simply living

Holy Moly

2010-02-20T07:25:00.000-08:00

Guess what... I'm still a live! I have so much catching up to do on here. Since my last post when school started again, a lot has changed. Since I'm heading out for a haircut, mani & pedi, maybe even a trip to whole foods (oh my!)... here is a very brief recap.

I got an A in my silly music class. yay!

I've slowly incorporated meat and other diary into my life. It's all about balance, right?

We got a crazy amount of snow in Maryland and the pup got salt in her eye. Poor baby is on eye drops 3 x a day.

I'm no longer running the half-marathon on my birthday. (this post is starting to sound like failure). Still working my butt off, literally or trying to, just not much running in this crappy weather. Looking forward to a 5K on st. pattys day with my hubby.

Here is something cool... I got a new jobbie!!! Beginning March 8th or sometime around there I'll start my new role as Branch Manager.

What else...
For those of you who don't know, the hubby and I are TTC!

Almost forgot that I'm down to 129 lbs! Sweeeet! 4 more to go for my goal weight.

That is all that I can think of for now but hope to post more details soon. I hope everyone is doing well!

Looking forward to SPRING!

xoxo
Stasa

Let the fun begin

2010-01-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

Hello all! I've been M.I.A. for a while since the winter semester started on Monday. I am cramming in an online course that is only 4 weeks long which makes for a huge work load. Music Appreciation sounded like an easy fine arts credit to take online but I could never have guessed how much work would be assigned. Since I'm devoting an hour each night (plus lunch breaks) to school work, that doesn't leave time for blogging.

There will be a lot of catching up to do come February but I'll try to stop by over the weekends.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful 2010 so far! Reach for the stars.

Ring in the New Year!

2009-12-31T11:12:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year’s Eve!! So, what kind of plans do you have to ring in the New Year this evening?

We’re having some family and friends over for munchies, drinks, and fireworks. The city does a great firework display at midnight that we can see perfectly from our rooftop deck.

I’ve spent today doing some final touches, cleaning (o.c.d. here) and prepping food. We have quite a spread planned…

Pulled pork BBQ
Harry & David’s pepper relish cheese dip with crackers
Hot pepper cheese ball with sliced almonds
Dill Havarti cheese
Deviled eggs
Tortilla chips with salsa
Fresh veggies with hummus
Pumpkin roll
Cookie tray with chocolate covered cashews

Let me check the frig to see if I missed anything…. Oh yeah, three bean salad.

As you probably guessed I will not be eating much of this so I’ve planned on making a BBQ tempah sandwich to fill my belly. What better way to get rid of food you don’t eat, feed it to guest. (Oh that sounds terrible). I’ll post pictures of all these goodies sometime soon.

While I was cleaning today I used these stainless steel wipes for all our appliances. They work great so I thought I’d share.

Method Stainless Steel Wipes

We pick these up at Big Lots super cheap. Look how shiny the refrigerator is!

....

Have you thought about your 2010 resolutions? Mine seem to be about the same every year and I haven’t put too much thought into them this year but here’s a general idea of what I would like to accomplish.

Save money (always on the list)
Live a simple and healthy life
Start a family (TTC this spring!)

I try not to set goals like loose 10 pounds, although I’d like to, I rather be realistic and stick to a healthy lifestyle. I just want to feel great and be happy! Of course I have other goals besides just these three (i.e. attend church frequently, spend more time with family and friends, further my education).

....

In case you’re wondering about my eats (probably not but I’ll share anyway)…

Today started off with my regular black coffee and pb/ab oats. Like always I wanted to lick the bowl clean.

After cleaning a while I ate an apple, sliced with sprinkled cinnamon. This taste so good I’m not sure why I hadn’t tried it sooner. I also polished off the last two vegan cookies I baked. They were in the freezer just yelling my name :)

For lunch I am baking some carrot fries that I can’t wait to try. I always see these on Mama Pea’s blog and wanted to try them. There’s no better time than after buying 5 lbs of carrots from Sam’s.

Note to self: don’t toss in olive oil. The first batch burnt in less than 25 minutes.

Much better with canola oil.

For someone who loves sweet potatoes fries, carrot fries are right up there! I could have done without the salad and had more fries. These maybe a new staple in our house.

Fiesta themed salad: spring mix, broccoli, carrots, salsa, Kashi Fiery Fiesta rice

Time to finish house work and get myself cleaned up. If I have time I’d like to workout before guest arrive, we’ll see.

Wishing you a very happy 2010!!

Shrimp Scampi

2009-12-30T04:36:00.000-08:00

Good Morning! As I mentioned yesterday, after watching Julie & Julia I was inspired to cook something different. After raiding our cabinets for ingredients I found this recipe to try. It’s nothing too fancy or out of the ordinary but something different for us. Shrimp Scampi.

I used the base of this recipe since those were all the ingredients we had and it turned out lovely.

Shrimp Scampi
(modified from the GoodLife eats recipe here)

1 lb shelled and deveined shrimp
2 Tbs Smart Balance Light buttery spread
1 Tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup white wine
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs parsley
cooked pasta for 2

Sauté shrimp in Smart Balance until cooked through. Add garlic, sauté one minute more. Add white wine and lemon juice. Simmer sauce until thickened, about 2 minutes. Add olive oil and some parsley. Combine cooked pasta and shrimp with sauce in large bowl. Toss with additional parsley and add freshly grated parmesan (optional).

This didn’t photograph well but tasted great. I especially liked this scampi since it wasn’t rich tasting like most made with real butter. It went great with steamed broccoli on the side. I also made salad but we were so eager to try the scampi that I forgot to get them out of the refrigerator. So I have my lunch ready for today.

This morning started off like any other day with my black coffee and oats.

At the moment PB and apple butter oats are my favorite!

½ cup oats
spoon of peanut butter
spoon of apple butter
cinnamon
½ packet of stevia
cooked with about 1 cup hot water

Perfection!

There’s a lot to do today so I need to step away from the computer. Here is what’s on the agenda:

• Give Elli a bath
• Get oil changed
• Workout
• Finish Cleaning

Doesn’t seem like much but the last on the list may take awhile. Off I go…. Have a great hump day everyone!

Windy 3 Miler

2009-12-29T09:36:00.001-08:00

I finally motivated myself to get out of the house and outside in the cold to run. Since my training schedule has been nonexistent over the last week with the snow and holiday get-togethers, I'll be playing catch up this week!

It was rough getting my foot out the door with the windy weather. It's 30 degrees here but feels like 17 with gust of wind up to 39 mph.

I had to return our DVDs from last night so I carried the movies for my first 2 miles until I reached a RedBox to return them. The last mile I ran against the wind which explains the decrease in time.

Here's what the Garmin reported:

Distance 3.01 mi
Time 29:59
Calories 317
Avg pace 9:57

Splits

Mile 1- 9:32
Mile 2- 9:59
Mile 3- 10:12

I'm not thrilled with this run but after a week off and crappy eating it will have to do.

After I thawed out with a hot shower I made some lunch. While cutting the veggies for my salad I dipped some in the container of hummus. (no pic)

I had a huge salad with carrots, sugar snap peas, green pepper, sliced almonds, and Annie's Goddess dressing.

I also had some crackers with homemade plum jam. Thanks Aunt Bonnie, it's delicious!

Time to start cleaning... oh what fun!

2010 is right around the corner and I still haven't posted my goals. Have you though about your goals yet?

Getting back on track... Monday

2009-12-29T06:07:00.000-08:00

Jeff was off work yesterday so we spent the day together running errands and watching movies. Fun stuff!

I started my morning off with pb and apple butter oats. Oh how I missed them! It feels so nice to get back into my routine. We then headed out to pick up our kitchen tile that finally came in and also did some grocery shopping.

First stop was Trader Joe’s where we got some odds and ends. Peanut butter (I can’t live without it), frozen vegetables, pizza sauce, and other random things.

The most fun we had was at Sam’s club! With our Christmas money we decided to join the club and do a big grocery shop. We cursed up and down every isle in the store and Jeff tried every sample too :) Most were meat but I got to sample a soft pretzel that held me over till lunch.

From what I’ve heard we would probably enjoy a membership at Costco much more since they carry more foods that we eat but Sam’s is much more convenient. I did get some good deals on daily eats like my 9 pound box of oats!! They had great produce too so I stocked up on fruit and salad. We were a little bummed that they didn’t have a faux meat products but were happy to see lots of soymilk.

When we got home I made a big salad

Lots of veggies, slivered almonds, and hummus. I’m really trying to get back to healthy eating after all the holiday treats I had the last couple days.

We rented two movies for tonight: Paranormal Activity (Jeff’s pick) and Julie and Julia (my pick of course). I am not a huge fan of scary movies but somehow Jeff always talks me into watching them. Promising to hold me tight...blah blah blah… you get the drift. It never makes the movie any less scary and Paranormal Activity was no exception. Needless to say I didn’t sleep well last night.

Julie and Julia was very cute and made me want to cook a fancy meal. Jeff kept reminding me that I could never live off French cooking. I assumed because it would make my ass huge but he just meant that they cook with a lots of foods I don’t eat. Either way I don’t know how the French stay so thin.

Before eating dinner I had to fit in a workout after the weekend I've had. So I did Jillian's 30-Day Shred level 2. These are the best 20 minute workouts!

For dinner we had a very Americanized meal of salad and pasta.

It was nice to spend the day with my hubby but now we're back to the daily grind.

I need to get motivated to run this afternoon. It's so windy and cold outside that I'd much rather workout in the basement but I haven't ran for a week. Santa did bring some warm running gear so I'll head out a litte later hopefully it will warm up.

Is anyone else having a hard time heading outside in the cold weather? I could really use a running buddy to help keep me motivated.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Lots of Catching Up

2009-12-29T04:52:00.000-08:00

Hello there, wow it's been a while! I'm glad that I'm off work all week since there is so much catching up to do. Not only with the blog but I have to clean house for our New Year's party, get my oil changed, and other stuff. Surely there are other things to do. Rather than writing a really long post about the holidays I'm going to keep it semi short with mostly pictures instead. They're more fun anyway!

Christmas Eve started with my first ever oats in a jar! Here is the pb I started with

I added oats, cinnamon, stevia, and apple butter. Cooked with about 1 cup hot water.

Yummy! When I was done, this was the cleanest pb jar to ever go in our recycling.

Now for the good stuff!

We spent Christmas Eve night at my parent's house. This has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. Here's a peak...

Lots of good food and company!

My FIL with the silly cat.

Best girlfriends!

Good news! I'm going to be an aunt!! Me with my SIL who finally shared the news that she is 3 months pregnant.

(for those who didn't know, shhhh!)

And being silly with my mom

Christmas Day was also spent with my parents. We had too much fun opening gifts and trying on our new onion goggles that I forgot to take pictures. woops.

I was able to snap these of my parent's cute dog.

He loved the camera!

And I have to show off my Mom's favorite gift this year- Lenox Christmas china.

Saturday we spent the day with my in-laws and family. Once again I didn't get out the camera but we had a blast together. We laughed our butts off playing charades!

The entire weekend was wonderful and we couldn't have ask for a better time with our family and friends! I'll admit it's nice to be home and away from all the Christmas cookies though :) Now I have to get back on track.

I'm enjoying my morning coffee and Good Morning America this morning. I'll brave the cold weather for a run this afternoon.

I keep this mug out all year since it fits me so well... thanks Mom!

Well that's all for now but I'll be back with a Monday recap.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday! Have a great day!!

Oats Remix

2009-12-22T15:19:00.000-08:00

Good Morning! I am happy to report that I didn’t eat any sweets yesterday, YAY! Just had to get that out first thing :)

I finished the last of my holiday baking yesterday. Peanut butter treats for the doggies in our life. I tried my best to make them look like bones with the little cookie cutter I found. Elli wouldn’t leave me alone while these were baking.

Last night after dinner I curled up to watch football with a mug of Sugar Cookie tea.

While watching the game we heard several fire trucks pass our house. This is pretty common since we live on a busy city street but they just kept coming. Soon we heard helicopters and police and quickly peaked outside. Oh my goodness, there was a huge fire just two blocks from our house. It’s sad but I immediately grabbed my camera and took this terrible picture.

Now for today…

I skipped a workout today since my butt is still sore from Jillian. (Damn her!) My body could use some rest though so it feels nice.

With no more bananas I decided to try a different mix with my oats. I added apple butter to my normal pb oats. Why haven’t I done this sooner? OMGosh it was amazing! I definitely found another great combo. With just a little peanut butter left I’m looking forward to oats in a jar on Thursday. Tomorrow I’ll be having brunch with my co-workers so oats will not be necessary.

• 1/2 Oats
• 1 tbs peanut butter
• 1 tbs apple butter
• cinnamon
• stevia
Cooked in about 1 cup hot water.

Pure deliciousness! You know it’s good when you plan breakfast two days in advance.

Today was yet another freezing cold day in the office. My lunch warmed me up a bit.

Remember my impulse buy from last week, this Pad Thai soup? Besides the rice noodles it didn’t resemble the Pad Thai I know but it was tasty. For a convenient soup it was fairly healthy too and number one, it warmed me up! Along side my soup I had an apple and baby carrots. Overall this was a very satisfying and filling lunch.

I don’t know how you’re feeling about work these days but it’s rough. This time of year work is the last place I want to be and I really have to push myself to get things done. Does anyone else have that problem? Man, am I looking forward to vacation next week!

Time to make dinner... have a great night!

Running Blues

2009-12-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

Its official I have the blues. This is when my no-gym membership decision kicks me in the butt. I can’t run outside! Ugh! Have you looked out there lately? It’s a mess. Not only do I have cabin fever but I’m supposed to be training and am extremely anxious. I did yoga this morning but that didn’t help my anxiety. This afternoon it was pretty nice outside so I decided to give it a try, to run that is. Since we had movies to take back to the Redbox I decided to attempt a run to Safeway to return them.

It was nice to get outside and the sun was shining. But this was pretty dumb to say the least. First of all, not many people in Canton shoveled their sidewalks and the city still hasn’t plowed any side streets. So needless to say it was very dangerous and I couldn’t do much running. I had to hop over snow and run in slush so my feet were soaked.

Ok, enough complaining but I really miss my runs. So I’ll be hanging out with Jillian for the next couple days or week. Santa, please bring me a treadmill!

Have a good night everyone :)

Cabin Fever

2009-12-21T08:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday everyone! We got over 12 inches of snow this weekend so I’ve been stuck in the house. Needless to say it was a pretty uneventful weekend. I stayed home today as well since the city still hasn’t plowed our side street where we park. Can you say Cabin Fever!

Still sore this morning from Jillian’s No More Trouble Zones that I did yesterday, and not able to run because of the conditions outside, I opted for yoga today. Every time I do yoga I describe it as “much needed” yoga. It feels that way since it gives my whole body the tender stretching it needs and leaves me feeling calm. The rest of my day seems so peaceful.

Back to yesterday, Jillian kicked my butt! I’ve been doing her 30-Day Shred on weekdays, when not running, since it’s only 20 minutes. I had extra time on Sunday for this other DVD that is 50 minutes total. What an amazing workout! I felt like I was in boot camp and sweated my ass off. I highly recommend this one but will have to get myself pumped up to do it again.

Not too much went on this weekend. While stuck inside I took the opportunity to wrap all our Christmas gifts, clean the house, do laundry, and play with Elli in the snow. Oh yeah and I had fun trying a few new recipes! I shared the pumpkin spice pancakes but we also made Mama Pea’s whole wheat pizza dough for dinner on Saturday. Jeff added some spices (garlic, oregano, parley, and what ever else) to make it an herb crust. This was so easy to make and it rolled out nicely. We may have found a replacement for the Trader Joe’s pizza dough- sorry TJ’s!

We we not able to get very creative with the toppings. Lack of groceries. But we doubled the recipe and got two of these.

I also have to fess up about my consumption of sweets over the weekend. We can’t wait to take all the baked goods to our family this week and get it out of the house. I’ve had absolutely no willpower and it’s driving me crazy. I wish I could just suck it up and move on but it bothers me when I eat healthy all day than blow it will cookies and crap. My goal this week is to stay away from sugar, period!!

That’s about all for today. Pretty boring, huh? I’ll leave you with the cutest pup ever :)

And this new book I found. If it wasn’t too late I’d add it to my Christmas list.

Namaste.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

2009-12-19T07:16:00.000-08:00

Good Morning everyone! Elli woke me early this morning, I think she wanted to play outside in this

yep this is what I woke up to. At least 6 inches of snow and its still going strong. These are the best days! I love being stuck inside a warm house watching movies, baking whatever comes to mind, and relaxing with my family.

Feeling very thirsty and just a bit hungry this morning I made my very first Green Monster.

• kale
• banana
• soymilk
• flax
• wheat germ
• peanut butter
• ice

This was very tasty but I wish I had some berries to add. They're now on the grocery list just for my next GM!

Later this morning once Jeff woke I made Pumpkin Spice Pancakes. After my impulse buy of PS Silk I had to make something with it. I veganized the recipe on the carton and thought they were blog worthing since the husband gave them 2 thumbs up.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

¾ cup flour
¼ cup whole wheat flour
½ tsp salt
1 cup Silk Pumpkin Spice
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs oil (I used canola)
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

Whisk dry ingredients together. In another bowl mix wet ingredients together. Combine wet and dry ingredients, mixing gently. Cook on a preheated skillet.
Note: Batter maybe a little lumpy. Makes about 10 pancakes.
*recipe modified from Silk's Pumpkin Spice carton.

Top cooked pancakes with your favorite toppings. Here's mine with earth balance and agave.

Now it's time to finish wrapping Christmas gifts and watch movies.

Have a great day!

Impulse Friday

2009-12-18T15:12:00.001-08:00

Happy Friday everyone! I’m looking forward to the weekend, how about you? In my area they’re calling for snow tomorrow. Apparently a blizzard with anywhere from 1 – 20 inches! I’m so glad we don’t have any plans.

Time to fess up and share my impulse buys for the day. I was so close to making it all week without any more buys! Today I headed to the grocery store during lunch for a trip to the salad bar and look what I spotted…

Pumpkin spice Silk! I had to try it, just had to. Anything pumpkin is a must have. Somehow I justified this purchase but not sure how or why. While waiting in line I was excited to see a recipe for pumpkin spice pancakes on the carton. There that’s why I needed it so I can make breakfast while we’re snowed in this weekend.

Here is what I really went for

This fixed my salad craving that I’ve had for a while now. I loaded it up with good eats.

• spring mix
• spinach
• mushrooms
• black olives
• chickpeas
• tomatoes
• broccoli
• shredded cabbage
• cucumber
• green pepper

Then I added my own toppings of edamame, Mary’s crackers and Annie’s organic balsamic vinaigrette. Exactly what I needed!

Somehow this ended up in my tummy too.

Freezing cold office + pumpkin spice Silk = pumpkin spice chia tea

I almost forgot to share my second impulse buy of the day. Man, I really blew it today. While at Sears picking up my Dad’s Christmas gift the latest Fitness magazine was screaming “renew your subscription!” and it jumped into my cart. On a better note I am finished Christmas shopping! Now I just have to stop shopping for me.

Workout

I froze my butt off this morning during my run. Just went for 2 miles (2.21 for those counting) with the sista. This is what she said

Mile 1- 10:03
Mile 2- 9:24
.21- 2:04

Yesterday I didn't post my workout or eats but I started the morning off with Jillian's 30 day Shred.

Also had this super huge and yummy lunch of baked tofu with leftover grilled vegetables and basmati rice.

The joys of working from home!

The rest is history... have a great night, do something fun before the blizzard hits :)

Season's Greetings

2009-12-17T07:56:00.000-08:00

Hello there and happy Thursday! Rather than writing about what I ate and what workout I did today I decided to share some thoughts (some of other people) of the season.

I read such a nice post this morning over at Mama Peas about giving. It really got me thinking about the season and what it's all about.

You may remember when I posted about my Salvation Army Angel that I bought gifts for this year. This is something I plan on doing every year from now on. It's amazing how helping others makes you feel, it really brightens the season for me and hopefully for the little girl as well.

I encourage you to think of ways you can help others during this holiday season and over the course of the year.

Check out the Mama Peas post for great gift ideas for all ages. Also read about Holly's goal over at the healthy everythingtarian.

Sometimes I make excuses for not donating but than I remember how very blessed and fortunate I am and that every little bit counts. After reading about what Holly is doing I donated a little towards her goal. Again, every little bit counts!

There is no better gift than knowing you brighten someone's day :)

Before I wrap I have to share this beautiful clip with you...

Peace On Earth

(I saw this on Jessica's blog and it gave me chills)

Season's Greetings to all!

First Timer

2009-12-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

After hearing so much about Jillian Michael’s 30-Day Shred on other blogs I had to check it out. Since I decided a few weeks ago that joining the gym wasn’t an option, I ordered 3 of her DVDs to keep me busy at home. Hoping these workouts will be good on my days off from running I gave one a try.

I started my morning off with Jillian’s 30-Day Shred workout. This is the one I’ve heard the most hype about. As a first timer I started with level 1 as she instructed. The DVD is made up of 3 workouts (level 1,2, and 3) that you progressively work through. Each level is 20 minutes of continuous workouts alternating between strength, cardio, and abs.

I have tried a lot of these quickie 20-minute workouts and never see results or feel very challenged. Jillian held her word and worked my ass hard during those 20 minutes. I have a feeling these workouts are going to be good! Come on, she is referred to as America’s toughest trainer.

Soon I’ll try the other DVDs- No More Trouble Zones and Banish Fat Boost Metabolism.

Once at work I had breakfast- PB oats :)

Amy’s came back into my life today around 1:00. I promise I’ll never cheat on her again! Today I had the low fat Minestrone soup that is by far one of the best. Next time I’ll look for low sodium in this flavor. No wonder I like it so much with all the salt!

After lunch I made some hot tea to fill the rest of my belly :)

Side note: I drink water all day long. I don’t see the need to post it everyday but I keep a 24-ounce bottle at work that I fill up at least 3 times a day. Yesterday I had 3 bottles before even eating lunch. Just to give you an idea. I’m always thirsty and can never get enough ice-cold water. I read once that you should drink half your weight in ounces of water each day. There’s my little fact of the day :)

Not too much going on this evening. Take a peak at my to do list.

Make dinner- grilled vegetables over brown rice

Pack Jeff’s lunch and my oatmeal

Set out work and warm running clothes for tomorrow

Bake M&M cookies with leftover candy (while Jeff’s at basketball)

Relax

There you have it! Stay warm tonight wherever you are.
See ya tomorrow!

Christmas Baking

2009-12-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I hope that everyone is having a wonderful hump day. The weekend is near and Christmas isn’t very far away either.

Jeff and I had fun baking cookies last night while listening to holiday music. We both love chocolate (who doesn’t?) and peanut butter so we made peanut butter blossoms. I ran to the grocery store for the ingredients, list in hand and no impulse buys. Yay me! Can you believe there was no regular Hershey kisses at the store? Everyone must have had the same idea. Of course there were a million other fancy kinds of kisses that really didn’t sound good to me. So I chose a variety of candy to use instead of regular kisses: mini Reese’s cups, Rolos, and special dark kisses.

We stuck with the traditional Hershey’s recipe. I liked this recipe in particular because it was to yield 4 dozen cookies, which sounded perfect to share with friends and family.

Jeff helped unwrap all the candies and also served as quality control. I had a few too :)

In the cookie dough I substituted with soymilk and natural peanut butter.

Then rolled dough balls in sugar and baked.

Once baked press in your favorite treats. Reese’s cups, Rolos, and dark kisses!

(Santa, I need a cooling rack)

I had to sample just one cookie while they were warm and gooey. The Reese’s cup was my pick and it was delicious.

Somehow we only ended up with 2 ½ dozen cookies. My cookie scoop must be big because we didn’t come close to the 4 dozen.

With the leftover candies we made pretzel treats. I have no clue if these treats have a name but I’ve had them on several different occasions. I was reminded of them by Janetha over at meals & moves and so glad I was since they’re super easy and tasty.

You can make so many different varieties of these pretzel treats. We went with these:

• dark kisses with almonds
• dark kisses with almonds and dried cranberries
• dark kisses with M&Ms
• Rolos with almonds
• Rolos with M&Ms
• Reese’s cup with M&Ms

I sorted through the M&Ms for all the red and green ones. The candy was so picked through at the store they were out of the holiday themed bags.

These treats are very addicting but I limited myself to 4 of them. I had to eat the ones that I messed up!

After cleaning up the mess from baking I snuggled up on the couch with my Mother Earth Pillow (heated in the microwave) on my hip. Elli and a blanket also kept me toasty while watching the National Christmas tree lighting and the Sing Off.

Then it was nighty-night :)

Hip, I'm begging you!

2009-12-15T13:20:00.000-08:00

Hello blog world! I kind of left you hanging yesterday with my eats. So I have to fill you in on my awesome dinner from last night: baked tofu with quinoa medley. This was the first time I ever made baked tofu and was pleasantly surprised by the result.

I pressed a carton of light extra firm Nasoya tofu on Sunday since this meal was planned. I was the only one eating it and still have 2/3 of the carton left. After searching a few baked tofu recipes I came up with this marinate, no measurements.

• soy sauce
• agave nectar
• apple cider vinegar
• dash of hot sauce
• garlic powder
• ketchup

Brush this mix over sliced tofu while the oven preheats to 375 degrees. Place tofu on non-stick baking sheet and bake until golden brown. Rotating one time through it takes approximately 20 minutes total. Serve with whatever sides you’d like!

I choose Nature’s Promise bulgur quinoa and vegetable mix I found at Giant. The two paired great together and made a very satisfying dinner. Can you believe this left me so satisfied that I didn’t even want dessert? Now that’s just weird and unheard of!

This morning I ran my scheduled 2 miles from yesterday. Have I mentioned how much more fun running is with my sista? I absolutely love my Garmin! My hip however is a different story, as soon as I hit the pavement the pain started. Really?! Maybe I need to rest for real or go get an x-ray. In pain I still managed decent time:

Mile 1- 9:34
Mile 2- 9:50

During my run it dawned on me that I need to use my heart rate monitor. It syncs with the Garmin to track my heart rates, which should help during training although I’ve never tracked it in the past.

I really want to try out Jillian’s 30-Day Shred so hopefully my hip pain will go away for tomorrow. Although I know I probably shouldn’t do anything.

For breakfast I packed a breakfast cookie in my Wrap-N-Mat. And enjoyed it with some chia tea with soymilk once I got to work.

See I snuck a bite of the cookie this morning after my run :) This one was made with oats, almond butter, soymilk, stevia, and raisins.

Around 12:00 I wanted lunch, not particularly hungry but just wanted to eat something. I had a coupon for Health Valley Organic soups and today I gave it a try. The grocery store I went to (not today, I’ve been good) only had two types to choose from. I went with the vegetable since the other was chicken noodle or something like that.

Now if anyone reads my blog then you know I’m a huge fan of Amy’s soups and I don’t like cheating on her. Blame it on the coupon.

The verdict is in and I don’t think I’ll be cheating on Amy ever again. Coupon or no coupon! The soup was very bland which is to be expected with only 140 mg of sodium. Of course I realize how evil sodium is but I also enjoy eating foods with some flavor.

Thank goodness for Mary’s crackers! Now these babies are tasty :)

My hips felt stiff all morning so after lunch I walked laps in our office building. It’s a good thing I was the only one there today because surely I looked like a fool. A good pace for 15 minutes helped loosen my body. Then back to the desk I went.

Here is my afternoon snack of peach soy yogurt, blueberries, and a little bit of Kashi 7 grain puffs cereal.

Total winner!

Well on the menu for tonight is shrimp pad Thai with sugar snap peas. I’ve been looking forward to this dinner and it will taste even better since Jeff is making it.

Heading out to take Elli for a walk… bye for now!

Oh wait... I waited a while to post this and now have a picture from dinner.

While eating Jeff asked what my favorite ingredient is in pad Thai...hummm? I'd have to say peanuts! The peanuts just add another element to the dish and bring all the flavors together. Dinner was so good I had seconds!

Check back tomorrow for our Christmas cookies :) Ok Good Night for real this time.

Confession

2009-12-14T15:05:00.000-08:00

Hello there and Happy Monday! I’m usually not so chipper at the beginning of the week. It must be the holiday season :)

So I have a confession to make today but lets get through the morning first.

After checking the weather forecast for the week and reevaluating my hip pain, I decided to reschedule today’s run for tomorrow. Instead I worked my glutes, arms, and abs. I followed the Booty Camp workout from the July/August issue of Fitness magazine. You can find great workouts in magazines that are really easy to follow. Then I worked my arms.

Hammer curl (3 sets of 10)
Tricep extensions (3 sets of 10)
Double-arm raise (2 sets of 12)
Should press (3 sets of 10)
Chest Fly (3 sets of 12)
Upright row (3 sets of 10)

Just a little ab workout: 3 sets of 12 crunches and reverse crunches

My breakfast was the normal pb oats: ½ c oats, 1 tbs pb, stevia, cinnamon.

All right, I have to fess up! I’m embarrassed to admit this but I think I am addicted to grocery shopping. Is that even possible? Does anyone else ever feel like that?
This morning I went to Safeway only to recycle plastic bags. They have a drop off bin there. Then it dawned on me that we needed tissues and I had coupons in my purse. Now this was a legitimate purchase and I got a good deal. Kleenex tissues were on sale and I had two coupons totaling $3 off, plus we really needed them. But here is where I got in trouble… the tissues are in the same isle as the magazines. So I picked up the new Oxygen and I saw a soup that I wanted to try neither of which I needed. Impulse buying is definitely a problem of mine. I never have a hard time justifying purchases though since I’ll get great workouts from the magazine and the soup is fairly healthy and will serve as a cheap lunch. However I still didn’t need either of them and now feel guilty thinking of all the Christmas gifts I still have to buy, but I waste money on this crap.

This is also a problem since I always want to have the latest health food. If I read about a new ingredient or product I run out and buy it- again I don’t need it. I tend to be resourceful when it comes to cooking, planning meals, clipping coupons, and watching sales. If I could just stick to the plan and not stop at various grocery stores and buy random crap.

Maybe it will help if I just fess up on here anytime I screw up and impulse shop. Most women have a problem buying clothes and shoes, me I buy groceries! Oh I’m so ashamed.

Here’s my goal: No grocery store the rest of the week! I’m already starting to get anxious thinking about it. I need to get food for the holidays but I guess that can at least wait till next week. Feeling like such a weird-o right now but I had to get this off my chest.

I feel better now and am confident that I can resist the store!

I’ll end my post today with a little office doodling….

Oh one more thing- My Jillian Michaels DVDs came today!

Have a great night :)

Kale, Yams, and Onions... oh my!

2009-12-13T14:43:00.000-08:00

hello again, second post for today and then I'm done!

Decorating our Christmas tree today totally got me in the holiday spirit. We listened to festive music and ate sugar cookies :) Elli was so well behaved too.

I still can't get over the fact that she isn't interested in the tree. Maybe I should stop saying that so I don't jinx it.

We also did a lot of cooking today. Jeff made some huge turkey meatballs that he'll probably be eating all week long. I must admit they did look pretty good.

He cooked them then added peppers, onions, and seasoning.

Topped them with sauce and then put them in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Once they baked he covered them with a ton of cheese.

We each made our own dinners for tonight. I bought kale at the grocery store yesterday but have never cooked with it or ever eaten it for that matter. So I looked up some recipes on Veg Cooking and found this one. It sounded good and we had most of the ingredients. I had to modify it just a bit.

I chopped and cleaned the veggies.

Cooked the yams then added onions and garlic.

Tossed in the kale.

Once the kale was cooked down it was ready. Look at the vibrate colors!

This was a great way to eat kale for the first time. The meal was very flavorful, clean, and light. I believe I could eat the entire pot and not feel the least bit guilty. And I just might do that if I get hungry later :)

That's all for tonight. Time to put laundry away and plan my workouts for the week.

Have a good evening!

Hip pain with the Sista

2009-12-13T05:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a super productive day! We had a ‘to do’ list ready and checked it all off which is an awesome feeling. Jeff got up early to take Elli out and to my surprise also served me breakfast in bed. So sweet. He made me oats with dried cranberries, fresh blueberries, slivered almonds, and a touch of agave nectar. It was so yummy!

After getting ready we headed out to complete our list of things. We went to the grocery store to pick crab meat for my MIL. She makes crab cakes every Christmas and we found a good deal. Then we headed out to the county to order our kitchen backsplash tile. I’m so glad this is final done and can’t wait till it’s installed.

Our next stop was supposed to be the Christmas tree farm but on our way we passed a tree stand that advertised all trees $25. What! We were feeling cheap so we stopped and found a beautiful Scotch pine tree. We’ve never heard of the Scotch pine before but it’s a nice looking tree that ended up costing $28. Not sure how they managed the additional $3 but it was still a good buy. The past couple years we have paid around $70 which seems insane considering we’re never really home for the holiday.

We set our tree up to see how Elli would react and she could have cared less. I thought she would try to play with it, eat it, pee on it, who knows what. Anyhow we decided to let it sit one day and soak up lots of water and are decorating it today.

Our naked tree

I finally went for a run once the tree was up. According to my training schedule I was suppose to run 2 miles but since it was a nice sunny day I went for 4 instead. Besides I couldn’t wait to run with my sista aka my Garmin! Yeah, that’s her name now. Sista! It’s appropriate since we’ll be spending a lot of time together exploring the city.

Jeff snapped a picture of me before we headed out.

And one of Elli too… with his earmuffs on :)

Running with my sista really pushed me to run faster. During the first mile warm up I was confused with the display screen and couldn’t see how fast I was running. I need to change the display but got used to it on this run. After my run I couldn’t wait to log into Garmin Connect to see my stats. Here goes…

Distance: 4.01 miles
Time 39:48

Splits

Mile 1- 10:44 (warm up)
Mile 2- 9:47
Mile 3- 9:41
Mile 4- 9:26

Seeing my time each mile pushed me to do better. I hope that this will help me to achieve a PR at my next race.

Bad news

My body is screaming for rest! Apparently my hip hasn’t completely healed from my fall 10 days ago. After the 4 miles I felt pain in my right hip and by the evening I could barely walk.

I am the type of person who hates being hurt and tend to push myself too hard which of course makes it worse. Today I will be resting and that I can justify since I worked out every other day this week.

Well I’ll be spending the last day of my weekend decorating the tree, packing lunches, planning meals for the week, doing laundry, and whatever else I can get into. Oh yeah, I’m supposed to be resting. We’ll see how that goes.

Enjoy the day everyone!

Santa Came Early!

2009-12-11T15:04:00.000-08:00

Last night when Jeff got home from work he threw a package on the counter and said Merry Christmas baby!

Santa (aka FedEx) delivered my Christmas gift. It’s a…drum roll please…. Garmin Forerunner 405!! Definitely an upgrade from the Timex Ironman on my wish list. My hubby does it right.

Here take a peak! Charging...

Isn’t she darling? Yes, she!

(these pictures suck)

I was eager to post this last night but spent the entire evening reading the owner’s manual and setting up everything. I can’t wait to run this weekend.

There are so many cool features. It has a heart rate monitor and a USB to upload all my stats to the Garmin Connect website.

This means that I will be running outside a lot this winter! Hopefully no frostbite!

Workout

This morning I did the Ace Fitness At-Home workout again. This time with music! If you haven’t looked at the site yet here is what the workout included:

Warm Up
Cobra pose
Cat-Camel pose
Supine Pelvic Tilts

Workout: 3 sets of 12 unless noted otherwise
Glute Bridge
Contralateral Limb Raises
Side Lying Hip Abduction
Side Lying Hip Adduction
Side Plank with straight leg (held 15 secs/3 times per side)
Push Ups (only did set of 12, then 10 more)
Forward Lunge with Arm Drivers (did 2 sets of 12/side)
Side Lunge (2 sets of 12/side)
Supine Reverse Crunches
Bent-Knee Sit-up/Crunch

Cool Down
Cobra
Downward-facing Dog

This felt great and I figured out that the lunges were what made me so sore last time. I think I’ll continue this workout at least twice a week.

Meals

I had another breakfast cookie this morning alongside some chia tea with unsweetened soymilk.

This b cookie was even better than the first, I tried stevia instead of agave nectar. It had a more subtle sweetness that was perfect.

• ½ cup oats
• unsweetened soymilk
• 1 tbs raw almond butter
• raisins
• vegan chocolate chips
• stevia

I still can’t believe how long this breakfast sticks with me. No morning snack and I didn’t eat lunch until almost 2:00. I think it was 1:50 to be exact. Lunch was a huge salad from the grocery store salad bar with Annie’s balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

There was so much in this salad…

• spring mix
• spinach
• cucumbers
• carrots
• broccoli
• broccoli slaw
• bean mix (black, pinto, kidney, black-eyed, lima)
• red, green, and yellow peppers
• mushrooms
• black olives
• cherry tomatoes
• grapes

I think that’s everything. It took me 40 minutes but I managed to eat every last bite of these beautiful veggies. I just couldn’t stop once I started.

You know sometimes I get sick of posting what I eat every single day. It does help me keep track of my diet rather than journaling, which gets old real fast. Besides I am even more conscious of what I do since I share it with the world. (Well I know that no one really reads this but the world has access). Just wanted to get my thoughts out there. I will continue writing as I have been since this blog is about me and what I do. It keeps me sane and gives me my sort of a diary to look back on.

Anyway! Jeff is planning to make us dinner tonight since he may get home early. We are trying to be creative and avoid the grocery store. (Although I stopped this morning for a few items that were on sale). He is planning to make chili with baked French fires and a vegetable on the side. Hey sounds good to me!

Tomorrow I’m going to test out my Garmin. Yay! I haven’t looked forward to a run like this in a while.

I hope that everyone (the entire world) has a wonderful weekend. Stay warm.

My first breakfast cookie!

2009-12-10T15:03:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up early to run my 2 miles from yesterday. Surprisingly I am still sore! What the heck? I feel like an old lady when I get up from bed, out of a chair, even walk.

I snuck out of the bedroom trying not to wake Elli. I planned to run quick then take her out when I got back. It worked since she was sleeping soundly and I even covered her up with a warm blanket as I tiptoed out the room.

I bundled up with lots of layers and ran my two miles. My stomach was growling the whole way. I usually don’t eat breakfast till 9-9:30 so this was strange for 6:00 a.m. I kept thinking about my breakfast cookie waiting in the frig which made me run a little faster.

Once back home I stretched my sore body, took the recycling out, then woke Elli. I couldn't believe she was still sleeping. When we got back in I had to try the breakfast cookie. After the first bite I knew it needed a little sweetener (there wasn’t any included to start with) so I drizzled some agave on top.

I ate half and brought the other half to work. I can’t even describe how delicious this was! And a nice change from my regular oats.

Once I got to work I had some breakfast blend coffee with a little unsweetened soymilk.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that I baked some vanilla cake last night. I had some Nasoya leftover from the sugar cookies and found this recipe on Tina’s blog. Since I had all the ingredients I thought I’d give it a try. I’ve baked a lot this week but end up freezing most of it. Whenever I get on a baking kick I throw most of it in the freezer that way we can have treats anytime.

Back to today… my bfast cookie held me over till 1:00! I couldn’t believe it.

Lunch was Amy’s Organic Chunky Vegetable soup. This is one of my favorites! I also had, for my first time, Mary’s Gone crackers that were really good.

Look at all the veggies!

Plus I finally remembered to pack a reusable napkin and spoon, see!

There’s something about Mary’s crackers, I kept going back for more. (Wonder if that's where the movie came from..hehe) I think it’s the crunch. It’s a nice texture. After my soup I had a sweet tooth so I had 2 clementines.

Around 3:30 I felt hungry and my blood sugar felt low but I was in a training session. As soon as I finished I felt a binge coming on since my body was so weak. (I’m hypoglycemic). So then at 4:00 I ate a lot! An apple, crackers, and an organic Z Bar. What a terrible feeling it is to have to get your blood sugar up without inhaling too many calories. I thought that I balanced my meals pretty well today so I’m not sure what made me crash like that.

After getting rid of my shakes and feeling normal again, I realized that I didn’t photograph my late day snack. I’m sure you got the idea though.

There are no major dinner plans for tonight. I think I’ll be eating a salad with some Mexican inspired toppings since I still have leftover rice and beans.

I’ve gotta catch up on all my recorded shows from last night. I still can't believe we didn’t stay up for the Top Chef finale!

Shhhh… don’t tell who won :) Night!

Tina's Element Bar Giveaway

2009-12-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard of Element Bars? These are so cool and super fun! Element Bars allows you to create your own bar without all of those unnessecary artifical ingredients.

I haven't tried any yet but their website has some great options to choose from. There are endless possibilities!

If this interest you, check out Tina's giveway for your chance to win a box of Element Bars!

Change in schedule

2009-12-09T04:48:00.001-08:00

So I don't forget, here is dinner from last night. Baked sweet potato with earth balance and cinnamon, steamed green beans, and black beans with onion.

This morning was not a typical morning in our house. Jeff had to leave at 5:30 a.m. to catch the train to DC for the day. This threw me off a bit since I usually get up at that time and he is still snoring away in bed. The weather is crappy today and it's raining pretty hard, so I decided to stay in bed while he got ready. I woke around 6:00 to take Elli out and couldn't believe how sore and stiff my body was. I guess that workout yesterday worked my muscles more than I thought. To my surprise I was really feeling it. Since the weather sucked and I was sore I decided to skip my run this morning. Instead I started my morning off with a good cup of black coffee,

read some blogs and then did some much needed yoga.

This yoga series on Fit TV is just what I needed today. It felt so good to stretch my sore muscles.

Afterwards I took Elli out again and showered for work. By the way, I plan on running my scheduled 2 miles either tomorrow or Friday. Depending on the weather. I'll do the Ace Fitness workout again the other day.

My breakfast this morning was pb oats with raisins...mmmmm..yummmy.

• ½ cup oats
• cinnamon
• raisins
• quick squirt of agave nectar
• 1 spoon full of nature’s promise organic pb

After breakfast and reading Bobbi's post I felt like I needed a little bit more of a workout. Since my upper body wasn't sore I got out my little 5 lb. wieghts.

• Hammer curls (3 sets of 10/arm)
• Standing triceps extensions (3 sets of 10/arm)
• Double-arm raise (2 sets of 12)
• Shoulder presses (3 sets of 10)
• Chest fly (3 sets of 12)
• Upright row (3 sets of 10)

(Big thanks to Fitnessista and Bobbi for these links)

Then it was time to get to work...

I worked from home today so I was able to prep a few things for tomorrow. During lunch I made my first breakfast cookie to try tomorrow morning. I followed Fitnessista's recipe here.

I made mine with the recommended oats, raw almond butter, unsweetened soy milk, and my "add-ins" were vegan chocolate chips and raisins. I cannot wait to try this!

Training
I was checking the schedule of events for the race and also found this training schedule. It's a beginner training plan but seems more intense than the one I got from Runner's World. I might mix the two together and see what works for me.

Here is what I whipped up for lunch. I had some green and black beans leftover from dinner and added this Kashi whole grain pilaf and carrots sticks.

Added taco sauce and it was perfect! Lovely lunch and very satisfying.

I even had black beans and pilaf leftover for dinner tonight. Works well since tonight is "clean out the frig" night.

Well I hope you have a wonderful night :) We're half way through the week! Yay!

Let’s have dessert first

2009-12-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

I always liked the saying that you should eat dessert first to make sure you have room for it.

Last night after dinner I made the Nasoya sugar cookies. They were huge and had a nice flavor! Much sweeter than I expected from the ingredients and they had a cake-like texture. Oh yeah, they look more like Easter cookies since we don’t have any green/red sprinkles.

I got a little creative with my dessert.

The end result: sugar cookie soy ice cream sandwich! This vegan treat was sinful and oh so tasty.

Onto this morning’s workout… I tried something new today. Yesterday I discovered the Ace Fitness website and their At-Home workout caught my eye. I have to try new things at home since there will be no gym in my life. This was a good workout to do and I’ll probably do this on my days off from running. It was pretty quick, about 25 minutes, and targeted several different muscle groups. The warm up and cool down include yoga poses and the workout is pretty basic. Take my advice and play some music if you decide to give this a try. It got a little boring and music would have jazzed it up. I was too lazy to turn any on.

I also ordered 3 of Jillian Michaels’ DVDs from Amazon this week. I read from other bloggers that she has some great workouts.

My plan is to make our basement a comfortable place to workout and keep things interesting. Unfortunately I’ll be stuck inside a lot through the winter months. I just hope the weather doesn’t keep me from running outside, safely anyway.

I changed my oatmeal this morning since there was no fruit on hand.

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/4 cup Bear Naked granola
• Cinnamon
• 1 tsp agave nectar
• 1 spoonful of natural pb

I added too much water to the mix so it wasn’t as good as it would have been. I also finished off a bottle of Trilogy Kombucha that I had at work. This stuff takes some getting used to but I find myself craving it now, weird.

Back to training- I’m jumping around a bit today.
I charted my training schedule today since I like to check off the days as I go along. I used Runner’s World to create my schedule through the Smart Coach application. It’s a moderate schedule with Saturday as my long-run day, a total of 15 weeks ending on race day. I’m not sure how to post the chart so I’ll try my best to explain it. I will run on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday (weather permitting) and cross-train/rest the other days. After running 2 half-marathons I am comfortable tweaking the schedule if needed but this is the plan.

Week 1: M 2 mi, W 2 mi, S 2 mi – 6 miles total
Week 2: M 2 mi, W 2 mi, S 3 mi – 7 miles total
Week 3: M 2 mi, W 3 mi, S 4 mi – 9 miles total
Week 4: M 2 mi, W 3 mi, S 5 mi – 10 miles total
Week 5: M 2 mi, W 5 mi, S 6 mi – 13 miles total
Week 6: M 2 mi, W 5 mi, S 6 mi – 13 miles total
Week 7: M 2 mi, W 5 mi, S 7 mi – 14 miles total
Week 8: M 2 mi, W 6 mi, S 7 mi – 15 miles total
Week 9: M 2 mi, W 7 mi, S 8 mi – 17 miles total
Week 10: M 4 mi, W 4 mi, S 4 mi – 12 miles total
Week 11: M 2 mi, W 6 mi, S 8 mi – 18 miles total
Week 12: M 2 mi, W 7 mi, S 9 mi – 20 miles total
Week 13: M 2 mi, W 8 mi, S 9 mi – 21 miles total
Week 14: M 2 mi, W 7 mi, S 10 mi – 21 miles total
Week 15: T 2 mi, Th 5 mi, Sun Race Day! 13.1 mi

Hopefully that makes sense. I find it difficult to squeeze in long run during the week since I work full time and try to run in the mornings. So I tend to adjust this schedule as needed.

Ok enough about running for today!

What was on the menu for my other meals today…

Lunch- Amy’s Organic Vegetable Barley Soup, carrots sticks, and two clementines. I also had Celestial Seasoning’s gingerbread spice tea since my office was freezing.

I’ve realized from all my lunch pictures lately that I am very wasteful. I consider myself to be fairly ‘green’ so are all these disposable spoons necessary? I have reusable plastic spoons at home and need to start packing them for my lunch. I promise to start working on that.

Dinner- Baked sweet potato with black beans and green beans (me) and baked chicken (Jeff)
I'll post that pic tomorrow.

It's now time to clean up from dinner and watch Fringe (DVRed from last week).

Help me out and cross your fingers that we don’t get the icy mix their calling for tomorrow morning! I’ve gotta run!

Have a great night!

Training and Holiday Cookie

2009-12-07T15:38:00.000-08:00

Monday, Monday, Monday….

I officially started training today for the Shamrock Half-Marathon! Waking up bright and early to run in 30-degree weather isn’t what I call fun but it felt great. I have to tough it out through the winter training outside and have a feeling it’s going to be a rough winter. You may have guessed that after some convincing from the hubby, I will not be joining a gym like I’d hoped. So there is no back up plan for running in a warm gym on a treadmill. Instead I’ll bundle up and hit the pavement. Maybe Santa will bring a treadmill :) along with the Garmin Forerunner. (Shhhh… I’m not supposed to know).

I mapped out my run after I stretched this morning and it ended up being 2.13 miles. Just a little over the scheduled 2 miles.

• Ran 2 miles (21:00/9:86)
• Stretched
• Abs (plank-side plank-reverse crunch- twisted leg crunch)

My hip felt a little better today while running. I definitely felt improvement other than my bruised butt that still hurts. Yes, it’s big and bounces while running! The worst pain I felt was during my ab workout. While holding plank, especially side plank, my hip really hurt. I tried not to over do it on my right side hoping not to put too much strain on it.

I also reserved our hotel room for the race today. My bestest girlfriend and running buddy is joining me. We are driving down on Saturday to check-in and p/u our race packets and the race is on Sunday, 3/21. Did I mention it’s on my birthday? Probably! I’m getting super excited!!

On my way into work today I stopped at Giant for dog food. Oh, and I got an awesome deal too! Regularly $14.99/14 lb bag, on sale for $12.99 plus each bag had a $1.50 coupon!! Anyway, what I was going to say is that I also picked up some vanilla Nasoya Silken Style Creations to make sugar cookies tonight. Hopefully this will get us in the holiday mood since we haven’t put up our tree yet. After seeing these cookies on Tina’s blog I have to try them.

For breakfast this morning I had oats, go figure. I decided not to photograph them since that picture is getting rather boring. I did switch it up by adding almond butter rather than pb.

• ½ c oats
• Dash of cinnamon
• ½ tsp agave nectar
• 1 spoon full of almond butter
• ¾ of banana

This was good but I still love my peanut butter. The almond butter doesn’t have the smooth and creamy texture that I like about natural pb.

Packed for lunch today is a variety of Amy’s organic soups (I have four cans in my desk), 2 clementines, and an apple.

I decided to have the alphabet soup since it sounded fun and a bit childish.

It tasted a bit like spaghetti-o’s but that didn’t stop me from cleaning my bowl. I wasn’t completely satisfied so I had a PB&J Larabar (also stashed in my desk) and saved the other goodies for tomorrow.

On the menu for dinner tonight is stir fry- one of my favorites! I marinated chicken for Jeff and tempeh for me in ginger sesame dressing. The vegetables are a mix including asparagus, carrots, mushrooms, squash and zucchini that we’ll have over brown rice.

Turns out the veggie mix had cauliflower which we found kind of strange in a stir fry mix. But it tasted pretty sweet.

Dinner is cleaned up and it's time to bake sugar cookie! Yay! I'll post them tomorrow... good night

Morning!

2009-12-06T05:32:00.000-08:00

Good morning ya'll!

Not too much going on today but I wanted to share my lovely dinner from last night. The hubby made a beautiful meal and we had a nice evening in watching Christmas programs on mpt (Maryland Public TV). yes we are dorks. We threw this dinner idea together at the last minute: seared ahi tuna over salad and caramelized onion flatbread. We couldn't wait to try this flatbread mix from C and B.

Jeff had the perfect idea to top it with caramelized onions and balsamic vinegar.

He also marinated ahi tuna with some Asian flavors and seared for on top salad.

What a pretty plate. When we eat like this it makes me sad that we spend money going out. (sometimes it’s nice though)

Side note: I've been eating mostly vegan these days however I don't like to label my "diet". I do enjoy seafood now and than hence our meal with tuna.

The flatbread turned out wonderful! The mix is a little expensive and we probably won't buy it again unless we have another gift card. I'll have to find a recipe to make it from scratch.

Feeling like I have so much to do today. I just got finished eating breakfast which was ww toast with the new almond butter topped with 1/2 a banana and drizzled with agave nectar. I also had iced coffee since there were leftovers from what we brewed yesterday.

not great pictures.

Here is the rest of my day's agenda:

Whole Foods- quick/small grocery shop
Laundry
Clean house
Write "Thank You" note to my SIL
Write Christmas cards and mail
Workout- abs and leg routine
Pack lunches for Monday and set out work clothes
Plan menu for this week

That's enough!

Take care and enjoy your day :)

Saturday shopping

2009-12-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

Playing catch up here today… I have pictures to share from my time away for work. Very few since I didn’t take my camera with me to meetings and dinner.

On my way to Lancaster on Thursday morning I took a Larabar, an apple, and coffee since I didn’t know if breakfast would be served. Ended up eating the bar and saving my apple for Friday.

Here is the new bar I tried Thursday night after dinner. My co-workers and I were in the mood for something sweet and I opted to have this bar from the hotel’s snack shop. The ingredients sounded much healthier than the chocolate-covered pretzel ice cream that everyone else got. (sorry ladies) I had some hot tea and an apple with my granola bar. *bored eating*

Now for today…. We went shopping! I love the weekends when we have no plans and just end up poking around. Originally we were going to go cut down our Christmas tree but with the rainy/snow mix we decided to wait. Instead we went to a tile store and finally picked out back splash tile for our kitchen. We’ve been looking forever and couldn’t agree on any styles. Here are the samples we brought home, it’s a travertine style (fancy word- I’d describe as a stone look).

After the tile store we stopped by Baltimore Coffee & Tea Company for a pound of roast. I’ve been trying to drink coffee black which surprisingly taste pretty good, but I wanted a quality coffee to enjoy. Jeff and I both love Jamaican blue mountain coffee but it was $43/pd… no way. So the associate suggested this coffee which tastes similar to blue mountain. He described it as a mild, rich, full body flavor with low acidity. Sounded great to us and it was only $13/pd. I brewed some as soon as we got home and it taste perfect- great recommendation by their staff.

Here's a close up since I forgot the name.

Our next stop was the Sears Outlet. As always we needed nothing but found a good deal that we couldn’t pass up. Now we have wanted a stainless steel microwave but have put it off since we didn’t need it. As soon as we both saw this one, we didn’t even think twice and ended up buying it. Here is the Kenmore Elite stainless microwave we purchased for $99!!! It’s huge, has lots of cool functions, and was originally sold for $190. It does take up a lot of counter space but what can I say… it’s nice.

The last stop we made was the Pennsylvania Dutch Market. This market is filled with homemade crafts, furniture, and food. Of course the bakery was the first section when you walk in- very tempting but we passed up the homemade donuts and woopie pies. Instead we checked out the gorgeous furniture, sampled the fresh squeezed orange juice and almond butter, and ate lunch. There are several food stations set up around the market so Jeff and I went our separate ways in search for lunch. He met me with his pit beef sandwich and chicken wings and I found some 3-bean salad and vegetable pasta salad. Everything there is fresh, homemade, affordable, and oh so tasty.

Before we left I purchased some homemade almond butter. Almond butter is so expensive in the grocery store so I haven’t tried it until now. The lady working at the stand ground it fresh for me since I requested a smaller container than was displayed. I couldn’t have found any almond butter fresher; the container was warm when she handed it to me. I asked what went into the butter and all it was were almonds… sweet, just what I was looking for. I can’t wait to try this tomorrow with breakfast.

So good...

By the time we left the market it was snowing pretty hard. The roads were getting slick so we decided it was best to head home.

Now I need to find motivation to clean and get out the holiday decorations. With this weather I’d much rather curl up and watch a movie.

Quick update on my hip: yesterday morning I worked out on the elliptical since it was lower impact than the treadmill and it was still a little painful. It’s feeling a lot better today but I decided to take a day off and rest my body. I’d rather not hurt it worse. Tomorrow I plan on fitting in some kind of workout so we’ll see how it feels. Fingers crossed.

That’s all for now… have a great weekend!

Chobani giveaway

2009-12-03T19:05:00.000-08:00

I haven't had Greek yogurt since changing my diet in September. It's so creamy and yummy... check out this giveaway to win some Chobani Greek yogurt to try!!

Hurry it ends Monday

Work travel and hip pain

2009-12-03T16:57:00.000-08:00

Staying out-of-town for work can be so relaxing. A night alone to yourself feels great sometimes. I’m sitting here with the TV on and control of the remote, my laptop, granola bar, and hot tea. It’s going to be a chill night.

So yesterday I fell down the steps, which is so frustrating! I felt like crap yesterday since I was sore and couldn’t motivate myself to workout. Feeling guilty I headed to the hotel’s fitness center immediately after our meeting today. Yeah, forgot to mention that I am in Lancaster, PA where my company’s headquarters are located, for our annual HR Department meeting.

Anyway… I had an hour-long workout this afternoon. Unfortunately I may have hurt myself worse than I thought yesterday. While running I felt a lot of pain in my right hip, the opposite side than I landed on. My bruised butt hurt while bouncing up and down too! So I did intervals of running/6.3 and walking/4.2 for 35 minutes. Then I jumped on the elliptical which felt so much better for 15 minutes of intervals. Stretched and showered to meet my co-workers for dinner.

The hotel we’re staying at has complementary dinner with wine! Sweet deal! Tonight’s menu was a Santa Fe salad bar with dinner rolls. Kind of boring but hey it was free. I had two helpings of salad with spring mix, cucumbers, tomatoes, and these tiny little shrimp. It wasn’t very filling so I had a whole-wheat dinner roll but skipped the wine.

After dinner we were all craving something sweet but there were no dessert offerings. We headed to the hotel’s “snack shack” for munchies. I couldn’t do ice cream as much as I wanted to. I opted for a granola bar that I’d never heard of: Mrs. May’s Naturals Trio. The ingredients sounded great.

Here’s the ingredient list: cashews, almonds, pistachios, cranberries, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dates, raisins, rice malt, natural flavors, evaporated can juice, sea salt.

Not near as good as Larabars but I had to try it!! I took a picture but will have to post it once I get home. The verdict- it taste good, whole, and filling. However I won’t go searching for these when I get home.

I am going to spend sometime exploring blogs and then hit the bed. Hopefully I’m not too sore tomorrow since I got a 6:00 am wake up call to workout. Nighty night all!

*I'll add pics when I get home*

One last thing- I almost forgot to add this link. Bobbi's post today offers some great tips for staying fit this holiday season.

Caution: don't wear socks while walking down steps

2009-12-02T04:56:00.000-08:00

Good Morning! Today started out more eventful than expected. I didn’t go to the gym this morning since I plan on taking a class tonight. However, Elli woke me up at the normal 5:30 to take her out. I was half a sleep as we walked downstairs and fell half way through the flight of stairs. I wasn’t wearing shoes, just socks, and my feet just went out from under me. I bounced on my butt to the bottom and landed on my left side. Elli just nosed at me while I laid there moaning in pain. Luckily I knew right away that I didn’t break anything but man am I sore.

I have a meeting all day today which allowed for a little extra time to get moving this morning. I got Jeff’s breakfast and coffee ready and then sat down for my normal oatmeal. Still no ripe bananas!

Since I’m not sure what will be served for lunch today I packed an apple and granola bar. Just in case there are no veg options I’ll have something to munch on.

Well off to work I go… tonight I have to finish packing and get in bed early. We’re leaving for our work trip at 7:20 so I need my beauty sleep. Depending on how my butt feels I might try the class tonight.

Happy Hump Day!

Baby its Cold Outside

2009-12-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

Burr… it was a cold 38 degrees this morning. December has arrived!

I feel like I have so much to share today- hopefully I don’t ramble too much.

I finally registered for my next race! I’ll be running the Virginia Beach Shamrock Half-Marathon on my birthday, 3/21. I went online last night only to see that the cost went up so I eagerly paid my $80 registration and now the training begins. I needed something to keep me motivated through the winter and signing up for a spring race is just what I needed. I haven’t found a training schedule that I’ll follow yet but I started this morning out with a 3 mile run. I set the treadmill for the 5K loop and kept my speed between 6.5-6.7, about an average 9-minute mile. It felt great to start off my morning and training with this run! After my run I was sure to stretch well and work my abs.

On my way to work this morning I had some iced coffee with soymilk and agave nectar. I made it last night using Tina’s directions from Carrots-N-Cake.

For breakfast I packed some oatmeal:

½ c. quick oats
1 tsp. Agave nectar
Dash of cinnamon
1 tbs. Natural peanut butter

This is a great breakfast for work since it’s easy to “cook” with the hot water from our water cooler. All I was missing was some banana. I just got a bunch but they’re not quite ripe- bummer.

I wanted to give an update on the new gym. I really like the gym that I’ve been going to for my trail membership. It’s small but offers good classes however it’s not somewhere that Jeff and I can both benefit. There is a larger gym in a neighbor (luckily we have options) that has a basketball court, a pool, lots of classes, and all the regular equipment. Jeff agreed that if I join this gym that he would join with me, since we would both benefit from their amenities. I scheduled a tour tonight so we can get some membership info. I will let you know how it goes but this may be a win-win for both of us.

Since we have the gym tour tonight we’re having a quick dinner: Boca burgers with green beans on the side. We really threw off our meal plan for this week. Last night we were in the mood for pasta so instead of making the Asian broccoli and rice, we steamed the broccoli and tossed it with whole-wheat linguine and marinara sauce. It taste so good! After fixing it we both realized that pasta was on the menu for tonight so we made some changes. Tomorrow is leftover and/or clean out the frig night.

Shot of dinner prep.

Steaming green beans with garlic and earth balance.

Took this picture in a hurry before adding mustard and ketchup. Pretty boring: Beans, Boca, and soy cheese.

We have really been “winging” our meals this week. It’s always fun to see what you can make while clearing out the refrigerator and pantry.

Rewind a bit to lunch. Today I tried a new brand (new to me anyway) of miso soup from TJ’s: Annie Chun’s All Natural Asian Cuisine. This soup stood out to me for a few reasons: it wasn’t the normal TJ’s packaging since it’s not their brand, and this miso soup has udon noodles which I’ve never noticed before, it’s low fat, dairy free, and ready in 2 minutes! Sounded great and turned out it taste great too. The noodles were a little big which made it difficult to eat without flinging broth all over my desk. So I decided to only eat the smaller noodles that fit in my spoon, that way I saved some carbs along with a mess. Oh yeah, I recognized every item on the ingredients list. That’s a plus!

Miso with Udon noodles.

Under the packaging was a $1.00 off coupon so I’ll be sure to try some more of these products.

I’m going out of town for work Thursday and need to start packing.

Cuddle up with a loved one and stay warm…. Nighty-night.

Back to the grind today after 5 days off work!

2009-11-30T16:33:00.000-08:00

To my surprise the gym was practically empty this morning. Here’s what my workout looked like: 20 minutes of intervals on the elliptical and ran 1 mile on the treadmill. It felt great to start off the week with a sweat. Hopefully I don’t get sick since I came home and took Elli out in shorts- it was 48 degrees outside but I was still hot from the gym.

We didn’t have our official Monday weigh in but I jumped on the scale anyway. I was worried that I gained a few over the holiday but was exactly the same, 130 lbs. I can handle that but plan on working really hard this week to loose some more.

Once I got to work I had my morning coffee, regular with unsweetened soymilk and breakfast. This is totally outside of my normal routine of oatmeal- I had a breakfast burrito. Something different taste good once in awhile. I enjoyed Amy’s breakfast burrito made with black beans, tomatoes, tofu, and some other veggies. Pretty tasty and packed with protein that should hold me over till lunch.

Today for lunch I packed soup and salad. We ordered lunch out yesterday from a local pizzeria; Jeff had pizza and had a garden salad big enough for two. It worked well since I needed something to pair with my TJ’s black bean soup. Who knew that it would be ugly outside and raining all day- perfect soup day!

Black bean soup isn’t the nicest looking soup but it is hardy and filling. I brought new salad dressing today: Cape Cod Sesame Ginger dressing. We found this while bargain shopping Saturday. It has a nice subtle taste and we’re going to use this to flavor our dinner tonight as well.

Since I am posting this before dinner I’ll spare you those pictures and details. We’re planning to throw together an Asian inspired dish with steamed broccoli and brown rice, using the dressing as I mentioned.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful and healthy week! Can you believe tomorrow is December?!

Mexican Night and Week's Plan

2009-11-29T15:41:00.000-08:00

Today was catching up day around the house. Didn’t get into too much just laundry, a little touch up cleaning, football, and we both managed to get a nap in. I’m really excited about dinner tonight- it’s my favorite MEXICAN! Since we had lots of leftover veggies in the frig we’re making grilled vegetable fajitas with refried beans and sweet potatoes fries. Strange combo but hubby was hungry for fries and since they’re so good I couldn’t resist.

I usually microwave sliced sweet potatoes in water before baking them. It seems to speed up the baking and allows them to get cruncher. However I’m sure you could omit this step but I microwave two sliced potatoes for 8 minutes. Then placed them on a pan, brushed them with canola oil, sprinkled with paprika and pepper, then into the oven. I just guess on time and temp but went with 425 degrees until brown, flipping after about 20 minutes. These fries are one of our favorite sides to make and we usually have them at least once a week.

Ready for the oven

After baking for about 40 minutes

For the fajitas we grilled sliced red onion, red and green peppers, tossed in olive oil and seasoning. I make my own taco seasoning and found a great recipe here.

Here are the veggies on the grill... love this grill pan!

To finish them off, we topped with Amy’s Kitchen traditional refried beans. Yummy!

Here is my plate, I decided to go without a tortilla.

Earlier today we planned our meals for this week, here’s what will fill our bellies:

Monday: Asian broccoli with brown rice
Tuesday: Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce and vegetable side
Wednesday: Boca burgers with sweet potato fries
Thursday: Jeff is on his own since I’ll be out of town for work
Friday: Shrimp and vegetable pad Thai

I plan on hitting the gym everyday this week. It’s my last trial week before I make my decision, to join or not to join? Anyway, Wednesday night we’ve planned a quick dinner since Jeff has basketball and I want to take the “Rock Your Skinnies” class at the gym. What a catchy name!

Well that’s all for tonight. I’ve had a sweet tooth since dinner so I think I’ll curl up with some sugar cookie tea. Good Night :)

Spin class and Elli's return home

2009-11-28T12:40:00.000-08:00

Finally made it to spin class! I needed a kick-butt workout after the holiday so I went to a cycle class this morning. I got there early and did a 20 minute ab routine then asked the cycle instructor to help me with the bike since it was my first class at this gym. I really enjoyed the 65 minute class and look forward to going back again next week.

While I was at the gym Jeff picked Elli up from doggie daycare. She was there throughout the holiday since we had a lot of company. It’s nice to have her back, we missed her! Last night we went out and got her a new toy and a birthday treat. She turned 1 year old last week and we forgot to get her a treat. Of course I didn’t take a picture but it was so cute- a homemade cookie with icing that said Happy Birthday in pink. We left it in her food bowl and she noticed it right away. The toy we bought her is pretty cool. It’s a heavy plastic bone that screws apart and holds treats in the middle and has these brushes that spin around to clean her teeth…. Very interesting to say the least. She wasn’t sure about it at first since it’s really heavy but Jeff tourmented her with it and now she won’t leave it alone.

Elli checking out her toy basket and her new toy! (The lines on her back are from the sun coming through the blinds).

After spin class I was ready for a yummy lunch. We had broccoli leftover from Thanksgiving so I steamed some with pepper and made a “cheese sandwich”. I used TJ’s soy cheese slices to maked my grilled sandwich and put tomatoes in the middle. Served up with a side of raw green pepper slices. So tasty…

Now for the shopping part- after lunch we decided to get out of the house and do a little shopping. We really don’t need anything but like to poke around in discount stores to see what we can find. So we headed out to Ollie’s and Big Lots. You never know what kind of deals you’ll find at these stores. We came home with a few bags from each store of toiletrees and a few convenience food items. I love to find good brands like Kashi and Cascadian Farm organics so cheap and we never pass them up!

Now that we're home for the day it's time to chill out. There are a few things to finish around the house but it's feeling like a movie and popcorn kind of night.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T18:46:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was wonderful! We hosted both sides of the family this year and fixed our first Thanksgiving dinner. We were blessed to have lots of help from our family and everything turned out great. It was so nice having everyone together this year, all 17 of us. I was busying playing hostess and didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked.

Here is a quick recap and the few pictures that I took.

My sister-in-law works in the floral business and sent us a beautiful centerpiece. So very thoughtful and it looked perfect on our table.

We borrowed a table from church to extend our dining table. With help from my Mom and SIL we managed to set a quite a pretty table. If I must say so myself.

The "older" adults got silver... next year we'll have to combined two sets so we have enough for everyone.

We had two turkeys, one roasted and one deep fried. I didn't eat either of them but everyone seemed to really enjoy both. Jeff watched a lot of Food Network and prepared his first turkey. He also helped my Dad fix the fried turkey.

We started dinner off with my Mom's delicious pumpkin shrimp bisque. By far my favorite part of our meal. After we served soup and said the blessing the rest of dinner was setup buffet style. Again, no pictures.

I had to laugh at Jeff's first plate. A fried turkey wing with beer.

Once everyone stuffed themselves we cleaned up and got ready for dessert. With the help of my Mom and amazing Mother-In-Law the clean up wasn't too bad. They both kept me sane and I can't thank them enough.

Coffee was served and we enjoyed dessert. My Mom made pumpkin and pecan pie and also brought a couple pumpkin rolls made at a local culinary arts school. I sampled the pumpkin roll and pecan pie, both were quite tasty.

We sent everyone home with leftovers and cleared out our refrigerator. This way we are not too tempted with food over the weekend. We kept just enough for one more day of munching.

I want to take a moment to share how truly thankful I am for our amazing family. Jeff and I pulled off our first Thanksgiving dinner but we didn't do it alone. Everyone of our family members pitched in to help make this a successful "production". We love you all and thank you very much!!!

Big thanks to my BIL for getting up early after turkey day to run with me. It felt great to get out for a nice brisk run!

Good Night :)

Pumpkin muffins and holiday tea

2009-11-24T16:07:00.000-08:00

‘Tis the season for everything pumpkin! I have been waiting for a chance to try this recipe for pumpkin muffins. I made them today to serve to our family Thanksgiving morning, something to hold them over until dinner. They smelled so good while baking and I had to sample one. I chose the biggest just incase it wasn’t baked through the center. It was still gooey so I put the rest back in the warm oven for a couple minutes. It had a nice flavor, not to sweet, but tasty for being under baked. The cinnamon and brown sugar topping was quite tasty :)

Pumpkin muffin batter

Ready for the oven

The finished product, check out the brown sugar and cinnamon topping!

Guess what I found?! The Celestial Seasoning holiday tea!!! I was at Safeway picking up last minute groceries and practically ran right into the display…. I’m so excited to try these flavors. The sugar cookie will be my after dinner treat and I plan on serving them along side coffee during the holiday.

Can't wait to try this...

Tonight is pizza night! Have I told you how much I love Trader Joe’s? They have fresh pizza dough for 99 cents and delish pizza sauce. This week we’re all about convenience meals and had fun making this pizza. I grated some fresh mozzarella for Jeff’s and chopped some veggies for mine. We may have created a new flag… The “stars” are made up of onion, green pepper, and broccoli :) Yummy…

We chose the garlic & herb crust but they also have whole wheat and plain. This one is probably not the healthiest but has the most flavor.

Only needed 1/2 the jar of sauce.

And finally the pizza is ready for the oven. Nice shape!

Dinner time

Time to relax with my tea and catch up on our recorded shows. Good night!

Hectic Morning during Day 3 at the Gym

2009-11-24T04:46:00.001-08:00

What a morning so far…. I got up super early, for me anyway, at 5:10 to take Elli out and head to the gym. My legs were feeling sore for some reason (probably didn’t stretch enough, duh) so I kept my workout light. Went for 25 minute intervals on the elliptical then did some abs: 50 bicycles, 25 side crunches, plank and side planks, then stretched really well. By then I had to leave in order to make it to work on time. As a “trial” member you are given parking coupon to get out of the secured lot. I tried 3 coupons before we (myself and the front desk attended) realized that they expired yesterday! I had to go to the security desk for them to open the gate for me to exit. What do you know, the guard who had the key for the gate didn’t come in until 7 am!! At this point I was beyond irritated and kept thinking about Elli who still needed to go out a second time and work. Yeah I have a job to go to and a 40 minute commute. I ended up sitting in the parking lot for 20 minutes waiting for the guard to arrive and let me out. There were other cars waiting so it took another few minutes to finally leave.

What a wonderful start to my day…. Luckily I have a very understanding boss who has allowed me to work from home. This way I don’t have to stress over being on time today.

Now that I’m home and Elli has been out, I can sit down for breakfast. I grabbed my packed lunched bag out of the refrigerator where I had some prepared oatmeal for this morning. Unfortunately there was no fruit to go along with it but I wasn't that hungry anyway.

Here’s my oatmeal and morning coffee. My oatmeal was made up of 1 cup oats, 1 tsp agave nectar, 1 spoon of pb, and a dash of cinnamon. I just had a small cup of regular coffee with unsweetened soy milk.

On to a better note…. Last night I polished our silver for Thanksgiving. My great-aunt left me her silver which is probably over 100 years old. As much as I didn’t feel like taking the time to polish it, I felt a bit of pride doing so. It turned out gorgeous!

It's about time to get ready for my real job. Oh yeah, all most forgot that I'm off tomorrow and the rest of this week! I am going to try a cycle class at the gym tomorrow between all my holiday preparations so I'll post how it goes.

Hope today is wonderful!

Gym Trial Day 2 and Monday Weigh In

2009-11-23T15:57:00.000-08:00

Today was my second of the fourteen-day trial at the gym. This period is going to give me the opportunity to see how the gym will fit into my schedule. The gym is open 24 hours for members but during the trial period you have to be there when they have an attendant, 6am – 9pm. If it were up to me I’d be there right at 5:30am since that would allow enough time to get ready for work.

This morning my alarm went off at 5:20 and I quickly got up to make it to the gym by 6 am. I was buzzing the door at 6 am on the dot. I got a decent workout in: 2.25 mi on the treadmill, stretched, abs workout. I had to be out of there by 6:40 to get home and take Elli out then get ready for the day. I made it to work on time, which proves to me that if I can start going at 5:30am I’ll have more workout time and will not have to rush.

Monday is “weigh in” day at work. I work with two other ladies and we’ve been tracking our weight over the last two months. When we started I weighed 135lbs and today I came in at 130lbs. Not bad- my goal weight is 120 so I have a ways to go!

Here’s what the rest of the day looked like…

A hearty breakfast of TJ’s steel cut oats, pb, and ½ banana with a cup of Celestial Seasonings cinnamon apple spice tea.

For lunch I packed some veggies, hummus, and Amy’s chunky vegetable soup.

Ended up snacking on this later in the afternoon.

It looks like we’ll be having chili again for dinner tonight. Yesterday during football we threw some chili in the crock pot. Jeff makes the best chili and we love how many meals we get out of it. I threw together some corn beard for the side. We had some for dinner last night and ended up with 3 large containers leftover. Two went in the freezer for future use and I left one out for dinner this week.

We never follow a recipe for chili but here’s the run down of our ingredients:

Morningstar Farm crumbles
Dark and light kidney beans
Black beans
Tomato paste
Diced tomatoes (we found some with chili seasoning added)
Chopped onion
1 bag frozen pepper slices (red, yellow, & green)
Chili powder
H2O
Whatever else Jeff threw in to make it delicious!

My smokin' hot dinner...

We just got finished eating and Jeff ended up having chicken noodle soup and a grilled cheese instead. We are both feeling a bit under the weather and that sounded better to him. I made him a grilled cheese with TJ's american soy cheese and to my surprise he actually liked it! Another keeper :)

Since my computer is being crappy and not letting me upload pictures... and I need to polish our silver for Thanksgiving dinner.... I'm going to jump off here.

Have a great evening!

New Gym

2009-11-22T09:16:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Canton Club, a gym that I'm thinking about joining. They offer a 14 day trial membership which I started today. It seems like a pretty nice gym and the view is amazing. It's located right on the water overlooking the marina. They offer a lot of classes that I look forward to attending. While I was there I jumped on an elliptical for 35 minutes and just did some intervals and stretching afterwards. Tomorrow I'll try to squeeze in a workout before work. This trial period will allow me to see how well I can schedule visits around my 9-5.

I took Elli for a walk then sat down for lunch. Once I get cleaned up I will probably go meet Jeff for some crabs, beer, and football.

Since there was salad leftover from dinner last night, I made a wrap and added tofu salad with carrots on the side.

I will keep you posted on the gym experience.

Are you ready for some football?

Mexican and Irish weekend out

2009-11-22T06:58:00.000-08:00

This weekend flew by… we had a fun and somewhat relaxing couple days. We ended up going out for dinner Friday and Saturday night. Friday we headed out with our friends to a Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood, Nacho Mama's. It’s a cool spot, very corky environment, cheap eats and good taste. The hostess confirmed that we have become regulars there since she remembered our last name. There are not many selections on their menu that I eat- most are loaded with meat and cheese. I tried something different this time, vegetable fajitas without the cheese and sour cream. My friends kept telling me that I was missing the best part but these fajitas were wonderful and definitely didn’t need the dairy.

Nacho Mama's has some "rules" and my fav is that they play Journey every night at 10pm.

Started out with the usual chips and salsa.

Here are my veg fajitas- look at all this food! Jeff helped eat some veggies and I had plenty left for lunch on Saturday.

I almost forgot that I had a glass of wine before we left for dinner. Our friends were running late so it was a nice way to pass the time.

We headed home after dinner since we planned to get up early and clean on Saturday.

Saturday we clean everything possible! It was like the spring cleaning we somehow forgot to do. Since we’re hosting Thanksgiving it was nice to get the major cleaning out of the way. I’m off on Wednesday and will touch up everything then too.

After cleaning we headed out to use some gift cards we had laying around, one for Crate and Barrel and one for Ryan’s Daughter, an Irish pub. It was a fun afternoon with a couple beers and light dinner most of which was FREE!

At Ryan's Daughter I got the Greek salad with tuna.

Jeff got a seafood shepherds pie that looked tasty.

That sums up most of our weekend. I'm going to check out a new gym once I post this. I really need to join a gym!!

Oh yeah, Elli enjoyed her weekend too. Here's a pic I took of her chilling on our deck.

I'll check back later with gym updates and week plans. Enjoy this nice Sunday!

tgif

2009-11-20T03:37:00.001-08:00

Good Morning! I’m just checking in quick before getting ready for work. The weekend is finally here.

I’ve accomplished a lot already this morning:
took Elli out and fed her, emptied the dishwasher, ironed Jeff’s outfit for work, fit in a quick workout (30 minutes Tai Chi and Kickboxing from FitTV) and now I’m headed upstairs to get ready for work.

Here’s what in store for the weekend:

Friday- out to dinner with friends
Saturday- run, clean house, 5:00 mass
Sunday- finish cleaning if needed, football, plan for the week (Turkey Day is almost here!)

I will check back on Sunday with weekend pictures and plans for the week. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!!

Cold misty weather and warm chai tea

2009-11-19T15:54:00.000-08:00

Hello all and Happy Thursday! The weekend is almost here :)

Today started off kind of strange with this crazy weather. When I took Elli out this morning I found it to be a bit creepy outside. The best way to describe this weather is like a scene from Stephen King’s The Mist. Luckily there were not huge bug-like creatures flying around, just the usual bum sleeping in the park.

I over slept a bit this morning but was able to fit in a quick workout:

30-minute boot camp (recorded from FitTV)
10-minute abs routine

On my way into work this morning I stopped at Giant for some tea. I always drink something warm throughout the day since my office is freezing. I went to see if the holiday Celestial tea was out that was recommended on one of my favorite blogs. Doesn’t sugar cookie sleigh ride tea sound deliciously warm and cozy? Well of course it’s not out yet or at least Giant didn’t have it stocked. I will be on the look out for this tea all season so let me know if you see it out. I like the Giant close to work because they have a huge selection of natural and organic products. I always head straight to that isle to see what goodies I can find. I ended up spotting sometime I knew would keep me warm at work: Chai Tea Latte Concentrate. I’ve been on a chai tea kick ever since it started to get cold outside and refuse to pay $4-5 a pop at Starbucks or my fav Vaccaro’s although I treat myself now and then. Besides I don’t even want to know how many calories are packed into their drinks. So I got the concentrate and a carton of unsweetened soymilk to keep at work. It’s an easy one-part concentrate to one-part milk and one serving is only 100 calories. (Still a treat in my book) I drank mine warm but you can also pour it over ice. I must say it taste pretty good especially since everything cost as much as one latte out and it will probably make about 10-12 servings. Sweet!

This morning I had vanilla soy yogurt with fresh berries, same as yesterday. Have I mentioned how yummy this yogurt is? It’s a must try! I packed soup for lunch, which went great with the nasty weather, and helped keep me warm. Amy’s Kitchen soups are delish and I had the vegetable minestrone today. This week has been all about healthy convenience foods- not usually the case since I cook most often. My only excuse is that we’re gearing up for Thanksgiving, does that work? I’ll blame it on the fact that we’re anxious about hosting for the first time. Keeping this weeks food simple allows us to relax and get ready for our company. We are hosting both sides of the family, a total of 17 people, and it’s our first turkey!

My Angel

I headed to Target today eager to shop for my Salvation Army Angel. I could have been in there for hours! They had some of the cutest infant/children clothes. It’s a good thing that I set a $25 limit because I could have gone crazy buying clothes for her. I mentioned yesterday that my angel is a 3-month-old little girl and I feel so fortune to be able to help during this holiday season. I tried to get her the most I could with my spending limit and here is what I got.

Cute little girly warm outfits, infant toys, and socks. I decided to get one outfit for her to grow into at 6 months. I pray that her and her family will like what I picked out and hope it helps keep her warm this winter.

It’s time to make dinner, which means I’m done blogging for today. Have a good night!

A Day in The Life

2009-11-18T14:47:00.000-08:00

In an effort to stay on track with my attempt to exercise daily and eat a balanced diet, I’ve decided to share a few days with you here-and-there. I don’t plan to bore you with this everyday although it will help hold me accountable. I am not even sure anyone reads this blog but I pretend someone out there gives a damn, which makes me think about my actions. Whatever works!
Today started off well with a peaceful and productive morning, always a plus in my book. Elli, our black lab, woke me at the usual 5:25 this morning to take her out. Here is what the rest of my day usually looks like…

Wednesday (Happy Hump Day!)

5:25 Woke up and took Elli out
5:40 Fed Elli and prepped dinner, cut up sweet potatoes
6:00 Bundled up and hit the pavement for a 2 mile run
6:20 Stretched and checked The Nest fitness board
6:30 Got ready for work, made coffee, sent Jeff out the door
7:20 Left for work
8:00 My workday begins….
4:30 Head home
5:30 Take Elli out and start dinner
6:00 Catch up with Jeff over dinner
7:00 Blogging & Facebook updates
8:00 Watch TV (usually recorded from previous night), read and relax
9:30 *yawn* get ready for bed

I try my best to plan meals for the week and here is what’s in store for today.

B: regular coffee with unsweetened soymilk
vanilla soy yogurt with blueberries & raspberries
S: carrots with roasted red pepper hummus
L: Amy’s organic black bean and vegetable burrito
S: apple with natural peanut butter
D: vegan Boca burgers with sweet potato fries

Usually I stick with the “plan” but depending on my mood I may switch it up a bit.

Turns out that I wasn’t hungry for a morning snack so I skipped the carrots and hummus. This was my first of Amy’s burritos and I brought taco sauce a long just incase it was dry. I didn’t need it because it taste great plain. I kept cutting my bites smaller and smaller to make it last longer. During my lunch break I caught up with my current read: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. My friend, who is also very much into nutrition, let me borrow it. I’ll let you know how it is once I’m finished. I am juggling two books right now so it may be awhile.

Breakfast

Lunch

Snack

Dinner. I had some salad to use up so I threw that in too.

This post has ended up longer than expected. Hope you have a wonderful evening!

My Angel

2009-11-18T14:46:00.001-08:00

I am so excited to share the joy of giving! I adopted a Salvation Army “angel” child this year to provide Christmas gifts. I found out today that my child is a 3-month-old little girl and feel very fortunate to be able to help. I can’t wait to go shopping for little tiny clothes and infant toys. I have to set a limit though since I can see myself going overboard with her gifts. Once I purchase everything I will be sure to share.

I encourage everyone to help out the less fortunate this year. Time is tough these days for everyone but every little bit counts.

Update

2009-11-17T14:59:00.000-08:00

The past several months just flew by! I was so busy with work that the entire summer seems like a blur. It’s time to dust off this blog.

If you’re wondering what I have been up to lately, here goes…

June through August I was crazy at work with our bank conversion and also training for my second half-marathon. In October I ran the race in my now-home town of Baltimore. What a lovely race, there was so much support from city residence. My darling husband was out cheering me on along the way. I was pleasantly surprised with my finish time of 2:19, better than my last half, 2:22. This course was a bit harder with some tough elevation so I was thrilled to decrease my time.

Throughout the conversion at work I was eating pretty crappy. People would bring in bagels and doughnuts, all kinds of stuff just about every day. This didn’t help me loose weight throughout my training. I just found better reasoning: I ran 7 miles today so what the heck, give me a bagel and don’t forget cream cheese. My blood sugar was constantly low as a result of junk eating and hypoglycemia. After conversion wrapped I knew that changes had to be made since I felt terrible. I did a lot of research about my hypoglycemia condition and to make a long story short, I am now living somewhat of a vegan lifestyle: no meat and extremely limited dairy. After reading several books about vegan and vegetation diets I didn’t think twice about the switch. The change in diet has even helped my husband loose weight. I’m a bit jealous considering I haven’t lost near as much but I feel so much better and that’s what counts.

More recently I have decided to make time to go back to college. I haven’t quite finished my business admin A.A. degree, with 7 more classes to go. At this point my goal is to finish my A.A. and hopefully move on for my bachelor’s degree, depending on where life takes us.

I would like to keep up my blog and hope that it will help keep me sane throughout the school year. Since I plan to start training for another half-marathon, time will be tight with work, school, and wifely duties.

Hope to post again very soon :)

Happy fall, almost winter! (Wow this year has gone fast)

Grillin' Time

2009-05-31T12:25:00.000-07:00

The weather is beautiful so it's time to grill! We wanted to try something different for pizza night so we decided to throw it on the grill. I found a fellow blogger who shared the low-down on grilled pizza. It is really easy, something different, and taste great!

We didn't make our pizza crust since Trader Joe's sells raw crust for $.99!! They have whole wheat, italian herb, and regular crust. We usually use the whole wheat and italian herb. Rather than rolling out a full size pizza we cut our dough in half and made mini pizzas that fit on the grill much better.

It's simple...

Preheat your grill on high

Roll out your crust and brush olive oil on one side

Turn grill down to medium and place pizza crust on grates oil side down

Cook for about 4 minutes, oil other side, then flip

Top grilled side with sauce, cheese, and toppings

Close grill until cheese melts

Enjoy!

NJ shore cupcakes

2009-05-05T16:51:00.000-07:00

I was asked to make cupcakes for my girlfriend's bachelorette party recently. There was no way I was going to show up with some Pillsbury box mix so I found this recipe for chocolate cupcakes. The recipe turned out to be so yummy and easy to make that I'll never ever buy a box mix again. These were fun to make and to add a flirty touch I piped on dyed frosting and added sprinkles.

Rachel's Last Fling Chocolate Cupcakes

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup water
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 ounces melted unsweetened baking chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Combine all ingredients into large mixing bowl. Mix at low speed for 30 seconds, and scrape bowl. Mix at high speed for 3 minutes.

Fill lines 1/2 to 2/3 full of batter. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes in pans then remove from pan, and place on wire racks to cool completely.

Frost when cupcakes are completely cool.

*recipe courtesy of cupcakerecipes.com

Veggie tales

2009-04-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

Living in the city is great although you are limited when it comes to land and gardening. We are very grateful for the huge park outside our front door since we have absolutely no grass surrounding our house. I wanted to test out my thumb (not sure if it’s green) and plant some vegetables. With our limited space a container garden works best. We planted some “trial” vegetables this year, two types of lettuce and radishes. I have read that these are some of the easier to grow and we eat them the most so it sounds like a win-win.

It has been 3 weeks since we planted the seeds and so far they are looking good. The radishes are growing like crazy although the lettuce is slow coming. We are not sure how fast lettuce is supposed to grow and are wondering if the seeds were duds.

We can’t wait to try these beautiful vegetables, if they make it to our plates. Elli may get to enjoy them before we do since she has been eyeing up the radishes an awful lot lately.

Pictures above: Our container garden, Elli relaxing on the deck below our newly installed retractable close line, Elli guarding her veggies

Apple Goodness

2009-04-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

The weather tonight is amazing- I'm sitting on our deck watching Elli (our black lab) play. She loves her rope toy but seems to prefer the radishes we're trying to grow. I keep reminding her that the veggies are for us but the girl will eat just about anything.

Since Jeff is out of town playing basketball I decided to bake some goodies tonight. Here is my dish...

I found this cooking website that is great for healthy family meals. Most of the food seems geared towards kids but since we don't need to worry about that quite yet I decided to try this apple cake (good for all ages).

Tamra Davis' Apple Cake

1 cup sugar

1/2 stick or 2 oz. butter, melted

1/2 cup applesauce

1 egg

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups chopped apples

3/4 to 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease your baking dish. Mix the sugar, butter, applesauce, and egg together with hand mixer. Whisk the dry ingredients together. Blend the wet and dry ingredients and then add apples and walnuts. Pour into baking dish and bake for 30 to 50 minutes (depending on your pan and oven temp) or until knife or toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

Note: batter will be thick

Enjoy!

Spring has sprung!

2009-03-31T15:10:00.000-07:00

Today’s post is short and sweet. We get daily emails from one of my favorite websites, The Daily Green and I have to share this beautiful photo. There is a wonderful album of spring photographs that is updated daily as readers send pictures in and this one really caught my eye. This floating petal was photographed at the New York Botanical Garden.

Check back soon for a new recipe post, we are making turkey black bean & rice burritos this evening!

Irish Remix

2009-03-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

We were grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s last week and decided to get cod fillets, which we have never made before. (For those of you not familiar with TJ, they have a great fish selection). Since we enjoy fish & chips we figured we would give it a try.

Jeff marinated the fillets in beer all day and then battered them in a fish batter we found at the store. To add a twist to this traditional dish we made sweet potato chips. We just cut up two sweet potatoes and cooked them in canola oil. Once they were cooked then the fillets were thrown (not literally) in the oil until golden brown.

I have to tell you we were a bit skeptical of this meal and even had a back up plan to go out if it was a failure. To our surprise this dish was delish!

A.M. Fetish

2009-03-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

I have to share the most delish, energy packed, full-of-good fat breakfast. This gets made in our house just about every morning- it’s quick and easy.

Stasa’s breakfast fetish

1 English muffin
2 tablespoons natural peanut butter
2 teaspoons organic honey
½ banana sliced

Toast muffin and top with remaining ingredients.

Variation: replace the English muffin with a whole wheat tortilla, spread peanut butter and honey on tortilla and wrap around one banana.

Yum Yum

2009-03-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

We enjoy eating all sorts of ethnic foods and trying new things. Without even realizing it we started trying things at home that we would try out at restaurants. By incorporating different ethnic foods throughout our weekly meals, dinner has become more exciting. Anything that you can buy in a restaurant we try our best to recreate from scratch. We have found that most of the time it saves money and is a much healthier option.

Here are some of the meals we will be posting recipes for:
Chicken & Shrimp Pad Thai, Turkey Black Bean & Rice Burritos, Better than Ruth Chris’ NY Strip Steak, Pulled Pork BBQ and Jeff’s “Famous” Chicken bites. As we experiment we’ll be adding even more.

Stay tuned for recipes…