Snowy Sunday!

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!

A beautiful Saturday morning

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!!

Lots of Sleep!

Hi Everyone -

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Meals on Thursday - and a great new Thai place!

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.