but this is freezing for November. It's not even Thanksgiving yet!

So, I ran inside at the gym last night and then did some weight training for 20 minute (mostly lower body).

After the gym I stopped by Trader Joes where I picked up tofu, stuffing (for Thanksgiving!) canned pumpkin, milk, and some ZBars for snacks. I realized this week that I was out of Zbars - I had to re-stock!

Last night for dinner I had the rest of the awesome Whole Foods chicken, veggie and rice soup with a good helping of fresh ground pepper and garlic powder. Yum. I also had an Iggy's sour dough roll with a little bit of EarthBalance. A bit after dinner, I had another Kozy Shack rice pudding. Perfect!

So, enjoy the weekend. I will be back from time to time to post now that I am "back on line". Stay warm everyone!!!

A whole week without a post!?

2008-11-21T08:55:00.004-05:00

Hi Everyone -

Just an update since I have gone an entire week without a post. I have no idea why it is taking SO LONG to get my battery charger for my camera - but it has been over a week and a half and I'm getting nervous that it is lost in the mail or something!!

A few basic things. Twice for lunch this week I had salmon salad (canned salmon with a tablespoon of Miracle Whip mixed in) with a half cup of baby spinach on an Arnold sandwich thin. This sandwich is awesome - I love it! The protein keeps me going for hours after lunch. Along with that I had carrot sticks and Goldfish crackers.

Wednesday afternoon my snack was an Apple Pie Larabar. Yum. Tuesday my afternoon snack was an individual container of Kozy Shack rice pudding that I picked up at Whole Foods last week. It was really great - and very filling. It is all natural, and low fat - healthy dessert that tastes fantastic? I'm all about it!

Yesterday I went home sick in the middle of the day. I had a smashing head ache and a soar throat. Yuck. On my way home I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up a container of their chicken, veggie and rice soup. It hit the spot and I am happy to say that I am actually feeling a bit better today. I think it was the combo of the soup and the tea with honey that I immersed myself in yesterday afternoon and evening. I still have half the container of soup left over for lunch today, which I am looking forward to. Luckily I felt well enough to go to work this morning!

As for exercise, I've been a bit of a slacker this week. Monday I went to the gym, Tuesday I spent my "work out time" cleaning our house - which paid off nicely! Wednesday I went for a half hour "fast walk" in the freezing cold (it has only been in the 30s this week in Boston - so cold!) and Thursday my exercise was eating chicken & rice soup.

So, I'm giving the camera battery charger one more day to arrive at my doorstep before I start calling around to see what on earth happened to it. Hopefully I'll be posting tonight with pictures again!!

Happy Friday everyone!

Friday

2008-11-14T13:18:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone -
Happy Friday! I don't know about you, but I am super excited that the weekend is nearly here. On a sad note, my camera battery has died, and the camera charger has been MIA for a couple of weeks. I have ordered another one from Amazon, and it is on its way as we speak... so hopefully I will be able to get back to posting pictures soon!

Even without the pics, I figured I would post a couple of new things today. Today has been a day of new foods so far. This morning I got to work at 7:45 to get a bunch of stuff done, and on my way to my other office (by 9am) I decided to stop at Dunkin' Donuts because I had not had coffee or breakfast yet!

I was craving protein this morning, so I decided to be daring and try the new Dunkin Donuts egg white sandwich. Officially, the sandwich is called the Egg White Veggie Flatbread Sandwich (click to see the nutritional breakdown if you're interested!) and I have to say it was pretty good, and filling. They have another egg white option which is turkey sausage, as well - but I have not tried that one yet. I am impressed with the Dunkin Donut website now - they are noting their "healthier" options with a new logo which reads: "DDSmart". Watch out for sodium and cholesterol content, but for the most part the Smart choices are ok. The egg white sandwiches are a great addition to their menu (lower fat and cholesterol) and I was happy to make this breakfast choice today. The sandwich satisfied my need for protein with 11g! I also picked up a medium black coffee, and I added one tablespoon of light cream to it on my own.

For lunch I tried yet another new item! Last night at the grocery store I found Oikos yogurt and I was sooo excited! This is Stoneyfield's version of Greek Yogurt and I had been dying to try it out. I had never seen it in the stores in New England until last night, so I decided to try the honey on the bottom kind. I had it with my lunch today - and I have to say it was awesome. I loved the honey flavor!! It's a great option to have instead of fruit if you're not in the mood. I have been eating so many strawberry and blueberry Greek Yogurt combos lately, that I was excited for the change. This container was 120 calories, 0 grams of fat and 13 grams of protein! The only down side was that it was sort of pricey at Shaw's last night - $2.00 for one container! The Chobani at Stop and Shop is 4 for $5. I hope the prices go down a bit for Oikos.

In addition to my new found Greek yogurt love for lunch I enjoyed an Arnold's sandwich thin, one tablespoon of Teddy's peanut butter and baby carrots. It was extremely important to have the Greek yogurt to add more substance to my lunch, that's for sure. But all of it together was the perfect combo. Oh - I also had a "fun size" 3 Musketeer bar - which must be mentioned!

That about wraps up what I have had for food today - along with 36 ounces of water so far. I have an apple pie Larabar waiting for an afternoon snack if needed.

I hope everyone is having a great day! Lunch time is over, so it's back to work.

Wednesday food recap -

2008-11-12T21:04:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone:

Wow, this has been a pretty fast week - and having Tuesday off was a huge help in this!

So, this morning I had another bowl of oats. It was really fantastic, actually. I re-hydrated the oats I made on Tuesday with a small amount of 1% milk, and warmed it up in the microwave for 1 minute and thirty seconds. Then I added the toppings I had put together at home this morning... one spoonful of Teddy Peanut Butter, one spoonful of pumpkin butter, a palmful of granola, raisins, and a sprinkle of flax seed. Sound familiar? I know. How boring! But it kept me full all morning. I didn't end up eating lunch until 1:30 this afternoon!

I went for a half hour walk with my friend Becky at lunch time. It was a really nice day out and we actually were warm in our winter-ish clothes. It was sort of a nice surprise. We had a great walk, and it was wonderful to be out in the sun for half an hour, especially now that it is dark by the time we leave work these days.

As I said, I did not end up having lunch until 1:30 this morning. Lunch was good and filling. Here is what I enjoyed:
sandwich with Arnold's whole wheat sandwich thins

3 slices of Boar's Head chicken

1/2 cup spinach

1 t. mustard

1/2 t. miracle whip

Carrots

Whole wheat - honey pretzel sticks

Water

I had an afternoon meeting which was very interesting, and by the time it was over it was 3:45 in the afternoon already! I quickly enjoyed a few grapes that I had brought with me for my afternoon snack - and of course I forgot to take a picture of them!! I only had an hour left of work. I had to leave when my 8 1/2 work day was over because I needed to drop off my car (again) at our mechanic. Fun! But it was another nice walk from the mechanic's to our house.

When I got home it was time to get ready for the gym. I was waiting for Ben to get home, so decided to start the work out early. I did an ab work out for 20 minutes and then did some push ups. After that I was ready for a pre-gym snack. I had a piece of Arnold's healthy multigrain bread, and a small spread of Teddy peanut butter. (Yes, I can't get enough of it)

Ben got home soon after I finished my snack and we were off to the gym. We did weights together for the first twenty minutes and then split up for our cardio. I walked, ran and jogged on the treadmill for 25 minutes and Ben hit the bike. It was a good work out. With the walk at lunch, the abs and the gym, I felt like I had a good exercise day for the books!

When we got home Ben took over in the kitchen. I'll have to post the pics tomorrow because I am done blogging for tonight.

So long everyone! Hope you are all enjoying Wednesday evening.

Healthy meals for under $10?? Yay!

2008-11-12T12:19:00.002-05:00

Hi All -

So yesterday I spent nearly 50 dollars at the grocery store - these days that is soooo easy to do! Before I got out of the produce / natural food section I had already spent $36....

As you might imagine, I was thrilled when I saw my Health.com newsletter appear today with the headline: Healthy Meals for Under $10 (or something like that)

Click here for the link to their article - it is well worth the read. Enjoy - and post a comment if you end up making one of these recipes - let us know how it goes!!

If you're ever stuck at a McDonald's...

2008-11-12T12:16:00.004-05:00

I meant to post this on Sunday! But here are some thoughts about what to do when you're confronted with Fast Food.

On our drive home on Sunday I was confronted with an eating dilemma. We were stopped in Connecticut and the only place we could grab something to eat was McDonald's. I was so annoyed! I had really been trying to hold out for the Mass Pike so that I could get a wrap from Fresh City.... but it was 5pm and the only thing I had eaten today was the big breakfast at Dobbs Diner and a small handful of cashews before we took off on our drive.

I was studying the menu (totally disappointed that they did not have their nutritional information anywhere that I could find) and was preparing to make a choice. My first instinct was to get the basic hamburger. I vaguely remembered reading an article saying that the actual plain hamburger was not the worst thing for you.

But then I saw the Ranch Chicken Snack Wrap. I thought that would be good, too! For some reason, I switched from my gut instinct (hamburger) and got the "snack wrap" (I am pretty sure that the word "snack" made me think it would have a smaller calorie total).

OK, of course part of this decision was my fault. I opted for the crunchy chicken rather than grilled (what was I thinking??) and the snack wrap was very good - although obviously small. Ben got the classic chicken sandwich (crunchy as well) and he did not get fries - yay! His sandwich looked very good, and he liked it. My snack wrap definitely kept me full, until 8pm when we got home.

Once we were home, I turned my computer on, I went to the McDonald's website to check the nutritional information of what I had eaten at our pit stop today. My snack wrap was 340 calories and 17 grams of fat (4.5 saturated fat!) and 14 grams of protein. The hamburger would have been a smarter choice (I should have stuck with my gut instinct). The hamburger was only 250 calories, 9 grams of fat (3.5 sat) and 12 grams of protein. I am not going to dwell on this. But at least next time I'm stuck at McDonalds, I will know enough to get the hamburger - or wait for Fresh City !

Once I was settled in, back at home, I got a snack for myself. I made one piece of whole wheat toast with Teddy's peanut butter, a small banana and a glass of 1% milk. It was the perfect snack / meal.

Tuesday

2008-11-11T20:01:00.003-05:00

Hi All -

Today was a nice day off from work. I accomplished quite a bit. I was able to sleep in until 9:15 this morning which was nice.

I got up, watched CNN, made oatmeal and coffee and eventually got out the door for a nice walk. My oatmeal was nice this morning. I made it with soy milk instead of water, which made it creamy. I added pumpkin butter, a spoonful of Teddy peanut butter, ground flax seed, and a palmful of granola to add some crunch. I ate at the oatmeal around 10am and did not have another thing to eat until 4pm!! That was quite a long stretch of no hunger. Very unusual for me.
I met Ben in Newton Centre for an early lunch.... but unfortunately, I only sat with him because I was not hungry at all when we met up! We went to PIE right in the middle of Newton Centre. Ben had a mac & cheese pie and I had a couple of bites. The consistency of the pie was amazing. I have no idea why I didn't actually take a picture of it.
But I did take a photo of the Nantucket Nectar juice I enjoyed while sitting with Ben. It was a pom / pear mix. I had one serving of the juice (there are always two per bottle) and Ben had the rest of it.

As I said, I had lunch around 4 this afternoon. That was such a strange time to eat, and it's sort of messing me up for the rest of the night. After meeting up with Ben I walked around and shopped for four hours! It was great to get so much walking in. Once I was home, I had quite a few bags. Two of them were from the grocery store, one was from Crate and Barrel, one from Sephora (gift cards for friends - no make up for me!), a bag from City Sports, and the last was from the Container Store (with my 2009 Filofax refill!) - but I didn't need a bag just for that, so it was lumped in with my City Sports stuff.

For lunch I had a sandwich on Arnolds sandwich thins. It was yet again, Buffalo Chicken by Boars Head. Yum. More spinach, one slice of Sargento pepper jack cheese, and yellow mustard. I had some baby carrots (the normal carrots looked really bad at the grocery store today) and some goldfish crackers.
I have been really feeling uninspired lately, and was struggling to come up with an interesting lunch. Sorry everyone.

Ben came home after work with some great things from Whole Foods. He had two Pomegranates, some kiwi fruits, and a whole wheat baggett. We had a lot of fun preparing the pom - but here is a hint. When you are preparing a pomegranate, do not wear your good clothes! We definitely stained our shirts a little bit today! Oh well, it was a lot of fun. Here is the end result:
We also enjoyed some of the baggett with garlic hummus.
I have not had anything officially for dinner yet. I am not sure if I will be having anything else, but will report if I do!

Monday again!?

2008-11-11T19:42:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone -

Well, I never got around to the Blog yesterday! But it was a pretty good Monday - mostly because I knew that I had Tuesday off, and thus did not have a long week ahead of me.

Monday started off with a bowl of Kashi Vive cereal with six ounces of Silk light vanilla soy milk. I really like this Kashi cereal. I like the texture and the flavors - they all work well together. I ate this cereal at 7:30 AM and it kept me full until 12:15 when I had lunch.

For lunch I had a peanut butter & jam sandwich because I did not have time to go to the grocery store on Sunday night. Teddy peanut butter is sooo good, I love it. It really made the sandwich special! I also enjoyed a strawberry Chobani yogurt, and a few Goldfish crackers.

I had a busy day at work, so I'm glad that my lunch was satisfying. It kept me going through out the afternoon. At 3:30 I had a Kashi granola bar which got me through until dinner.

After work Ben and I both went to BSC to work out! It was great to have Ben go with me. We did our weight training together (over half an hour). I also did 25 minutes of the elliptical machine, and Ben biked. After working out, we treated ourselves to the Whole Foods salad bar. Yum.

My salad contained lettuce, broccoli, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, green, orange and yellow peppers, plain tuna, one hard boiled egg, tofu, and sesame noodles with cashew nuts. It was a fantastic combo! The protein helped fill me up.

Oh - and after the salad, I made No Pudge Brownies. I had one last night with one scoop of Byers vanilla bean ice cream. It was fantastic! I had a chocolate craving, and the no pudge brownies were the way to go.

That is a recap of the day.

Sunday in Dobbs

2008-11-09T14:23:00.004-05:00

Sunday, Sunday. The sun is out and it is just beautiful outside today! Quite a change from yesterday's rain and dreary skies.

Ben and I woke up around 9:00 this morning. I was able to get Ben to go for a walk with me around the neighborhood - and we walked for about forty minutes. It was a great walk, it was cool and sunny - and the leaves still looked wonderful. We saw a few Japanese Maple trees on our walk, which are some of my favorite trees. There are a lot of hills in town, which Ben and I definitely walked up our share of this morning! I could feel my legs getting a good work out.

After our walk we took Lara to one of our favorite local hang outs - The Dobbs Diner. Yum. It was definitely loud this morning with a lot of families with young kids. We didn't do much talking, but we did a good amount of eating .

I ordered an egg white omelet with broccoli and cheddar cheese. I asked the kitchen to go light on the cheddar cheese - and the result was near perfection! I also had a side of whole wheat toast and turkey bacon. Oh - and the omelet came with home fries which I ate a bit of. Everything was fantastic.

It is 2:30 in the afternoon now, and breakfast is still holding me over!

I'm going to sign off for now to enjoy the last hour or two in Dobbs. I hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday!

Saturday in the City

2008-11-09T12:26:00.010-05:00

Hi All -

Yesterday for breakfast I had half a bagel, grapes and a tangerine. There were also muffins out for breakfast, but I decided to go with the fruit and bagel. Sigh. Lara had the brilliant idea of adding peanut butter to her half of the bagel we split, but it was early, and I was not thinking - but I definitely could have used the peanut butter for an extra bit of protein!

Ben, Lara and I had a great time in the city yesterday! We did not get into the city until about 2:30 or 3pm - we did have a great, leisurely morning and it was well worth it. We started the afternoon at the Morgan Library, which I had always wanted to go to. I was so excited because the Morgan had an exhibition entitled Drawing Babar. I loved reading the Babar stories when I was growing up. This exhibit was so perfect - I enjoyed seeing the creative process that Jean de Brunhoff and later his son, Laurent used in creating the stories that I appreciated so much.

After leaving the land of Babar, we explored a smaller exhibit on John Milton's Paradise Lost. It was so amazing to see some of the manuscript from the 1660s on which Milton wrote the lines that made up Paradise Lost. It makes me want to go back and read more of the poem...

After leaving the Morgan, we walked a couple of blocks to the Ginger Man pub on 37th Street @ Madison. It was 4:30 in the afternoon, and we hadn't had food since breakfast! We were all pretty hungry.

We all decided to start off with a Ginger Man beer, which was pretty good! I drank about half of mine and gave the rest to Ben.

We studied the menu for a long while before making up our minds. I ordered a cup of lentil soup and a baked potato that came with cheddar cheese and bacon. (seriously!?) Ben and I splint the potato - thank goodness. The lentil soup was good, but it definitely had pork or sausage in the soup, which I thought was a little strange. I ate around the meat, and enjoyed the lentils and veggies.

After enjoying our lunch we walked around the city for a while. It had been raining all morning and afternoon, but the weather had started to clear up around 6pm! It is always fun to walk around New York. I am already busy planning my next trip - I have to go to MOMA and the Met soon and perhaps the Museum of Natural History.

I was a bit sad that I did not get to my favorite New York bagel shop - H&H Bagels. Yum. They serve their bagels FRESH and HOT and they are fantastic. I love their everything bagel!

We got back to Dobbs Ferry around 8pm and we all went out to dinner with Ben and Lara's aunt and uncle. It was a really cool restaurant in Hastings - on - Hudson called Maud's Tavern. Ben had a turkey burger, Lara ordered mussels and I enjoyed a garden salad which was fantastic! I actually ate the entire thing, which surprised me. It was one of the best garden salads I have had that I can remember.

We went home and watched the movie Iron Man on Blu-Ray! It was the first Blu-Ray movie I have ever seen, and it was amazing. I felt like the actors were in our living room - as Ben said, it was a little freaky! But soo cool. Around 10:30 I snacked on a package of peanut butter crackers I had left over from our Get out the Vote effort in New Hampshire last weekend. They really hit the spot.

We all got to bed a bit late last night, but I feel really well rested today. We have had a really fun weekend. I am so excited about this week at work - I have work tomorrow and then Tuesday off for Veterans Day. I sort of love having a day off in the middle of the week. I'm going to use it for going to the gym and the market. I plan to make some sort of soup and homemade bread that Ben and I can enjoy for the rest of the week... we shall see how that turns out!

So long for now. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend, too!

Friday

2008-11-08T10:51:00.005-05:00

Hi Everyone -
I don't know about you, but I am so glad that the weekend is finally here!

Yesterday I woke up and had a desire to get to work early so that I could leave a little earlier and get home to pack for New York. I ended up getting into the office at 7:55 and in order to do that, I skipped packing lunch and breakfast for myself...

For breakfast I thought I would try one of Rachel's yogurts. I'm not exactly sure what went on during this taste test - but it didn't go all that well. I had just brushed my teeth before leaving the house, and I was starving when I got to my desk. I opened up the Rachel vanilla chai and dug into it. It did not taste very good at all! The date on the yogurt was November 7.... and I was worried that perhaps the yogurt had already turned bad. I actually think it had a lot more to do with the fact that I had brushed my teeth. Ew. I threw the yogurt out, which was really sad. Instead I went down to the caf and bought an onion bagel. Ugh.

Lunch was a lot better than my breakfast failure. My colleague and I decided to walk down to the college caf that is on our "campus". They have a decent salad bar that is actually fairly priced! I was being really careful to not go over board on my salad selection, because I only had $7 with me. When I got to the check out, I was blown away by the fact that my salad only cost $3.75 - pretty amazing.

In the salad I had plain tuna (instead of the tuna salad they also had at the salad bar which looked like it had quite a bit of mayonnaise) chick peas, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, croutons, and "Mexican rice" (which had roasted red pepper, black beans and rice mixed together). I used a bit of balsamic vinegar as a dressing. The salad was great except for the cherry tomatoes I had added. I ate one, and the taste was not very good at all, so I did not eat the rest of them.

If I had known that the salad bar would be so affordable, I would have definitely made myself a bigger salad for lunch. I would have added more tuna for protein. (It's too bad the salad bar didn't have hard boiled eggs or egg whites as an option!) After eating the salad I did have, I was still hungry. Unfortunately, I splurged and gave into my baked goods craving... I saw the most amazing M&M cookie on my way out of the college caf - and I just had to have it!

At four in the afternoon, I was hungry again. What I really wanted was a latte from Starbucks. But since I was still at work, I opted for a peanut butter Kashi granola bar. I sort of love these things because they have a good amount of protein and fiber (4g fiber, 7g protein). They keep me full for a long time and there are only 140 calories per bar.

I left work at 4:30 to head home and pack for our weekend trip to New York. I don't know what I was thinking when I packed my clothes, but I realized today that I had nothing that made any sense! Ugh. Oh well. I'll be wandering around New York in my running shoes (that I never do anything other than run in), jeans and I'm not sure what else. A hodgepodge of things will be thrown together, no doubt.

Ok, I have to get going - so I'm going to hit "publish" for now. More later, I'm sure!

Friday Morning

2008-11-07T08:13:00.002-05:00

HI All-

I have to apologize for not keeping up with the blog this week. I've been so exhausted after the election... On Wednesday I went to sleep at 7:45 and did not even have dinner!

But to recap Wednesday's food: I had another bowl of organic oats, this time with pumpkin butter and a spoonful of Teddy's peanut butter (wow, I had forgotten how good that stuff is!) and that kept me full until lunch time. For lunch I had another Arnold's sandwich thin with Buffalo Chicken, hummus, mustard and spinach (noticing a trend for the week?) and a snack baggie of 20 goldfish crackers. My Wednesday afternoon snack was a small piece of German Chocolate cake - yum! On Wednesday after lunch, I took a twenty minute walk - and it was leisurely. While I didn't get my heart rate up too much, it was still nice to be outside and getting some fresh air!

Thursday's breakfast was exciting! I had Kashi Vive cereal for the first time! I had a bowl of that with 1% dairy milk. The cereal was great, I can't wait to have it again. It has lots of fiber and protein (and even more when you have it with milk!) I loved it. The cereal has a vanilla and graham cracker flavor to it.

I was barely hungry at 12:15 when it was time for lunch - but once I started preparing my sandwich I realized that I was ready for lunch. I didn't mix things up too much, but just enough to not get sick of my sandwich.... I had the last of the buffalo chicken on an Arnold's sandwich thin... but this time I took advantage of the toaster oven. I toasted the bread, with one slice of Sargento's pepper jack cheese - just enough so that the cheese got melty. Then I put the chicken and spinach on the sandwich and enjoyed. It was super good! I also had cheddar goldfish (shocking!) My afternoon snack was a strawberry Chobani yogurt. And then I enjoyed a "fun size" 1000 Grand candy bar. I realize that I shouldn't have, but it was really good and it certainly hit the spot after a long day at work.

The other thing about yesterday is that even though I had taken the time to pack my gym bag, I wasn't able to get to the gym. We were having car trouble yesterday, and I had to be available to pick Ben up from work if our car was not working.... So, it was not the best time to go to the gym right after work. Thankfully he did get home without a problem.

After work I had a snack of garlic hummus and whole grain baked chips. There weren't very many chips left in the bag (left over from election night!) thank goodness! We did end up ordering pizza (since it was Thursday night!) - we ended up getting pepperoni and green pepper. What a good combo. I had three slices and a glass of light vanilla soy milk for dinner.

Well - it is Friday morning - yay! I am really excited for the weekend to get here. Ben, Lara and I are going down to New York to see family this weekend. It should be a lot of fun, and relaxing.

Hopefully I will be able to update one more time before we hit the road.
Happy Friday everyone!

Election day - nervous eating!?

2008-11-05T18:16:00.008-05:00

Oh my goodness - well, it's the day after the election and I am exhausted!! I was so stressed out yesterday that I was expending all of my energy hoping that everything would work, and when I finally heard that Obama had reached 270 - all of the stress left my body! I feel like all will once again been right in the world.

I woke up super early on Tuesday, because I was so excited to start the day - and to get out the door to vote! But before I left to vote, I took the time to make my organic oatmeal - and decided to have breakfast at home. I made two servings (one for Wednesday!) and I used one cup of light vanilla soy milk, and 3/4 cup of water and one cup of oats. The new oatmeal took a little longer than I thought it might, but it was great and worth every moment it took to cook! I put a tablespoon of pumpkin butter, a bit of cinnamon, and a spoonful of almond butter on top of the oats. I had raisins, but forgot to add them!

I got out the door by 7:05 and went to vote. Even though I got to our polling place at 7:10 in the morning, ten minutes after the polls had opened, I stood in line for at least half an hour. It was the first time in my entire life I had to stand in line to vote! How exciting it was. It was the perfect start to a great day.

For lunch I had another Arnold's sandwich thin with Boar's Head buffalo chicken, baby spinach, garlic hummus, and mustard. I also had a snack bag of cheddar goldfish crackers. Yum! The lunch was really good.

Before I actually ate my lunch, I went for a 40 minute walk with two of my colleagues at work. It was such a beautiful day outside! It was in the upper sixties, and I was hot as we went on our "fast walk". It was a great way to get rid of some of my nervous energy!!

After lunch settled, I got back to work for a while. Soon enough, a couple of hours after lunch, I was hungry again. I decided to have the Macintosh apple that was left in my lunch bag. We had bought the apples a couple of weeks ago, but the apple was still fantastic! The perfect afternoon snack. My friend Mara was also hungry - and I introduced her to the Cliff Zbar. I gave her the blueberry one, and she liked it.

Shortly before I left to go home for the day, I ran into a special treat that my friend Jenny had brought to work. It was a pizza cookie! Something I had never heard of. I walked by our coffee pot, and saw this huge baked cookie... I stared at it for a minute, trying to figure out what exactly it was. Then I took the knife and cut myself a little piece to try. Wow, was it good. It was like a huge baked cookie (but really thin, like thin pizza crust) with chocolate frosting over it and lots of things sprinkled on top - including dark M&Ms and peanut butter chunks!! I had to go back upstairs to my office to retrieve my camera, because I thought this deserved a picture. Here it is:

I left work around 4:30, I think... I was soo nervous at that point! I could not wait to get home and see if there was any news being reported about voting, etc. But when I got home, it wasn't quite dark out so I decided to go for a walk in my neighborhood. I ended up walking down to the polling place again. I talked with some of the people holding signs, and by 5pm 60% of the people in our area had already voted! What a turn out - and the polls were still open for three more hours. My walk turned out to be over 20 minutes (one hour of cardio for the day) and it was dark when I got home.

I had to start preparing for the election night family get together. I had snacks from Trader Joe's. Lara was in charge of veggies and she brought an amazing onion dip that she made with plain Greek yogurt - it was awesome! My mom brought the main course - Chicken a la King - a family classic. Here is a picture of the spread we had (before the main course was brought out!) The four of us had so much fun watching the results come in.

Ben and I did not go to sleep until about 2:30 in the morning. Wow. I'm still exhausted just thinking about the long (and happy) day we had yesterday. I am going to bed super early tonight - in hopes to catch up on some sleep!

A case of the Mondays

2008-11-04T09:14:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone:

Sorry I did not get around to posting yesterday. I had a severe case of The Mondays. But, I wanted to let you all know about how the day went - and I will post the pictures later today.

For breakfast I had a bowl of Enviro Kids Organic Peanut Butter Puffs, with a banana and soy milk. It was a really good cereal and it kept me full until lunch. I was a little hungry before Noon yesterday - but I chalked that up to Daylight Saving Time ending on Sunday. At noon it really felt like 1pm to me, and that equals a late lunch!

For lunch I had a pretty awesome sandwich. I had Boar's head buffalo chicken on an Arnold's Whole Wheat sandwich thin (only 100 calories!) with garlic hummus, mustard and half a cup of baby spinach. Yum! I also splurged and consumed an amazing bag of homemade / natural potato chips - Route 11 Sour Cream and Chive flavor. Wow, were they good!

My afternoon snack was a new flavor of Chobani - Peach! It's not new to the market, but it was the first time I tried it. It was great!

After work, I went to the gym. I did the ET for 31 minutes with a high resistance (between 7 - 13 the entire time). After the cardio, I did a quick round of weights for 15 minutes. I concentrated on my legs for this session.

After the gym, I went to Trader Joe's for what was supposed to be a quick and small shop to get some supplies for our election party tonight! However, I ended up spending $45 and got a great selection of stuff!

For dinner I made TJ's pot stickers, steamed broccoli and brown rice. Dinner was sooo good, we ate around 8pm and I was starving! Everything on my plate worked really well together - a great combo!

Around 9pm I finally satisfied the ice cream craving I had been suffering from for days. I had two scoops of Breyers vanilla bean with light chocolate syrup on top! It was perfect.

Ok, that was a quick re-cap of yesterday's food.

Article from New York Times

2008-11-03T13:29:00.002-05:00

Hi All -

I don't know about you, but I am having a case of "The Mondays" and I don't think the time change has helped.

But for a post - lunch read, I wanted to share this cool article from the New York Times and Jon Meacham:

Essay
How to Read Like a President
By JON MEACHAM
Published: November 2, 2008
You can tell a lot about a presidential candidate by the books he reads, or says he reads.

Enjoy! I will post more tonight about food and exercise!

Sunday, Nov. 2

2008-11-02T20:49:00.005-05:00

Today is Sunday.
Normally, I love Sundays. Sunday is one of my favorite days of the week. My political shows are on, The Sunday New York Times is for sale, I can run outside during daylight, and it's overall a relaxing day.

However, this Sunday was a crazy day as we were volunteering to "Get out the Vote" in New Hampshire. During this really long day, I hate to say food was not my #1 priority. I had a free bagel in the morning (plain - no butter, no cream cheese - just a grab and go!), and ended the day with a McDonald's cheeseburger and a few french fries (ugh). After a long day of walking around in neighborhoods, the burger did taste pretty good!

By the time we were back home, I was ready to get the eating back on track. For dinner, I had another bowl of the Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper soup. This time I added a small handfull of low fat mozzarella cheese, and ate the soup with a slice of the Arnold's high fiber bread.

An hour later, Ben made Annie's mac & cheese, and I had a small bit of that as well.

After getting back from our day trip to New Hampshire, we were sort of productive. Ben took the air conditioner out of our bedroom window - which might let our room be a little warmer to sleep in tonight! I did two loads of laundry, so I can start off the week on a good note. I had to dig around a lot in my clothes to find my running socks.... I had managed to lose almost all of them. I am so excited that I found (and washed!) all of the socks. I am ready to hit the gym after work tomorrow - I need my gym time tomorrow!

For a quick FYI about running socks! If you have problems with blisters (which I do) here is one simple way to remidy the situation... never wear cotton socks when you run! I have about ten pairs of my special running socks that are made of CoolMax material. They keep your feet dry, and usually blister free. I also love socks that are seamless when I am running. I'm very picky when it comes to my socks and running shoes!

OK, well it's 9pm and it would normally feel like 10pm with the clocks going back last night. But after our day - it feels more like 1 AM and I'm heading for bed shortly! I cannot wait to get back on track with eating and exercise tomorrow!

Saturday Re-cap: Lululemon!

2008-11-02T16:55:00.006-05:00

Hi All -

Wow, it is Sunday evening and I cannot believe the weekend is over. It was sort of an up and down weekend. It was super busy, and I am still trying to get more things done now.

Saturday started out well. I woke up pretty early and started the day off on a good foot. I made an egg white omelet and a piece of Arnold's high fiber bread and consumed a couple of cups of coffee. Ben and I went for a nice walk around the neighborhood. It was pretty warm out - around 60 degrees (not bad for November 1st!).

We then took my Volkswagen to the car wash and after that went to the New Balance Outlet in Brighton. Ben got a new pair of his favorite sneakers and I did not find anything that fit my feet well. I have been wearing Sacony running shoes lately.... after ten years of wearing Asics. I still wear my Asics for walking around, and I still love Asics - but after so many years, it was time for my feet to change into a new shoe for running.

On our way back we stopped at the grocery store and I scanned my way through a succuessful shopping trip. I am really excited to try the new Rachel's Yogurt I found. I had read about this stuff on one of the other blogs (I think it was Jenna's - but it was such a long time ago, I can't be positive). The two flavors I could find at the market were Calm: Plum Honey Lavender and Relax: Vanilla Chai . I can't wait to try both of them - and I'll report back when I do. But don't the flavors sound just lovely?? I am so glad (and surprised!) I found them at Stop & Shop!

A few of the other cool things I picked up at the store are:

Arnold's Multigrain Sandwich Thins.
Chobani Strawberry non-fat greek yogurt
Boar's Head buffalo chicken
Silk Light Vanilla Soy Milk
Kashi Vive cereal
Sargento pepper jack cheese
Snyder's of Hanover Multigrain Chips (French Onion)
Raisins
Carrots
Spinach
Cucumber

Soon after we got home from the market, I had to start getting ready for our evening downtown. We had decided to go to the Pru for some shopping.... We first went to a sports bar at Copley so we could enjoy the Iowa football game - unfortunately, they ended up losing to Illinois. Ugh.

We were both especially excited to go to the grand opening of lululemon! It was the store's grand opening weekend at the Prudential Mall. We got to the store after the football game, just in time for cupcakes and coco! We ran out of time at the store, so I have to go back soon to find myself a new pair of yoga pants... I can't wait! I did get a new top for running, and a couple of other things. Lululemon is a super fun store to shop in - I am glad we have one at the Pru now! Oh - and by the way, the cupcakes at Lululemon were tiny and amazing! I had a vanilla cupcake when I first went into the store, and when I left with my purchase, I saw a red velvet cupcake and could not resist it! They were both amazing. Yum.

Ben and I then went to Logan airport to pick up Ben's cousin Lara. She was returning from a two month internship in Washington, DC. It is great to have her back in Boston! We picked her up, and took her back to her new apartment. Soon enough we realized that it was 8:30, and none of us had eaten dinner! We decided to order from Cafe Nicholas. We decided to order a medium Margherita pizza, a garden salad and mozzorella sticks!! I cannot remember the last time I had a mozzorella stick - but I have to say, they were sooo good! The pizza was amazing - with a lot of fresh basil and great mozzorella cheese. We also enjoyed a glass of pinot noir, that went really well with our dinner. I also drank three glasses of water - because I had been really slacking on my water in take for the entire day, and it was catching up with me.

It was a late night, and Ben and I ended up getting home around 1AM - and then we realized it was the end of Daylight Saving Time - and it was really just midnight.... We were still exhausted though!

Halloween!

2008-10-31T19:18:00.009-04:00

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...

2008-10-30T21:05:00.008-04:00

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!

2008-10-30T20:40:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-30T19:54:00.007-04:00

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

2008-10-30T12:53:00.002-04:00

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!

2008-10-28T20:23:00.008-04:00

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!

2008-10-28T16:02:00.001-04:00

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!

2008-10-27T19:56:00.008-04:00

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

2008-10-26T19:21:00.007-04:00

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

2008-10-26T10:34:00.009-04:00

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

2008-10-26T09:45:00.003-04:00

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!

2008-10-25T09:07:00.006-04:00

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!

2008-10-24T12:25:00.006-04:00

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

2008-10-24T09:20:00.003-04:00

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

2008-10-23T13:50:00.005-04:00

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!

Wednesday Night

2008-10-23T13:42:00.003-04:00

Hi Everyone -

I had to let you all know about the dinner I made last night. It was a pretty basic thing, but for some reason it was just sooo good! I decided to make whole wheat pasta (penne) and for the sauce, I browned up a pound of ground turkey, drained it and then mixed in a jar of TJ's tomato sauce. It was what I was craving, and it was pretty darn good! Ben had seconds - which is always a good sign that the meal went over well.

On Wednesday night I was exhausted. I ended up going to sleep really early, and unfortunately did not make it to the gym. Ugh. At least dinner was a success! The turkey was just great with the tomato sauce (which had mushrooms and peppers in it already). While I was cooking up the turkey, I added garlic powder, onion powder (both sodium free!) as well as oregano and basil. It helped flavor things up just a bit! The turkey was really lean at 93 / 7 ratio (the best I could find at the store that day!) but I still drained the meat in a strainer when it was done cooking - before I added the tomato sauce. Other than that, it was a simple and quick dinner!

Wednesday

2008-10-22T12:42:00.004-04:00

by Heather

Hi Everyone - Happy Hump Day!

Unfortunately, I am having quite a crazy day! I forgot my wallet and my camera this morning.... so I can report on what I am eating, but no photos!

Ben and I ended up driving down to Providence last night because the concert Ben thought he had in Boston was actually in Providence - and the Boston concert is tomorrow night! By the time we figured all of this out, I only had time to throw together last week's New Yorker and my clothes for today... no time to think about what I was having for breakfast or lunch today.

Ben dropped me off at my mom's house and went off to the concert. I read my magazine and ended up having popcorn for a late dinner / snack... not very healthy! The good news is that the salmon sandwich kept me really full for several hours, thank goodness!

This morning I really lucked out. I felt like I was back in middle school again - because my mom packed my lunch for me! She packed a turkey sandwich, with lettuce, tomato and a special mustard. She also had a variety of Stoneyfield yogurts in the refrigerator, I picked out the fat free blueberry. The two items made up my lunch today.

For breakfast my mom packed a slice of her famous chocolate chip pumpkin bread... I will post the recipe as soon as I get it from her. You can make the recipe without chocolate chips - and it is just as good! I think mom started putting the chocolate chips in it when we were a little younger, and because we never had "treats" in the house - the bread was really special with the chocolate chips. I love her pumpkin bread with or without chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, etc. and it is also wonderful just plain!

Well, I guess that is all I have for now. Sorry there are no pictures - but the food today was pretty basic. Now I have to figure out how I am going to make it home from work without my subway pass - hopefully I will be able to borrow $2 from one of my friends.

See you all later. I think for dinner Ben and I are having whole wheat pasta, with a tomato meat (turkey!) sauce. Yum!

Tuesday - A Day Off!!

2008-10-21T16:34:00.005-04:00

Hi Everyone -
I'm so happy to report that today I have a scheduled day off from work - and I am loving it! I knew that we would not be getting home until super late from Monday Night Football (the traffic around Gillette Stadium is infamous!) and I was correct - we were home at 3 in the morning!

Unfortunately, I did not wake up until 10:30 this morning, and when I did it was a struggle to get up! I finally managed to get out of bed at 10:45... I was definitely ready for breakfast! I realized that there were two whole wheat pancakes left in the refrigerator. I put the pancakes in the toaster oven, and they heated up perfectly! I added light syrup and a touch of Earth Balance on top and enjoyed them with a huge mug of Morning Thunder tea. Perfect!

I went to the gym in the afternoon where I did 40 minutes of cardio. I did twenty minutes of walking, jogging and running on the treadmill for a warm up. Then I moved upstairs to weights where I did legs, biceps and triceps. The total weight workout was about 25 minutes. After strength training, I did 20 more minutes of cardio on the elliptical machine. Fun stuff.

After the gym, I went to the grocery store to stock up on things for the week. It was a pretty basic shop, and I was pleased to see that Stop and Shop had plenty of Chobani today! I even picked up one new flavor to try, peach. I promise to report back once I have tried it.

For lunch I took a page out of Jenna's lunch menu via Eat Live Run. When I was at the market this afternoon, I picked up a can of boneless, skinless salmon to make "salmon salad." I had forgotten the relish, but mixed the salmon up with a tablespoon of Miracle Whip, and it still came together nicely. I toasted two pieces of Great Harvest honey wheat bread, put a bit of hummus and yellow mustard, spinach and tomato to complete the amazing sandwich!

Along with a handful of Sun Chips, a few baby carrots and a glass of seltzer it was a wonderful lunch. (Oh, and if I am being honest - which I am - I did go back for another handful of Sun Chips...!)

Since I did not end up having lunch until 4:30 in the afternoon, I have no idea what Ben and I will do for dinner! But I will be sure to report back later.

Monday Night Football - and a day of food

2008-10-21T13:09:00.008-04:00

Hi Everyone:

I hope you all survived Monday! My morning started off a bit "off" as I waited for the commuter rail for an extra ten minutes, and over all the train was about 20 minutes late to South Station - which made me over 25 minutes late to work - not a great way to start off the week!

While I was on the train, I was starving. Thankfully I had a Zbar with me - so I ate that while on the train. When I got to work, I did not have the rest of my breakfast right away. But around 9:45 Monday morning, I fixed my TJ's blueberry oatmeal. It was quite good - and because I had the Zbar earlier in the morning, I didn't add anything to the oatmeal today. I was good until lunch at 1pm!

Lunch on Monday felt more like a picnic, which certainly was fun! I had done a pretty good job of packing my lunch, especially because did NOT pack the night before! I had carrots, Kashi crackers, roasted red pepper hummus, Chobani strawberry yogurt, an apple (which I ended up eating later in the day) and a slice of Great Harvest bread prepared with melted low fat string cheese. Between the Chobani, cheese and bread I had a good amount of protein and dairy. It was a fun lunch to eat!

I left work a little after 5PM to meet Ben, my sister and her roommate at South Station where we headed out to Foxboro for Monday Night Football. I was sort of hungry on the car ride. But I had packed a couple of snacks - the one I settled on was a handful of trail mix: raisin, almond, cashew and dark chocolate. It definitely kept me going!

At around 9pm I left my seat at Gillette in search of food / dinner. I walked around for quite a bit because I wanted to get something interesting - and there were a lot of "standard" choices. I ended up getting a burrito, that I shared with Ben.

The burrito had chicken, rice, a small amount of sour cream and cheese (I asked the lady to only add a small amount of both) and salsa. The result was a pretty good burrito - but it obviously didn't compare to Anna's! But I certainly enjoyed it.

We ended up leaving the game just a couple of minutes early... but it certainly did not help us in getting a head start on the traffic! We got to the car at about 11:35 and didn't get home until 2:45 in the morning!! I am so glad I had arranged to take the day off today!

Well, there is a recap on Monday! I'm heading to the gym now - but I will return to talk about food, etc. for today!

Breakfast for Dinner!

2008-10-19T20:54:00.004-04:00

Hi All -

Hope everyone had a nice Sunday. Ben and I had a very productive day, running errands and getting ready for Monday Night Football! We are super excited to go to the Patriots game tomorrow night. Ben is especially excited, being from Colorado and seeing as the Pats are playing the Broncos! The two teams that Ben cheers for are playing each other... and I guess the same goes for me since I like watching the Broncos as well.

We did a lot of errands today, and got almost everything we needed at Target which is a nice thing. One of the items we picked up today was a space heater since it's already freezing in Boston! We are using it tonight as I blog, and as we are watching the Red Sox game... it is working wonderfully so far. It has definitely taken the chill out of the air, thank goodness!

Due to the errands, I did not end up having lunch until 4 o'clock today... some how I managed to stay strong until we got home. I immediately made half a turkey sandwich with roasted red pepper hummus and spinach. I toasted one piece of our Great Harvest bread... it all came together as a pretty perfect sandwich. I had a few baby carrots and French Onion Sun Chips on the side. Sun Chips are one of the things I've not quite figured out yet - they used to be one of my favorite snacks, and I'm not sure if they are really bad for you. But I certainly don't eat them very often now. I will have to do some research and get back to you. Everything else aside, it was a great lunch.
After lunch, I made a cup of tea with honey and milk.... I used Ben's Iowa Hawkeye coffee mug. The tea really hit the spot.

For dinner tonight, Ben decided that we should have breakfast for dinner! He made his famous pancake recipe (from scratch of course!) and it was fantastic! I had three whole wheat pancakes, with light syrup, and a little bit of Earth Balance on top of the pancakes. I had a glass of milk, and two pieces of crispy bacon, too! What a satisfying dinner - perfect on a Sunday night.

Well, I'm going back to the Red Sox game.... I hope you have all had a great weekend, too. See you tomorrow!

Relaxing Sunday

2008-10-19T11:28:00.004-04:00

Happy Sunday everyone! We are having a lovely morning watching our morning political shows. Daisy is acting a little insane, we are not exactly sure what is going on with her - but she is entertaining us.

For breakfast this morning I had some of the coffee Ben made, with a bit of soy milk. My trick to using milk instead of the half and half I used to use, is that I put the milk in my coffee cup first, heat up the milk for about 15 seconds in the microwave, and then add the coffee. This way you can add more milk, and it will not make your coffee "luke warm"!

I settled in with the coffee for the first half of Meet The Press. Before the round table started, I fixed myself a piece of toast with almond butter and raspberry jam and a bowl of Chobani blueberry yogurt that I shared with Ben. It was Ben's first time trying Chobani - and I was impressed that he liked it!

Unfortunately, my camera is charging this morning so I was not able to take photos of breakfast. I'll be sure to have pics for lunch and dinner!

Hope you all enjoy your Sunday, I'll be back on later today.

A lovely Saturday

2008-10-18T22:45:00.009-04:00

I hope everyone is enjoying a nice Saturday evening. Ben and I had a busy day - and now we're at home watching the Red Sox game.

We left our house around 1:30 this afternoon and headed out to the Financial District of Boston. We took the T to South Station and then set off in search of the Fort Point open studios event. I'm really glad we did this. Fort Point is a community for local artists, and this weekend they are doing an open studios event. The event is also going on tomorrow, until 6pm so if you're in the area, I highly recommend it.

I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to get to the gym this morning - but it turned out to be ok, because we got a lot of walking in today! We walked around for four hours, so I feel like I got a good amount of movement in today.

I'm glad that I had enough protein in my breakfast this morning, because I did not have anything to eat again until 4:30 this afternoon when I snacked on a MAC apple that I had stuck in my purse. I knew the afternoon would be long, and I needed to be prepared in case I got hungry.

Before we left the house I stuck an apple and a ZBar (Clif Bar) in my purse. The apple was great, but a half hour later I needed to open the chocolate chip ZBar - thankfully Ben split it with me. Both snacks were great, and I was really glad to have them with me.

After a few hours of looking at the art work, we decided to walk from A Street / Congress St area to the Boston Commons. There we bought movie tickets, and while we waited we decided to get a drink and a bite to eat at Teatro. Teatro is a really cool place in Boston, and convienetly located near the Theatre District. I was not famished, so decided to order something on the light side - I had an amazing squash soup with a dab of crème fraîche.

Even though Ben & I were eating at the Bar, they brought us some bread, hummus and olive oil. The bread was piping hot when they served it - fantastic! I had a small amount of hummus on one small piece of bread, but mostly I used my portion of bread to eat with my soup. It was perfect!

Ben ordered a white pizza with red peppers and spinach. I had a small bite of one piece - and wow, was it spicy! (and great!) It also looked beautiful when they brought it out.

We ate at the bar and enjoyed a glass of wine for an hour before our movie started. It was a wonderful day in Boston (even if it was a bit chilly down by the water!) and we had a great day, with some great food.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend, too. Good night!

What to do about eggs??

2008-10-18T11:39:00.004-04:00

Happy Saturday everyone! I don't know about you, but I'm thrilled that the weekend is here. Right now it is 49 cool degrees in the Boston area. I love fall!! After this post, I'll be going for a walk outside and then Ben and I are going to an open gallery event in Downtown Boston. It is a beautiful day, and should be a lot of fun.

Ben was up and going early this morning. He was very excited about trying to get Phish tickets for their re-union tour which will be starting in Virginia in March 2009. We had a bunch of friends all trying to get a couple of tickets to any of the concerts for the first weekend (there are only three concerts up right now) and we all failed. So sad!! I wish we could have gotten the tickets for Ben and his friend Dwaine. They are pretty sad right now!

Ben went over to Bread & Chocolate this morning where he got both of us a coffee, and he got himself a "sticky bun". I was asleep still, so I didn't get a photo of his breakfast!

Ben brought me back a scone for breakfast - but I had to pass, especially since I had two scones this week for breakfast and a blueberry muffin yesterday from B&C.

I was sort of in a dilemma - I was out of yogurt (I thought) and we didn't have any milk or egg whites. So, I was trying to think of what to have where I could get some protein, because I could tell that my body was craving a good dose of protein this morning. I was looking in the fridge, when I found some spinach and a green pepper. We had regular eggs, so I figured I would make a scramble with diced green pepper and spinach. After I was done chopping, I looked at the nutritional info for one egg. Wow - I had no idea that one egg would give me 71% of my daily cholesterol! Crazy!

Eggs are a definitely a controversial food - some people say you should eat the entire egg, because there are vitamins in the egg yolk. Personally, I usually eat egg whites. Today, I decided to use one whole egg and then one egg white to go into my spinach and green pepper mixture. I put the spinach and green pepper into my pan first, to give them some time to cook a little bit. Then I mixed up the full egg and egg white and added a pinch of onion powder, garlic powder and Emeril's essence mix. (NO salt because Emeril's spice has sodium in it all ready). After a couple of minutes, and the green pepper and spinach had time to heat up, I added the egg mixture. I didn't end up doing an omelet (because I'm horrible at them) and did more of a scramble.

I also had a piece of the honey wheat bread from Great Harvest with a little bit of Earth Balance on top and a small juice glass of orange juice. I put a little bit of TJ's jalapeño hot sauce, and a dab of ketchup. It was a very satisfying breakfast!
Right now Ben and I are hanging out in our loft (the third floor of the house we live in) and enjoying the sky lights.... oh, Daisy is also basking in the sun! She is definitely a solar power kitten. Hope you all are enjoying Saturday. I'll post more later.

Friday, all caught up!

2008-10-17T22:20:00.005-04:00

I started off my Friday morning pretty exhausted! I decided to go to Bread & Chocolate for coffee and a blueberry muffin. It was a good breakfast, and was a great start to my Friday. I was happy to see Eunice when I went into the bakery - it was good to see her and catch up for a couple of minutes. I am not sure, but I think the blueberry muffins at B&C have cinnamon in them, which I love.

When I make blueberry muffins I always put cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla in the mix! It really adds something to the muffins. I love the muffins at B&C because they aren't too BIG. They are the perfect size!

After breakfast, I was good to go until lunchtime at 12:30. For lunch I had only some of the left-over Thai food from last night. I think I'll let Ben have the rest for lunch tomorrow!

It was a great lunch, but I was sad that I didn't have an apple or something to munch on.

For my afternoon snack, again at 4 PM I had my Chobani blueberry yogurt. It did a good job of keeping me full for a couple more hours.

I thought I was going to be able to leave work at 4:30 and get to the gym before I was to meet up with Ben at 6pm. However, there were a few things that popped up at work around 4pm (doesn't that always happen on a Friday afternoon!?) and I didn't leave work until 5pm. That did not give me enough time to get to the gym before meeting up with Ben to hang out with some of his work friends. I did have enough time to swing by our house, say hello to Daisy and see how she was doing!

While I was at home, I gave in to my after work munchies.... ugh! But we had a small bag of Peanut M&Ms... As I ate the bag, I counted the number of M&Ms in the bag, and there were 9. That's not too bad. It was a satisfying snack!

We met up with Ben's friends at a bar in JP after a beer and a game of darts, we were on our way. I convinced Ben to stop by JP Licks for some pumpkin ice cream - a true sign of fall in Boston! We took home a pint of ice cream for $5.75 - a pretty good deal when you consider that a small ice cream is $3! I had a little sample spoon of the pumpkin ice cream (and so did Ben) and I can't wait to have ice cream this weekend - yum!

Well, it's getting late so I'm going to sign off for now. I think I'll start this week's New Yorker. There is a great article about Joe Biden in this issue - I can't wait to read it.

I'll write more tomorrow! Happy Friday, everyone!

Meals on Thursday - and a great new Thai place!

2008-10-17T12:04:00.007-04:00

Hi Everyone -

I apologize for being behind this week. But I am trying to fix the situation - last night Ben and I ventured out to the Chestnut Hill Mall to pay a visit to the Apple Store. The airport card in my iBook G4 hasn't worked in a year.... so the only place I can work on the blog is our office which is a pretty small room, cut off from the apartment and it is isolating being in there - so I haven't been keeping up with the blog as much as I want to. It's a long story, but they couldn't help us last night and Ben (the wonderful man that he is!) agreed to dedicate his lunch hour today to getting my computer fixed up! As I type he is meeting with someone at the Genius bar - fingers crossed that they might be able to help us out!! I love my iBook so much, even though it's over six years old. I do NOT want to get a new computer!

So, back to food. On Thursday morning I went back to my old faithful - oatmeal and a tablespoon of almond butter! I also added a plam-full of granola which really made breakfast substantial. I must have been out of practice in preparing the oatmeal - because I didn't end up putting enough water in the mix, and it was super thick. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until it was too late (and I was already back at my desk!). I did manage to eat most of the mixture, but I was too full to finish all of it. What an unattractive picture!

The one great thing about this breakfast was that it kept me full all morning - unlike Wednesday when I had the scone and then had to have an apple before lunch time!

For lunch Thursday, I did another turkey sandwich on the Great Harvest Honey Wheat bread. I had carrots to go along with it - and a lot of water. This kept me full until 2pm, when I snacked on the Goldfish crackers I had brought in, which I thought would have been part of lunch.

The spinach, mustard and turkey is a great combo. I was meaning to add hummus to the sandwich - but was running out of time this morning!

At 4pm this afternoon I had my Chobani vanilla yogurt, and it was the most amazing afternoon snack yet! It kept me full for hours!

I had the yogurt at 4pm and Ben and I didn't end up having dinner until 8 o'clock, and I was fine until we sat down with our dinner. What a great way to hold off the afternoon / post work munchies!

After work Ben and I went to the mall to see about fixing the computer. On our way over, we stopped in Newton Centre at Thai Thai Kitchen (19 Pelham Street, 617-527-0285, no website yet - sorry guys!). We picked up a menu on the way to the Apple Store and ordered just before we left and picked up the food on our way home.

We ordered fresh rolls with shrimp (fresh lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, mint leaves, rice noodles rolled in rice paper - not fried!! these things are my favorite!), Pad Thai with Tofu, and Pad Himmaphan with Chicken. This dish is sauteed chicken, mushrooms, onions, carrots, scallions, green and red peppers with cashew nuts. It was amazing! Everything we had last night was wonderful. Here is what my plate looked like:

OK, I'm signing off. More later! Hope everyone is having a great Friday.

Wed. Continued!

2008-10-17T08:46:00.005-04:00

Hi All -

A quick couple of posts to catch up.

Wednesday after work, I took the train home and immediately started getting ready for the gym. I was finally feeling well enough to go! I was definitely hungry, but instead of having a snack, I settled on a glass of skim milk with 1 teaspoon of Hershey's chocolate syrup. I wish that I liked the taste of milk, but I really don't. So I do allow myself to add a small amount of chocolate, so I can get the protein and calcium from milk, instead of avoiding it all together. It's worth it! Milk fills me up and keeps me going for a while. Much better than munching on crackers or chips (which is what I would want to do after a long day at work!! Thankfully we don't have "chips" in the house!)

After Ben got home from working late, we headed off to Boston Sports Club. Once we finally got a parking spot at the gym, our work out was pretty good. I did the elliptical machine for 25 minutes and weights for 15 minutes. I would have liked to stay at the gym a little bit longer, but I was still not feeling 100% so I didn't want to push myself too hard. I'm glad that I got back into the routine though!

For dinner I made whole wheat pasta and baked chicken (from Trader Joe's - more on this amazing chicken later - I love it!!). However, half way through my dinner prep I started not feeling well, at all. My stomach was very upset, and Ben had to take over getting dinner ready for a while. Because of the upset stomach, I didn't have tomato sauce or any veggies with dinner. Instead I had the whole wheat pasta (with Earth Balance and garlic mixed in, yum!), a piece of the chicken with a sprinkle of TJ's light Mexican cheese melted on top, and a piece of the Great Harvest honey whole wheat bread. What a bland dinner! But it did the trick, because my stomach did start feeling better. Sorry for the boring picture - but that's what dinner looked like!

Wednesday was also debate night. So as the debate started, I settled in with some raspberry sorbet that Ben had picked up for me while I was down in the dumps with the cold. I had half a cup in this awesome little white dish (which is perfect for portion control for ice cream, sorbet, etc!) For some reason, I fell asleep at 9:35 and didn't wake up again until 11pm! The debate was well over by then. Thankfully we TiVoed the whole thing - so I'll have to watch it this weekend! The sorbet really hit the spot.... yum!

OK, well that's a wrap up of Wednesday! I hope everyone is having a great week. More later!

Wednesday, getting back to normal!

2008-10-15T13:27:00.005-04:00

Hi Everyone:

Happy to report that I am starting to feel better today! I'm getting back to normal - eating wise, etc.

This morning I had the last scone from Lauren & Jay... I was going to have my healthy oatmeal, but Ben had a breakfast meeting so he wasn't going to eat the scone - and I didn't want to waste it. Today's scone was a raisin one, and it was wonderful!

I guess my breakfast wasn't quite as British as it could have been, seeing as though I had a cup of coffee with milk instead of tea! Still, it was a good breakfast at 8am this morning.

At 11:15 this morning I was starving, so I decided to have my Macintosh apple as a mid-morning snack. It was pretty filling and got me to lunch which was at 12:40. At 12:10 Katherine, Becky and I went for a half hour walk out in the sun. It was a great day for a walk - glad we got it done.

After our walk I ate lunch at my desk - it was a great turkey sandwich with baby spinach and yellow mustard. Yesterday after work I ran to our local Great Harvest to get a loaf of bread for the week. The only option I had this late in the day was the honey whole wheat - the man working let me try a piece of the bread before I bought my loaf... It was so nice to try a piece of the bread (especially since I was starving just getting off the train!) I was pleasantly surprised that the bread was not too sweet and I could just taste a very tiny touch of honey in the bread. I'm glad I bought a loaf - it made a great sandwich today!

The other reason the sandwich was so good is due to the turkey I used to make it! I walked to Whole Foods last night, where I found that they have a natural "deli" turkey that has no added sodium, no nitrates (thank goodness!) and no other preservatives. The turkey tasted fantastic - like an early Thanksgiving! It was a great sandwich. I had some cheddar goldfish crackers on the side!

Ok, lunch time is over. Back to work! See you all in a bit!

Tuesday - still sick

2008-10-14T22:24:00.002-04:00

Hey guys -

Sorry I've been away from the blog for so many days. Ben & I spent the weekend in the Catskills - amazing weekend! However, our hotel did not have free internet - and when we tried to pay $10 a day for access, that didn't work either - frustrating!

So, as usual I am horribly behind! So in an effort to catch up, I'm going to recap TODAY!

For breakfast I deviated from the normal "oatmeal plus" meal. Instead, as I was rushing out the door I grabbed a cinnamon scone that Lauren and Jay gave out at the wedding as favors. It was fantastic - what a great breakfast after a long weekend!

I still have my cold, which is annoying. I'm definitely on the mend, but still not 100% yet. I went out around lunch time in search of a decent lunch, that might be able to help me feel better. I settled on Pressed and got a cup of turkey chili which was spicy, warm, and satisfying.

As for exercise, it was one of those days when I had to walk a lot, and add up the time to feel like I had any exercise at all. So, I took the train, definitely had some good steps getting to work this morning. At lunch time I walked around for 15 minutes. After work I walked 20 minutes to South Station and had my walk home from the train. Once I got home, I grabbed my two "green bags" and walked to Whole Foods for my lunch groceries for the week. That was another 20 minute walk. So, I guess I got an hour walk in today :) I figured that my fellow gym goers might not be pleased to see me at Boston Sports Club today, since I still have a cough and the sniffles. I'm not going to make anyone get a cold, but I would look rather disgusting running on the treadmill today, so I decided to walk around outside and make less people feel uncomfortable!

At lunch I had my chobani blueberry yogurt, along with the chili. At 4pm I had an afternoon snack - a piece of whole wheat bread, jam and a tablespoon of almond butter. Yum. For dinner I made a small salad at Whole Foods.... lettuce, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, tofu and hard-boiled egg whites. Tonight while watching the Biggest Loser, I snacked on low-fat popcorn and a glass of orange juice!

Ok, I'm glad to get one post out of the way. For some reason my photos wouldn't load tonight - I'll try it again tomorrow!!

Until then, my friends!

Friday - home sick

2008-10-10T21:58:00.003-04:00

Well, I woke up even worse off than I was when I went to bed on Thursday night. I decided to stay home and try to get better ASAP since Ben and I are going away from Saturday until Monday. Our friends Lauren & Jay are getting married on Sunday in the Catskills! We’re having a weekend away in the Mountains, and I refuse to be sick.

This morning Ben made banana muffins for breakfast… they were really great! I enjoyed a glass of orange juice while they were in the oven and a few minutes after they were done, I had one muffin and a cup of coffee with 1% milk. I gave myself credit for not having oatmeal for breakfast today

I tried to read my book for a while, and ended up taking another snooze for an hour or two. At 1:30 I had Campbell’s Healthy Request chicken noodle soup and a nice piece of ciabatta bread from my friends at Bread and Chocolate. I toasted the bread and put some Earth Balance spread on it. Campbell’s Healthy Request still has sort of a lot of sodium, but definitely less than their normal soup. Just remember – one can of soup has TWO servings, not one. One cup of soup is 20% of your sodium. Somehow I was full after the bread and one cup of soup. I especially liked that the soup had nice chunks of chicken and carrots in it. With some ground black pepper, it definitely helped me feel better.

After reading for a while (I had no energy to blog!) I watched an episode of Project Runway – and then fell asleep for another three hour nap.

Tonight for dinner I had my two left over pieces of pizza. Instead of warming them in the microwave, I took a page from my mom’s playbook. I placed the pizza on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven which was heated to 275 degrees. Oh, before I put them in, I seasoned the pizza with Oregano, garlic powder and onion powder. I love heating leftover pizza in the oven because it comes out really crunchy (not soggy!) and it’s always good. Tonight was no exception.

So all reviewed, not the healthiest day of eating - but when you're sick I guess you have to make due sometimes with what is both available, and not too labor intensive. Hopefully we'll both doing better tomorrow!

It’s 9:40 right now and Ben and I are watching the Red Sox in the first game of the ALCS. I sure wish Josh Becket was pitching right now! But it’s the third inning right now, and we’re still tied at zero – it could be worse. Go Red Sox!!! I wonder how far I’ll make it through the game before I have to retire to bed, yet again today.

Good night ya’ll – Hopefully I’ll be able to post this weekend from the resort we’re staying in! If not, I’ll be taking notes and will update when I get back on Monday. Until then - have a great holiday weekend everyone!

Thursday

2008-10-10T21:44:00.006-04:00

Hi Everyone –
It’s Friday, and I haven’t had a post in a few days. I think I mentioned on Tuesday that Ben has been sick most of the week. He ended up staying home from work on Wednesday, and the school had “fall weekend” and there was no class (or work) on Thursday and Friday of this week. He is feeling a lot better today, but Thursday he was still sick.

I started feeling the cold coming on Thursday morning when I woke up. I went to work that day, getting to the office a little later than normal (9:30 instead of my normal 8am arrival). I think the extra hour of sleep really helped me get through the day though. For Thursday morning’s breakfast I had what has become my “usual” breakfast of the Trader Joe’s heart healthy blueberry oatmeal. The only change up was that instead of adding a half a banana and tablespoon of almond or peanut butter, I added a table spoon of Kashi’s vanilla soy protein powder. I usually use the protein powder for a drink or smoothie, but today I decided to add it to the hot oatmeal… it definitely added some bulk, and kept me full until lunch at 12:30 that afternoon.

For my lunch on Thursday, I enjoyed my first strawberry Chobani yoghurt. It was just as good as the blueberry – a great addition to my usual lunch routine. Along with the Greek yoghurt, I had two tablespoons of TJ’s garlic hummus, eight baby carrots and ten kashi whole wheat crackers. After lunch I went on a twenty minute walk with my colleagues. It was a beautiful fall day in Boston, and we loved every moment of being outside!

At 3pm I had my afternoon snack – a wonderful Lärabar. It was a much needed snack as I was in the middle of a huge annual project and I was in much need of a pick me up! Today’s bar was peanut butter cookie. It has a few more calories than some of the other Lärabar’s but well worth it. Because it’s a very natural food, and there is fat in the bar, it keeps you full for a very long time.

Before I knew it, I was on the train heading home for the day. I had only gone through a handful of Puff’s Plus tissues and a couple of cough drops that I had to get from my friend Katherine (thanks!). Once I got off the train, I went right to CVS to get more tissues and two packages of Ricola cough drops. Right now I am enjoying a Cherry Honey drop. It definitely helps the oh so soar throat, ugh. Ricola drops are definitely my favorite cough drops out there - to read more about them, go here.

Because I was not feeling well, and Ben was still severely under the weather, I decided to order a cheese pizza and a garden salad for dinner. I always make sure to order a garden salad from our local pizzeria when we have pizza for dinner. It helps me eat less cheese and carbs from the pizza. On Thursday night I gave a 1/3 of the salad to Ben, ate the rest of the salad and two pieces of pizza.

For Grey’s Ben and I snacked on light popcorn and seltzer! We both thought this week’s episode was pretty good.

one more catch up post

2008-10-07T22:10:00.002-04:00

OK. One more posting for the night...
I apologize for the rambling, but I had some Sleepy Time Tea a while ago, and I think it's having an effect on me!

Tuesday was a crazy day! I had a doctor's appointment down in Rhode Island, so I drove home to my mom's on Monday night. I was able to sleep in a little bit this morning because the appointment was at 10am. I love having my annual physical in October because I always get my flu shot then! I did get one today, as usual. My arm is a bit soar now, but hopefully it'll be worth it and I'll remain healthy this winter!

I got good news while I was at the Doctor's. My blood pressure was "normal" at 100/70. Yay for working out and a fairly low sodium diet.

My food for the day was sort of off. I didn't have breakfast until 11am, when I had a small Macintosh apple (I love autumn for so many reasons, and one is definitely the local apples that are all around). At 2PM I had lunch - I was so happy to put off lunch for a while. For lunch I had made a great sandwich at my mom's house. I used two pieces of German dark wheat bread, and added two slices of Boar's Head turkey, roasted red pepper hummus and just a little bit of yellow mustard. The sandwich was divine!

On Monday and Tuesday I got to the gym right after work. On Monday I ran and walked 2.35 miles in 30 minutes. I then did 20 minutes of weights (calf, quads, bi-ceps and tri-ceps). On Tuesday I ran a mile in 10 minutes, did another round of weights and used the rowing machine for 15 minutes.... it brought me back to my days on the Crew team during college. If your gym has an ERG, I highly recommend giving it a try - it's a great work out!

Ben has been home sick with a horrible cold. After the gym today I ran to Whole Foods to get him some WF chicken soup - I'm glad I know of it now, glad mom and I had some over the weekend! I also stocked up on more Kashi crackers and yes, even more orange juice.

I've been eating my left overs of "at home Mexican" food for the past two days. I love left overs for Monday and Tuesday evenings. It makes the beginning of your week nights so much more manageable!

Ok, now I'm signing off. The Presidential Debate is nearly over - it's amazing how 90 minutes flies by!

See y'all tomorrow.

Food update for a few days...

2008-10-07T21:47:00.005-04:00

Ok, so like I said, I'm behind. I can tell you what I've been eating (and I will!) but I'm seriously behind in the photos, as well.

On Sunday morning I had a really, super traditional breakfast! I had a combination of Kellog's Smart Start and Kashi Heart 2 Heart with skim milk and a little juice glass of orange juice. I was at my mom's house, and all Sunday morning I was sneezing... I was scared that I was getting a cold. So far I'm ok... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I stay healthy! Here is a boring photo of my breakfast on Sunday...

I watched the morning shows with my mom on Sunday... who knew that Meet the Press was on at 9am this Sunday instead of the usual 10AM time slot it has in Providence?? Glad I got up an hour earlier than normal!

After a while, I decided to head back to Newton. I stopped by Petco to get Daisy more cat food, more jingle balls (her favorite toys) and a new mouse with cat nip in it. She loves this new mouse, more than the others because there is a rattle inside the mouse! We now feed Daisy Science Diet kitten dry food, and we give her a little bit of wet food once or twice a day. I think the wet food is definitely keeping her coat nice and soft. Her favorite wet food right now is the Minced Savory Salmon by Science Diet... she loves it.

Once we got back to Newton I dropped Daisy off at the house, and went to the grocery store. I loaded up on a lot of fruits and veggies, along with milk, orange juice, ground turkey and more. Unfortunately, Stop and Shop was out of the chobani blueberry and strawberry yoghurts. So, After checking out of the first market, I headed over to Whole Foods to get a few more things, and five yoghurts for the week!

At around 2pm I had to have a snack - and I was surprised that the cereal and orange juice tied me over for 5 hours! Instead of having a big lunch, since I was running around doing my Sunday errands, I had a Blueberry Zbar by Cliff Bar. I can't say enough about these little bars. I love that they are low calorie and are pretty healthy for a fast on the go snack.

For dinner on Sunday night I cooked slices of green and red peppers, ground turkey and chopped onion all together. Once the turkey was cooked I added a can of verde enchillada sauce to the mixture. I also cooked up a bit of black beans and rice. I wrapped up all of this with some non-fat sour cream and salsa and enjoyed some sort of Mexican food... I'm not sure if you'd call it a burrito or taco, but it was something like that - and very filling! I like making Mexican food at home because you can decide how healthy the food will be. By making the ground turkey instead of ground beef, using cooking spray instead of a high fat oil, and not adding regular sour cream, or high fat cheeses, Mexican food can still be rather healthy!

OK, I'm signing off for now - but I promise to catch up soon and get the photos back up again on a regular basis!

Is it really Tuesday already!?

2008-10-07T21:42:00.002-04:00

Oh my goodness - I cannot believe that it's Tuesday already! I am seriously behind in the blog, my apologies.

Well, right now I'm watching the second Presidential Debate.... I love questions from the audience - it makes things so interesting. Also, as my friends know, I love Tom Brokaw, so I am thrilled that he is the moderator tonight. Go Tom!

As a side comment - how many times has John McCain said "my friends" tonight!? Oh my gosh, Nuclear Power.... I cannot believe McCain just went there!

Stressful Saturday!

2008-10-05T16:22:00.004-04:00

OK, another recap. Saturday was a very stressful day for me. Ben was in DC, and I had told my mom I would drive my car down to Providence to spend Saturday with her. Before I left, I stopped by Bread and Chocolate to get a coffee in my Life is Good to go mug, and a pumpkin and chocolate chip muffin for breakfast!

I was on I-95 when my muffler decided to stop working! I wasn't sure if it was my muffler or something more serious, so I had to pull over on the highway. It was pretty horrible, but eventually I ended up being able to drive to my mom's house, and we dropped off my car at our neighborhood service station... it's still there today!

My mom and I went to Providence Place to look at clothes, make up and other fun things. The only thing I ended up buying was a silicone basting brush for myself and a wedding gift for my friend Lauren. I felt great doing that, and only spending a total of 95 cents on myself! I know the brush will come in helpful the next time I make the baked tofu recipe!

After walking around the mall for two hours (shopping can be cardio, right??) Mom and I stopped by Whole Foods for dinner. We also bought several Chobani yogurts - yum. When we got home I dove into a blue berry Chobani and discovered it is my favorite one so far!
To me, the Chobani is the perfect invention. I was always complaining that "regular" yoghurts were too high in sugar, but I ate them for the protein and calcium. Now I've found my survival food - low carbs, high in protein, calcium and the thickness makes it so substanial that it will keep you full for hours after! I'm in love.

For dinner we had Whole Foods chicken noodle soup - it was so wonderful! There were so many veggies in the soup - carrots, onions, celery, etc. The kind that we brought home didn't have noodles, which we thought was a good thing. Also, the soup was NOT high in sodium, so we liked it even more. I cut up a couple of pieces of baget from our local bakery and toasted them in the oven to eat with the soup. It made for a great meal on a very fall like October evening. After dinner I was still a bit hungry, so I had a pear. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I forgot to take photos of dinner!!

Friday Re-cap

2008-10-05T15:36:00.007-04:00

Hi Everyone -
Hope you are having a great weekend. I am having a lovely Sunday afternoon, after a ton of errands. I'm now back in Newton, settling down to catch up on a few blogs. Stay tuned...

Friday was a really fun food day. I started off with the same ol' breakfast oatmeal. I did spice it up just a little on Friday morning. I added a tablespoon of peanut butter and a palm full of granola which really added more substance to the oatmeal. It kept me full until lunch, which is always the best sign of a hearty breakfast.

For lunch I went with my colleague to the Sebastian Cafe in our work neighborhood. I usually bring my lunch to work, so I had not bought something before from this Cafe, but I always like going to look around . On this trip, I found two veggie Vietnamese Spring Rolls for $3.50 so I scooped them up. Veggie Spring Rolls are one of my favorite things, so I knew I could quickly incorporate them into my lunch from home.

For lunch I had a half cup of TJ's organic vanilla yogurt, baby carrots, and the veggie spring rolls (they came with a rice wine vinegar, soy, peanut sauce that I also enjoyed!)

Later I enjoyed a gala apple and a few whole wheat crackers.

After work I walked to South Station to meet up with my friend Ann Marie. The walk from my office to SS is 1.2 miles, which I did in just under 20 minutes. Ann Marie and I were meeting up with a few other friends for dinner to celebrate Katherine's birthday. Because I wasn't going to have time to work out, I took advantage of walking after work instead of taking the bus. I was so glad it wasn't raining - although there were definitely dark clouds hanging over me as I walked.

AM and I took the T to Central Square and we went to the Starbucks right across the way from the T stop. I enjoyed a tall, non-fat latte with one shot of sugar free vanilla, and an extra shot of espresso (which for some reason the awesome guy at Starbucks didn't charge me for - he had just made two essperessos, asked me if I wanted the extra and of course I said yes!) The end result was PERFECT. One great thing about lattes is it's a coffee drink with protein in it. When you order it with non-fat milk, you get all of the protein and none of the fat. It's a pretty good drink, especially when you need a pick me up.

I did need a pick me up on Friday evening. Usually on Fridays I go right home and unwind after a long week of work. I'm so glad I went out with my friends though, it was a lot of fun. After enjoying our drinks, Ann Marie and I walked to Inman Square and joined our group at Bukowski Tavern on Cambridge Street. I hadn't been to Bukowski's in a while, but I love it. I especially love The California Burger. I have to admit, this is NOT a great picture, but the burger was soooo good, I just had to post it!

I'm sorry for including this picture - but I couldn't help it. The California burger is a burger with avacado, cheddar cheese, bacon, tomato, lettuce and red onion. I hadn't had a beef burger in months, and I cannot believe that I ate the entire thing! I even had a few of the french fries on my plate. Needless to say, after this burger - I didn't eat another thing for Friday... except for a couple of Tums before I went to bed.

Quick Thursday Re-Cap

2008-10-02T23:39:00.003-04:00

Hi All -
Ok, in an effort to not be behind when I get up in the morning I will do a brief recap of Thursday! Today was the worst day this week for not being able to get out of bed. I wonder if it was because I didn't go to the gym on Wednesday.... hmm.

I actually got to eat breakfast at home for a change and that was really nice. I had the TJ's blueberry oatmeal again and added a teaspoon of almond butter again. I really think the AB is the key to getting through the morning without getting hungry. Adding the extra substance to the oatmeal really gets me to lunch without even a second thought.

I had a great lunch, but unfortunately forgot my camera at home today! But the non-photographic recap is:
1 piece of whole wheat bread
1 low fat string cheese
1/2 cup TJ's organic vanilla yoghurt
1/4 cup TJ's whole grain tripple berry granola
1 T ground flax seed
8 baby carrots

Thankfully we have a fully functioning toaster oven in the staff room at work. I toasted the bread, and then seperated the string cheese, and put that on the bread. I broiled it in the toaster oven for a few minutes until the cheese was melty. I actually didn't use all of the string cheese for lunch today. I mixed up the yoghurt, granola and flax into the container of yoghurt. All together it was a really satisfying lunch! At 3:30 in the afternoon I had a palm full of trail mix... The mix is from TJ's and it's almonds, chasews, rasins and dark chocolate.

I got to leave work around 5:30 today and was able to go straight to the gym. I ran for half an hour, and got 2.75 miles done. I didn't have time for weights today, but was glad I got the run in. I went to Whole Foods for a salad before heading home. The salad had egg whites & tuna for protein, lettuce, cucumbers, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, corn, and a little of both Israeli cous-cous and sesame noodles. Yum!

OK, signing off for now. Will be back tomorrow - I promise!

Wednesday stuff -

2008-10-02T23:12:00.005-04:00

OK, I am so behind on my blog! It is really hard to update all the time, especially right now because my Airport Card is not working quite as well as it used to.... so I can't get the wireless in the living room... long story.

I had a super busy day on Wednesday at work... which is another reason I never got around to posting anything yesterday - working late, and was pretty pooped when I did get home! It was 10AM when I realized I hadn't even had breakfast yet!! Since I didn't have time to make something fantastic, I ended up having a great and pretty healthy snack -

the ZBar by Clif bar. They are a lot lower in calories (usually about 130 per bar) and fortified with vitamins and minerals, designed originally for kids - they are one of my favorite snacks when I'm on the run.

The bar is baked whole oats, there is no high fructose corn syrup, and is full of organic ingredients. If I had eaten the bar at 8am for breakfast, I definitely would have been hungry before lunch time - but because I had a late breakfast, I was totally fine until 12:15 lunch.

For lunch I had packed an almond butter and jam sandwich on whole grain bread.... But I had been freezing all morning in my office, so I had to add a small cup of soup to my lunch. I bought a cup of soup from the cafeteria at work - it was lintel soup on Wednesday and it was pretty good.

Because I was having the soup, I only had half of the sandwich I had brought with me.

After lunch I went for a 15 minute walk with my friend Becky, but we were caught in a thunder storm, and had to head back earlier than we wanted to.

At 2pm we had a birthday celebration for our friend Katherine, it was her birthday. One of my colleagues got an amazing cake at Carberry's Bakery. They're located on Prospect Street in Cambrige. The cake was amazing - I had a small piece, but didn't get a picture of it :(

I didn't end up going to the gym on Wednesday - even though I had really wanted to go to yoga that night. Instead, I took a break from the gym and started reading my new New Yorker that came in the mail yesterday. Ben and I also started watching the show Extras with our favorite, Ricky Jervais! We rented the first disc of the first season. Last night we watched the first two shows and they were great.

We had a weird dinner - sort of all over the place. I heated up the TJ's tomato soup, we made Morning Star "buffalo" wings, along with carrots and celery. Here's a warning to everyone - the Morning Star wings are H-O-T, oh my goodness! We were out of milk last night, so I was having a hard time with the wings. I let Ben eat most of mine. But here was my plate before I realized how hot they were! The little pieces of baggett did help a little bit with the temperature in my mouth after eating the hot spicey wings!

OK, well as I said this morning, I went to bed super early last night. I was sound asleep by 9:30. It's now past 11:30 on Thursday night and I'm going to have to head for bed soon!
Goodnight everyone!

Playing Catch Up

2008-10-02T10:18:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone:
Well, I'm totally playing catch up today! I was so exhausted yesterday that I wasn't able to do my nightly re-cap blog about what went on Wednesday.

I'll have to do a delayed posting tonight about breakfast, lunch and dinner (and a birthday celebration!) for Wednesday.

Wednesday is also turning into my night off from working out. I had a good intention of getting to the gym for a 7pm Yoga class, but it didn't happen. Like I said, I haven't been sleeping well and last night it all caught up with me. I decided to take the night off from the gym all together and really wasn't that productive at home, which is too bad.

I did make it to Trader Joe's to get some Debate Night food.... Our friend Jenn is coming over to watch the debate with us tonight, and I'm really looking forward to it. For snacks I got some whole wheat crackers, garlic hummus, laughing cow cheese, carrots, celery and a loaf of french bread. Somehow I will find the time to leave work at 5:30 go straight to the gym for an hour or more, go home and clean up the kitchen a little bit and then start preparing the food for tonight. FUN! I'm really glad the debate isn't until 9pm so I can still get in a lot of things before hand!

This morning for breakfast I had the Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Blueberry Oatmeal with a teaspoon of almond butter... it's a great combo because it's 10:30 right now and I'm still very full. In hopes of increasing my energy for the day I am currently drinking 16 ounces of water with an Emer'gen-C (Tangerine flavor) mixed in. I love Emer'gen-C because it has a TON of vitamin C and a lot of B vitamins as well. I don't drink one everyday, but definitely a couple of times a week - especially when I'm feeling an energy low. (Like right now)

OK, gotta get going - will post more later!

Tuesday evening

2008-09-30T22:45:00.010-04:00

I made it to the gym tonight. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, burning 275 calories. I did interval training tonight, which is supposed to be a good way to burn more calories - yay!
I got a late start getting to the gym, getting there a few minutes before 7pm. After doing the half hour of cardio I did 15 minutes of weights. I did the leg press (2 sets of 15 reps, the first set at 100 lbs and the second set at 120 lbs). After that I did the tri-cept machine (ugh!) two sets, 15 reps each at 30 lbs. Then I did the hamstring weights, same deal - 2 sets of 15 reps each at 50 lbs. Even though I didn't think I had time to do the weights, I'm really glad I got them in for a more complete work out.

In an effort to use up the food I had made over the last couple of days, I had a bit of a smorgasbord all wrapped up into a [not so neat] wrap. Here it is:

I had a 1/4 of a cup of brown rice on the side of the wrap. Inside the sandwich was lettuce, a low fat string cheese (melted), the seasoned tofu (from last night), half a roma tomato, sliced cucumbers, carrots, and roasted red pepper hummus. It was quite good. I had an 8 ounce glass of 1% milk with dinner as well. Fat free and 1% milk is a great source of calcium and protein. I always find that I will be more satisfied after dinner when I have milk (including soy milk) along with what I am eating.

Ben and I had a fun time watching The Biggest Loser. As I've said before, I always do my best to get to the gym on Tuesday evenings so that when I'm watching Bob and the contestents working out for two hours, I don't feel bad about my workout levels and intensities. It's even better when I have a healthy dinner - then I can enjoy The Biggest Loser totally guilt free

An hour and a half after dinner I did want a snack. Instead of ice cream (the double churned, lower fat option is the ice cream we have in the house) I settled for Panda Puffs peanut butter cereal by Nature's Path... They are a really satisfying snack!

OK, I am off to bed - it's 11pm already and after last night's lack of sleep, I need to do everything possible to get a few more Zzzs tonight!

I've survived Tuesday!

2008-09-30T18:15:00.000-04:00

Well, my Tuesday work day almost didn't get started since I barely made it out of bed this morning, and almost ended running for the train this morning.... It was arriving right as I was walking up to the station! I was exhausted this morning, and I actually woke up at 3:45 in the morning and I am not sure if I went back to sleep before my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning. Ugh.

Anyhow, I made it and ended up having a pretty good day. I made all of my transit connections easily this morning and was at work by 8:15.

This morning's breakfast was a bowl of Heart Healthy Trader Joe's Blueberry Oatmeal and half of a banana mixed in with it. I was going to bring a tablespoon of almond butter to add into it, but couldn't find a container this morning! Here's what it ended up looking like -

I also got a refill with my Life is Good coffee mug at Au Bon Pain at South Station. I really needed the coffee this morning, so I was glad I remembered to pack my mug in my canvas lunch bag.

Today Ben had the day off from work in observance of Rosh Hashanah... He came to my office to take me out to lunch which was a great treat.

Ben arrived at noon today and we went out to see what we could find for a fun lunch together. I have to say, I had economics on my mind so I didn't want anything too expensive. I decided to show Ben the best New York style pizza around (at least in my office's neighborhood!). This place is called Sal's Pizza. It is amazing. Their slices are HUGE and so good. Today I had the tomato and roasted garlic slice of pizza for lunch. It was really great. Ben got a slice of BBQ chicken pizza. Here is what my lunch looked like:

This is what ONE piece of pizza looks like from Sal's! It's definitely two pieces of pizza - but I did eat both pieces! I ate my pizza at 12:30 this afternoon, the only good thing about having this much pizza is that it is now 6:20 PM and I haven't had anything else to eat yet this afternoon. I'm going to the gym soon, and then I'll make something light for dinner - not sure what yet, but I'll keep you posted.

OK, after consuming that huge lunch, I'm off to work out. More later!

Manic Monday... Part II - Evening Politics and Policy

2008-09-30T01:10:00.000-04:00

Well, it seems that the country could be heading even more down the road to a financial crisis. Ugh, I’m completely shocked that the US House of Reps didn’t pass the Bailout Bill today! Is it just me? I’ve been watching news coverage and it seems like the average American might not want to bill to go through because they don’t want to “pay” for the mistakes made by Wall Street.

Maybe I am wrong, or maybe it’s my background in American History / Government coming back to haunt me. But it just freaks me out that we had a chance to fix the situation, and the GOP (and some Dems) let it slide by. It just seems so strange to me that the Republicans are all about lifting rules and regulations for how people on Wall Street and the average bank will operate – allowing predatory lending to take place, and then when all of the sh*t hits the fan, the Republicans want to just let everything fail and slide the country into another Great Depression!

Do they not realize what they are doing? Does the average American not realize how this credit crunch is going to affect them? Sure, I’m only 30 but I am officially afraid to look at my retirement statement right now… on Friday I was questioning if my money was safe in all three of the banks that I use… But on Friday afternoon I was resting assured that somehow our elected officials would solve the crisis by coming up with some sort of plan to save the financial world and our everyday society while they were at it. I sure hope that something happens soon, because I don’t know how much more the stock market or the average American can take – even if they don’t know it yet.

Monday - post work

2008-09-29T22:12:00.000-04:00

So, after leaving work around 445 I got home at 515 or so....
For some reason, I was starving! Perhaps it was that I only had tomato soup and crackers for lunch (a slight lack of protein in that meal!)

Anyhow - I knew that if I was going to get to the gym I'd have to make myself a quick snack. Here's what I settled on:

Yeah, I know. The picture doesn't look too appetizing. But it was great - and it got me through my Monday gym workout. It was a wrap with fat free string cheese melted, half a roma tomato sliced up and some roasted red pepper hummus on top. I'm glad I had it around 5:30 this afternoon, because Ben and I didn't end up eating until 8:30 tonight.

So, like I said - I did manage to get to the gym today. I don't know about you, but I usually take it easy at the gym on Mondays. It's almost like rewarding myself for getting to the gym on the first day of the work week - because that is super hard for me to do.

I did a combo on the treadmill tonight by walking, jogging and running 2.2 miles in 28 minutes. Combined with my high energy walk this afternoon, that added up to nearly an hour of cardio. On days like that when I don't get quite as much of a work out in, I always remind myself that I take the stairs at work instead of using the elevator ☺

After the treadmill I did a really quick weight work out. I did 2 sets (15 reps each) on the calf rotary machine - it was a killer today for some reason! And then I did my arm weights (biceps) with 12 pounds each arm, 2 sets at 20 reps each. The weights went by quickly, and before I knew it I was done with my Monday gym workout and it was the best feeling ever!

I got home around 7:30 and started my tofu delight dinner! I've mentioned it before on the blog, and I can't take any credit for it because I saw it on http://eatliverun.com but it is my favorite tofu recipe and I make it every other week now, sometimes more often!

Tonight I also made broccoli and brown rice to go with the tofu. Even Ben ate it, and I'm not sure he would normally eat tofu for dinner.... bravo Ben!

Here is what my plate looked like before I started chowing on dinner...

Ok, well it's been sort of a long day. It's 10:30 PM and I'm going to head for bed to do some reading and hopefully fall asleep soon!
See you all tomorrow.

Manic Monday... Part I

2008-09-29T20:06:00.000-04:00

So today started off pretty normally. I had to drive to work because I had a 9am meeting with my boss at work, and couldn’t take a chance on the subway running late like it often does on Monday mornings. I got to work by 8am which I was super pleased about because it meant I could leave by 4:30 in the afternoon…

I was super pleased to be at work an hour before my meeting! I got right down to work, and as I started entering my meta data for the day, I had my breakfast. Today I ate a Peanut Butter Cookie Luna Bar. They aren’t bad for you – 180 calories, 6g Fat, 10 g Protein and a lot of vitamins and minerals (especially a good source of calcium).

I got pretty hungry around 11am this morning – but was able to wait until Noon for lunch. I heated up some low sodium Trader Joe’s tomato soup. I was happily surprised by how good it was! The consistency of the soup was thick and hearty for a plain tomato soup, and thankfully the sodium content wasn’t bad. That is something everyone should look at when they are eating soup… it’s easy to think that you’re being healthy when you’re having soup for lunch. But read your container carefully! Progresso or other leading soups can have 30% (or more) of your daily sodium allowance for the day per serving – but keep in mind a serving is only half of a can! A lot of people will eat an entire can of soup for lunch and not realizing they are having 2 or 2.5 servings of the soup in one sitting. Ugh. It’s always a good idea to look for a low fat, low sodium soup.

Well, to spice up my soup I added a small palm full of the Trader Joe’s Lite Mexican cheese blend. It will add a little flavor (not to mention a little more calcium and protein) to your lunch. I had eight TJ’s whole wheat crackers as well.

I went down to the lunch room to heat up my soup and eat my lunch in 15 minutes…. I know, horrible to rush when you’re eating food! But I wanted to make sure that I had time to go for a nice walk during lunch. After eating, I went back to my desk and worked a bit longer. At 12:45 I went outside for my walk, which lasted a half an hour. It’s great to get exercise during your work day!

After I got back from my walk, I enjoyed an amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookie from one of my colleagues (no one knows who it was!) who thoughtfully brought in cookies to share by our coffee maker by the lunchroom. ☺ So nice to have a special treat on a Monday!

Even though it was a busy day, I was still able to leave at 4:45 and get ready for the gym.

Sunday Night (and a movie!)

2008-09-28T21:59:00.000-04:00

Sunday night:
Ben and I had a great time at our movie on Sunday afternoon. I think we would both highly recommend Ghost Town to our friends…. But you must know, we love Ricky Jervais, so we are definitely a little partial to anything with him in it! It was a great mix of comedy and a touching story. I really enjoyed it – what a great Sunday afternoon.

Ahh, for food – while we were there we enjoyed some great popcorn, which was being popped as it was scooped into our bag. I love freshly made popcorn. It’s the best!

Even though we didn’t even come close to eating all of this popcorn (for once – usually I totally demolish this stuff!) I wasn’t really hungry for a big dinner – perhaps thanks to my veggie wrap with the veggie burger I had for lunch.

So, as I was trying to make up my mind for a while on dinner – I settled for a bit of a weird meal… but I actually have been known to have really strange dinners on Sunday night. I’m not sure why, but it’s sort of turning into a tradition. Here’s what I ended up having:

Trader Joe’s Heart Healthy Whole Grain Blueberry Oatmeal – this stuff is amazing. It has flax seed ground right into the oatmeal which makes it even better for you. The nutritional info is pretty good: 160 calories, 2.5g fat (0 saturated fat, 0 trans fat, 1.5 polyunsaturated, 0.5 monounsaturated) 0 Cholesterol (one of the great things about oatmeal, of course) 90 mg Sodium, 350 mg Potassium; Total Carbs – 30 grams; 6g Dietary Fiber, 10g Sugar (not too bad) and 4 grams of protein. Since it was dinner time I added a table spoon of Whole Foods Almond Butter to boost protein. Along with the oatmeal I had Clestial Seasoning’s Blueberry Tea. It was all quite good.

I spent the rest of the night catching up on my September and October issues of Real Simple and at 10pm I tuned into the first episode of Brothers & Sisters. It’s a pretty good show! Usually I end up Tivo-ing it so that I can get a good night sleep on Sunday night, but since our Tivo is on the fritz, I decided to watch the show at it’s allotted time and not take my chances with technology.

Sunday, Sunday

2008-09-28T14:58:00.001-04:00

Happy Sunday, everyone.
Well, sorry this is a bit delayed. Ben & I have been super busy today cleaning our house - after Ben cleaned a lot yesterday, and after three hours of cleaning today - we're in pretty good shape! Soon we'll be off to the movies - we're going to check out Ghost Town. Ben & I have been looking forward to seeing this one because we're both huge fans of Ricky Gervais. I'll let you know how it is.

My food today was pretty basic. This morning I could not decide what I wanted for breakfast. So for a while I just settled with a nice cup of coffee while watching George Stephanopoulos and Tom Brokaw on Meet The Press.

Later Ben saved my morning by making me an egg and a piece of 12 whole grain toast. Yum!

For lunch today I had the same as yesterday - an amazing veggie wrap. The only difference today was that I added 3/4 of a Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burger. It made the wrap just a little more substantial, so that after two hours I'm still full! Oh right, the glass of skim milk I had probably helped a lot too with the protein content. The ingredients for the veggie wrap were the same as yesterday - one roma tomato, shaved carrots, seven small slices of cucumbers, two pieces of green lettuce, a table spoon of roasted red pepper hummus and a sprinkling of low-fat Mexican blend cheese (all from Trader Joe's!)

So, instead of boring everyone with the same picture from yesterday's lunch - I figured I would show you what Ben made for lunch! He used one roma tomato, one piece of green lettuce, two pieces of the focaccia bread from Friday and a tablespoon of roasted red pepper hummus for his sandwich. It looked great!

OK, well we're off to an afternoon movie!
See ya!

Saturday - gym, lunch, etc.

2008-09-27T20:44:00.000-04:00

By 2pm on Saturday I was on the treadmill. I did a typical 1.25 mile warm up of walking and jogging. Then I went upstairs and did some weight lifting. I did the leg press, a triceps exercise, the hamstring weight machine, along with the hip and inner thigh fun stuff. Then I did the bicep lifting with ten pound weights, 2 sets of 15 reps each, and two sets of the calf rotator (15 reps each at 70 lbs). Then I biked for a mile and a half (in 7 minutes) and finished up on the elliptical machine where I did twenty minutes to cool down. It was a semi-productive afternoon at the gym. I think I was feeling a bit out of it because I had to take a benadryl for some sort of allergic reaction I had this morning. So I didn't have my usual energy when it came to the cardio workout this morning.

However, I did have enough energy to go to Trader Joe's on my way home from the gym - thank goodness! Our local TJ's was having a very good produce day, and I stocked up on lots of veggies! I got great deals on roma tomatoes, a cucumber, carrots and lettuce. I took all of my goodies home and made the most amazing veggie wrap:
On the wrap I had some low fat Mexican blend cheese, lettuce, roasted red pepper humus, one roma tomato, carrots and cucumbers. Along with a glass of soy milk and a little piece of dark chocolate, I had a great lunch - a wonderful reward for getting to the gym on this rainy Saturday afternoon.
After lunch I watched Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country, which is Ben's favorite Star Trek movie. Up until a month ago, I had never seen a Star Trek movie. I love Star Wars (the original three, that is - can't say the same for the ones that came out a couple of years ago) but I had never thought of Star Trek. I can say that I'm still a major fan of Star Wars, and after watching a few of the Star Trek movies, the last one was pretty good.

Well, it's 9pm and I'm just having dinner - last night's leftovers of whole wheat pasta, turkey meatballs, roma tomato sauce and a little piece of Igg's bread. Yum!

Saturday

2008-09-27T16:31:00.000-04:00

Wow - I am so excited about this weekend! Ben and I were planning to head up to New Hampshire to go hiking and camping.... however the weather allowed us to stay home and relax for the first weekend in months! We've had a busy summer and beginning of fall, so I am actually sort of thrilled to be home and relax.

I'm so glad to report that I made it to the gym three days during the week... Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday was a successful shopping trip to the Natick Collection, where Becky found a cute suit at J. Crew.

Yesterday it was raining cats & dogs when I got home, and after walking and taking the bus and train to get to and from work, there was no way I was going outside again. Ben saved the day by going out for a bottle of Mark West (one of our favorite pinot noir wines) and making dinner. It was a great night for comfort food as the storm continued outside.

Ben made a great whole wheat pasta, roma tomato sauce and turkey meat balls. He had also surprised me by going to Whole Foods and picking up an amazing focaccia bread. We enjoyed dinner while watching the Presidential Debate between Obama and McCain....

Anyhow, today we're enjoying a day at home. It's raining yet again, perhaps due to the Tropical Storm Kyle.

I'm going to sign off for now so that I can get ready to head to the gym before the storm gets really bad. I love my Saturday and Sunday gym work outs because I'm not exhausted from a long day of commuting and working... I can spend a lot more time at the gym, and usually have a lot more energy to accomplish everything I set out to do. Today I'll be doing some cardio (running and biking perhaps?) and some weights. If you're trying to lose weight - you need to remember that weight training is absolutely essential to your workout. If you build up mussle mass, you will burn more calories when you are "resting" because muscle mass burns more calories than fat.

To better explain my point, see this brief explanation from the website: http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk

1) Build Muscle

Increase the amount of muscle in your body. For every extra pound of muscle you put on, your body uses around 50 extra calories a day. In a recent study, researchers found that regular weight training boosts basal metabolic rate by about 15%. This is because muscle is ‘metabolically active’ and burns more calories than other body tissue even when you’re not moving.

Training with weights just 3 times a week for around 20 minutes is enough to build muscle. Not only will you be burning more calories, you’ll look better – whatever your weight.

There is my inspiration for getting to the gym this afternoon! I'm totally excited about the dinner I'll be making for myself later, too.... I'm taking Jenna's recipe again for Baked Tofu... if you haven't seen the recipe yet, check out Jenna's blog: http://eatliverun.com/

And here is a link to the baked tofu recipe: http://eatliverun.com/?p=2901

Catch you later - I'm off to exercise.

The West Wing, President Bartlett and Obama

2008-09-27T12:38:00.000-04:00

Ok everyone, I really did mean to post this link earlier this week. If anyone out there loved The West Wing as much as I did, check out this link to one of Maureen Dowd's Op ed pieces this week. It's great.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21dowd-sorkin.html?ex=1379822400&en=94fb84cf08d27b33&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Bread & Chocolate Bakery

2008-09-27T12:07:00.000-04:00

I love my neighborhood in Newton. I can walk to almost anything - two grocery stores (thankfully one is a Whole Foods!), a pharmacy, two coffee shops, a great independently owned bookstore and so much more.

My favorite part of our area in Newton is an amazing bakery, Bread & Chocolate. A couple of my favorite things from the bakery are their famous donut muffins. I'm not really sure what they do to make this amazing item, but it is lovely!

If you're in the area of Newtonville, MA they are located at 108 Madison Ave. It is well worth a drive out of your way to pay a visit to Eunice and Steve. If they are out of donut muffins (it's been known to happen, especially on weekends because everyone in town stops by to pick one up!) there is so much else to try. Some of my other favorites are the Lemon Blueberry scone, the Applesauce Muffin (a very healthy option!) or if it's later in they day, try any of their amazing cupcakes! For the record, Ben's favorite weekend treat from B&C is the pecan sticky bun.

If you're looking for a lunch option, they make amazing sandwiches and they always have a great soup option.... and you can finish up your experience with a delishous cookie (they're all devine).

Ben and I feel so lucky to have Bread & Chocolate in our neighborhood!

Tuesday - another day at the gym!

2008-09-24T00:52:00.000-04:00

Yay - today is my second day in a row at the gym! I did forty minutes of cardio and twenty minutes of weights. I love working out on Tuesdays, because after the gym I can go home and watch the Biggest Loser and know that I worked out, too! I would love to have Bob as a trainer, that's for sure.

The Turkey Chili was even better tonight, it was a great dinner.

I am hoping tomorrow morning I'll be able to wake up at my normal time to get my day started. Today I was definitely exhausted when my alarm went off at 6:15 this morning, and didn't end up getting out of bed until 8! I got to work by 9:15 which is an hour later than I normally get into the office... which meant I had to work an hour later to put in my 8.5 hours. Thankfully the only thing I had to accomplish after work was the gym and a quick stop at Trader Joe's to get other things I needed for the week.

Lately I have been eating Trader Joe's Oatmeal in the morning. The stuff is fantastic because there is NO ADDED SUGAR and a lot of fiber (make sure to get the plain instant oatmeal if you're looking for it!) To spice it up a little bit I've been adding cinnamon and pumpkin spices (which are also sugar free) and I've been cutting up half a banana to add a bit more to make a satisfying breakfast. It keeps me going until lunch time.

Tomorrow will be my day off from the gym. It's good to have a day off in the middle of the week so you don't get burned out from constant work outs. Instead of the gym, tomorrow night I'll be hitting up The Natick Collection with my friend Becky. She is in need of a new outfit or two, so that should be fun. I will do my best to not by clothes or make up (my favorites are Bobbi Brown and Laura Mericer).... I hope I will be successful.

Daisy has been an amazing cat these days. She has mellowed out quite a bit, now that she is a whopping five months old. Last night as I was watching a bit of a movie she actually fell asleep on my lap, which was adorable.

I can't believe it's 9:51 PM already.... I'm going to get back to the Biggest Loser to see who gets voted off this week.

More later!

Productive Monday

2008-09-23T15:22:00.000-04:00

Well, for once I got everything accomplished on a Monday that I had set out to do. Work was a super productive day, which is always a good thing. The more exciting part of my day is that after work I went to the gym for 45 minutes, then went to the market and then went home and made Turkey Chili for dinner! (*Thanks to my friend Katherine for the recipe*) After all of that we also did one load of laundry. I love doing laundry during the week and keeping up with everything around the house. That way when the weekend comes you're not faced with having to do a ton of laundry and house cleaning - you can actually use the weekend to relax and do fun things!

Of course Ben and I didn't start eating until 8:45 last night, but still - I got it all done and the best part is that we have dinner already set for tonight and maybe tomorrow.

My goal for the week: to get to the gym on a regular basis. I don't know about you, but for me summer is the time that I tend to slack off on my "regular" work outs. Who wants to go to the gym when it's super nice summer weather?! I probably went to the gym about once a week during the summer. Of course I took really nice walks during lunch, played tennis with Ben after work and did a fair amount of bike riding.... taking the subway to work also helps. Have you ever realized how much extra walking you do when you take public transportation? It is a great thing!

So, yesterday on top of taking the subway to work and getting those extra steps in, I also took a 25 minute walk at lunchtime, and then went to the gym. At Boston Sports Club I did the elliptical machine for 30 minutes and lifted weights for ten minutes. Of course, I could have done more cardio and more weights, but for a Monday I figured that was good enough. I'll be going back tonight and hopefully I'll be able to get a longer work out in. At least tonight I won't have to go to the store and won't have to worry about making dinner for myself.

I hope everyone is having a productive start to their weeks, too. I'll have more updates to come later today!

Cheers!

Larabar

2008-09-17T22:17:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone:

Today I tried my first LaraBar and I wanted to tell everyone about it. It is an amazing "energy" bar which is totally natural. The one I had today was Banana Bread. . . and there were only three ingredients which I find amazing! They were: almonds, dates and unsweetened bananas! Another thing I love about these bars is that they are sodium free, which is so rare these days. Anyhow, you can get them at Whole Foods, so check them out.

The other big news of the day is that I finally got a hair cut! I'm so pleased. I went to Michaels Salon @ 310 Harvard Street right in Coolidge Corner. Erin cut my hair and I would highly recommend her to anyone who is looking for a good and nice stylist to cut their hair! She was really sweet, and it was an enjoyable experience. Another important thing - she listened to my ideas, told me what she thought and I got the hair cut I both needed and wanted.

Oh, one more thing.... due to my new obsession with Eat, LIve, Run (thanks Jenna!) I discovered the Greek yoghurt chobani now comes in Vanilla! Yay - I am still developing a taste for the plain (I have to admit, I never liked the traditional plain yoghurt either!) so the vanilla goes a long way for me. It is still fat free, still only has 13 grams of carbs (amazing!) and 16 grams of protein - it's like the perfect food. Check it out at Whole Foods. The chobani also comes in blueberry, and possibly another flavor that I can't remember.

Ok, closing for now. Going to get back to my reading!

It's been way too long...

2008-09-16T21:37:00.000-04:00

I am well over due for a new blog post, although I am sure that no one has noticed. A few house keeping notes. I have a new favorite blog that I love reading - Eat Live Run - and I highly recommend it to my friends that love food and exercise!! It's the absolute perfect mix, so check it out!

So, it is the middle of September, and we've had a few days that feel like fall already - which I am oh so pleased about. After spending the weekend on the Vineyard, and being soaked for a good deal of it (it rained all three days we were there) I have fallen in love with a new tea! Cinnamon tea is my new favorite. I had it at my favorite place in Edgartown, The Newes and now that I'm back on the mainland, I'm having a hard time finding a comparable tea! Tonight I took a trip to Whole Foods with my good friend Jenn, and had to settle for an Apple Cinnamon tea, and it simply doesn't compare to what I had on the Vineyard. So, the search continues. I'm definitely sipping my new tea while I type, and it's not bad, just not exactly what I'm looking for.

When it comes to tea - has anyone else ever been to the Celestial Seasonings headquarters / factory in Boulder, Colorado? Ben and I went this past December when we were out in Colorado over our Christmas break. The tour was so much fun, I loved it. The best part is when they take you into the room where the store all of the peppermint! I could have stayed in that room for a long time, just breathing in deeply. It was so cleansing! Well, if anyone is out in the Denver area - go to Celestial Seasonings for a tour - you won't be let down!

This past weekend on the Vineyard Ben and I did a lot of biking. It was sort of fun. A lot better once I bought a new bike seat for my Cannondale. If anyone else has a Cannondale F7 out there or is thinking about buying one, let me tell you - it's a great bike - but you need to buy another seat before you go on a decent ride. The seat the bike comes with is horrible! The pedals are a little small, but other than that - it's a great bike.

Well, I think that's enough for tonight. What a random blog posting!! But I'll feel good just to get something up there.

Hope you're all well. I'm signing off to get back to my reading - I'm reading one of Doris Kearns Goodwin's classics - No Ordinary Time. If you are a fan of political history, WWII, FDR, or just want to read a great book pick it up - it's well worth your time!

China on 8/8/08

2008-08-08T22:06:00.000-04:00

So, most of my day was spent getting really excited for the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. It's strange because I'm not psyched about the Olympics being hosted by China. I think the government has a lot of human rights issues that it needs to deal with and it upsets me a lot. For a lot time I thought I would just boycott the Olympics this summer and not watch them. Over the last few months I changed my mind, and we'll just have to wait and see how the whole thing plays out. All I have to say is right now Ben and I are watching the Opening Ceremonies and I am amazed - it is beautiful.

An October day in August

2008-08-06T22:57:00.000-04:00

It was too bad today wasn't a weekend. I woke up feeling like it was the perfect day to stay in bed with a cup of tea and a great book. It wasn't a typical August day, when I was in a hurry to get to work - and to the free air conditioning at my office! It was cloudy, rainy, dreary and cool.

Over lunch I had one of my usual summer meals, consisting of a spinach salad with tuna and a piece of Tuscan style bread. I found myself envious of my friend's lunch of chicken soup and a baked potato she bought from our caf at work. A perfect fall meal for a surprisingly fall day for the first week of August.

I was proud of us for sticking to our daily lunch routine; after eating our meals we donned our wind breakers and sneakers for a quick walk around the bay. On a lot of the spring, summer and fall days we will walk three miles at lunch. But today we left the building to a few raised eyebrows.... Our efforts on this dreary day solicited a few skeptical comments. "You girls are going out in this?" said one older gentleman who was familiar with our routine. Jill and I looked at him, and then at each other... I simply shrugged and said, "Well, it's not raining yet." I should have said, 'it is not raining at the moment' because my statement was not accurate. It had been raining off and on all day.

The pavement was wet as we walked out the door into the mist. The condensation collected on my face and I found it refreshing. We had walked about 150 yards when we saw a puddle. I watched a few raindrops ripple through the collected water and realized that it was actually raining. We took a few more steps before turning around. By the time we got back to the building the rain was steady, slowly soaking into our outer layers.

When I got back to my desk, I went to www.weather.com and entered in my zip code. I waiting as my computer churned.... wondering how cold it was outside. I shuttered when my computer monitor displayed 61°.

It was definitely the day that comes around at least once a summer, usually sometime in August. It's the day that reminds you that summer days are fleeting, and that autumn is right around the corner.

A few thoughts on how to be Green... these are easy ways to a more environmentally friendly life!

2008-08-06T21:27:00.000-04:00

Over the last few months I've had a few friends comment on how I have been living a "green life" and they have asked me for a few pointers on how they could start making small changes to be more environmentally aware.

I figured I might as well write a few ideas on this blog, in case anyone read this.

The first thing to think about is that even if you walk away from your computer after reading this and make one change that is a huge step in the right direction. If everyone would change one habit in their life to be more eco-friendly, we would be in better shape every day.

About a year ago, I made a few key changes in our household. Here are some of them:

Ben and I now use cloth napkins instead of throw away paper napkins. We both love this - not only are we generating less trash, but we feel like we're eating out at a fancy restaurant every night we use them!

Ben and I bring our own grocery bags to the market. Plastic bags are some of the worst things for the planet. For more information on how horrible they are, please visit this slide show that will show you what happens to plastic bags after we use them at the store. A lot of stores make it benificial to bring your own bags. Whole Foods now gives 5 cents off your total bill for every reusable bag you bring to the store with you! Trader Joe's has a raffle for customers that bring their reusable bags to shop with. At the check out counter ask for the raffle ticket, fill out your name and telephone number, and hand it back. I hope you win!

I have a set of bamboo utensils that I bring with me in my purse or my tim-buk-2 bag. This enables me to not use plastic utensils when they are the only option. At my office, our cafeteria only has plastic spoons, knives and forks.... and I was using one or two a day. The plastic is very hard to break down in a landfill, and when it does the plastic often sets off harmful chemicals into the environment once it does break down....

My bamboo set came from To Go Ware.... and you can go on-line to see what they have. There are other great options on their website, including ceramic coffee cups, stainless steel lunch containers, etc. But for starters I would recommend the bamboo set - it comes with a fork, spoon, knife and a set of chop sticks! The picture shows my set of bamboo!

Start bringing a travel coffee mug with you! Ok, seriously - my friends will tell you that my purse is pretty big. You might be getting the picture by now - I have my utincils and a coffee mug that I'm always carrying around. But these two things make a huge difference! If you're a coffee drinker (or a tea, lattee, mocha drinker!) you might be going through a few paper cups a day from your local Starbucks or Au Bon Pain. A lot of local coffee shops give discounts to people who bring travel mugs for their morning coffee. I don't know about you, but my local Au Bon Pain offers a "refill" price for using a mug!

A fun tip - let your mug be an expression of yourself. I carry around a upbeat Life Is Good mug. Their company slogan is a great motto to live by - Do what you like. Like what you do.

<---- Here is my mug!

One more idea that can be useful both around the office and on your personal e-mail... A friend of mine started using an eco-friendly electronic signature on his e-mail, reminding people not to print if you don't need to. Here is a sample signature:

P Save Trees. Please print only when necessary.

The benefit of such a message below all of your e-mail correspondence is enormously beneficial. It not only will make people think twice about hitting that pesky PRINT button, but it might make them remember about the use of paper in other ways, too. Once I saw my friend Sam's signature, it made me remember to use less around the office and at home. I now use scrap paper to write notes to myself at the office, instead of reaching for my yellow legal pad of paper, and I archive my e-mail conversations instead of printing them out. Save a tree!

Well, these ideas are only a simple start.... but go ahead and make a change if you haven't already. I will write tomorrow with a more ideas.

Our Newest Family Member

2008-07-27T20:17:00.000-04:00

On July 10, 2008 Ben and I brought home our newest family member, a tiger calico kitten named Daisy. Ben had cats growing up, but I was a new cat owner so I wanted to do my research before we brought Daisy home. We had been discussing getting a kitten for two months, and during this time I read two books about having cats and kittens as pets. I wanted to make sure I was fully prepared (or prepared as I could be) to share my home with a new animal companion! The two books that I read were wonderfully informative, and had a lot of duplicate information, but I am glad that I read both of them since they had two different perspectives. The book titles were, The Everything Cat Book
and Cats for Dumbies which were both great reads! The books really helped me get prepared for bringing Daisy home.

The night before we brought her home, Ben and I went to the pet store to get a few of the essentials (litter box, litter, Iams kitten dry food and a couple of cans of Iams wet kitten food and a few toys that we thought she might like).

Another important thing we did for the kitten was set up a safe room. We decided that our bathroom would be her safe room, because it was easy to take everything out of the room that she could hurt herself on. We're lucky because our bathroom is very spacious, and we have a large window that she likes to look out onto the world by - it's also a good thing because it provides a nice breeze and can keep the room cool.

Daisy adjusted quickly to our home. There are always a few difficult obstacles when you bring a new kitten home.

Now we are in the process of letting her explore more rooms in the house. At first (the first couple of days that she was new in our home) we limited her to the living room and bathroom while we were all getting used to each other. After a couple of days (and some cat proofing between the refrigerator, oven, and washer and dryer - these were places that she would get stuck and not know what to do and places that she could get hurt!) we opened up the kitchen to her exploring. She has done very well in not challenging the areas she is not supposed to go to (i.e. behind the washer!)

After a couple of weeks we have opened up the loft area to Daisy. Ben worked hard in cleaning up the space so there weren't areas that she could get trapped in or any glass objects that she could break. That is one thing about having a new kitten - once they can, they love climbing and exploring. If you have a vase or anything breakable on a shelf, be sure that the kitten will not be able to reach it, or move it to a room that he or she will not be in unless she is very well looked after!

So far it's been wonderful having our kitten. I'll use this blog as a bit of a story board to report any little mishaps along the way - but so far we've been doing well.