WIAW – a new schedule
Another day of eats coming your way. Don’t forget to head over to Peas and Crayons to see the entire link up!
Now that we are back from a little vacation in North Carolina and California, it’s time to settle into my new summer schedule. As you may remember, I made a big announcement that I was leaving my job to pursue a Masters in Social Work. I am really thrilled about this next step 🙂 I have a number of tasks for this summer prior to starting school full time. I am supplementing my time prepping for school with a number of exciting side projects that are a bit more “social work-y” (yeah I’m just gonna own that word) in nature. Here’s what my new schedule is like…
Like every good Tuesday, I started the morning with a cardio warm up and an AM session with my trainer. We were both traveling last week so we haven’t worked out together in two weeks! He definitely brought the pain with a killer lower body workout. I was positively dripping sweat by the end of our session. I headed home to shower and enjoyed a breakfast of iced coffee with 2% milk and overnight oats in a jar! I finally finished my jar of sunflower butter (must get more ASAP I love it) so I made overnight oats with strawberry yogurt, oats, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, and raisins. So delicious and super filling. I had a really busy morning ahead so I didn’t want to get hungry!
My project kept me out of the house until 2 pm! By the time I got home I was positively famished. I reheated a homemade black bean burger (recipe post coming for these because OMG they were so good) on a toasted english muffin with a slice of gouda cheese. I wanted some veggies on the side so I cut up some celery sticks. As a little treat, I turned three of them into “ants on a log” with peanut butter and golden raisins. I guess the golden raisins make them less ant like but that’s what we had open. They were DELICIOUS.
I spent the rest of the afternoon working at home and taking a few phone calls. Suddenly I was totally in the mood to workout again! I am definitely enjoying the increased freedom of my new schedule so I decided to attend a 5:30 boot camp class at my gym I had never been able to get to before! Before heading out, I ate a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats with almond milk. Glad I had it because boot camp was amazing and TOUGH. I don’t normally or always workout twice a day, but I love to exercise so I just do what I feel like doing!
After gym round two, I came back home to work some more until Mike got home from work. We ran out to CVS to pick up some eggs / bread that I needed for our planned dinner. Totally impulse purchased a 99 cent pack of “Red Fish” because I was getting SUPER hungry. They were not as good as the real thing but for 99 cents I wasn’t too upset about it.
With all the proper supplies in hand, I set to work making a frittata for dinner. I wrote a post about frittatas a while ago with more information. This one included eggs (duh), red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, yellow onion, shredded cheese, salt, pepper, and basil. Topped with some sliced avocado and served with a slice of sourdough toast. This dinner totally hit the spot! If you haven’t tried sliced avocado on your eggs before I highly recommend it!
After dinner I wasn’t feel super hungry for a snack but I was having a little bit of a sweet craving. I realized I hadn’t had much fruit so I snacked on a gala apple. It was just ok… not the crispest apple ever. But that’s ok 🙂
Questions for you guys:
- What are your favorite ingredients to include in a frittata?
- Favorite fruit?
WIAW – a little lighter
Sometimes after a really indulgent weekend, I can’t wait to have a day packed full of veggies, water, and slightly on the lighter side. Life is about balance, and this mother’s day weekend was wonderfully indulgent 🙂 Monday morning started bright at early with a 5 mile run in the brisk morning air. I’m really over 40 degree mornings here.. what the hell? Well actually, Monday started by chasing Little Mac around the apartment (have I mentioned how much Little Mac HATES to be picked up and he gets very suspicious if you try to touch him too much), trapping / swaddling him in a bath towel, and using a pair of scissors to cut a giant clump of cat poop out of his fluffy tail. All while Little Mac is howling and crying like we’re murdering him, and Fig is hiding under the bed crying because he loves Little Mac so much. These are the joys are pet ownership my friends. But I finally got out the door for my run! Upon arriving home, I made my standard glass of iced coffee with 1% chocolate milk. Delicious.
I took my coffee into the bedroom, turned on the news, and stretched out. Fig is always really snuggly but for some reason when I get back from working out in the morning he is especially so. This is how we stretch…
Breakfast was my favorite smoothie… frozen bananas (2), chocolate protein powder, scoop of peanut butter, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and a TON of fresh spinach.
I enjoyed it at my desk as usual with my vitamins and some water.
Lunch today was a lightened up pasta salad I made on Sunday night. Included were multicolor pasta, a ton of zucchini, red bell pepper, tofu cubes, seasoning, and some Trader Joe’s Goddess salad dressing. It was DELICIOUS.
I went with a couple smaller snacks throughout the afternoon including a really ripe banana (I love them when they’re this ripeness… the best) and a cup of decaf coffee. I’m trying to be mindful of my caffeine intake. I noticed that other day that I had a really ridiculous amount so I’m trying to decide when I feel like I actually want caffeine, or when I just want a warm cup of coffee.
Also a mango flavored Trader Joe’s greek yogurt before I left work. I’m a fan of the very end of the day snack… that way I’m not cranky on the metro or starving when I walk in the door.
I took the metro out to my brother’s apartment and met up with my mom for my FINAL wedding dress appointment. This has been kind of a crazy nightmare getting this one additional style into the store for me to try on. But finally… after three months of shopping and trying on legitimately over 30 wedding dresses… WE GOT THE DRESS!! Woo woo! Super exciting. To celebrate we went to the Cheesecake Factory for a glass of wine and some dinner. Unfortunately, it was like pitch black in the restaurant and I wasn’t about to be that girl taking flash photos of her dinner in a dark restaurant. I had a glass of Reisling and the “SkinnyLicious” Mexican Tortilla Salad. I can’t even bring myself to actually say the word “Skinnylicious” out loud because it is so embarrassing. I appreciate the lightened up menu but that name is ridiculous. I found this picture online so I’m borrowing it. I don’t know if I honestly believe the nutrition stats on this salad because it was way too delicious (and had way too many delicious things in it) to be 540 calories. But whatever, it’s what I wanted to eat so I ate it… no big deal.
That was all from me on Monday!
Questions for you guys:
- Do you like restaurants that have a “healthy section” of the menu?
- How many wedding dresses did you try on total?
- Any hilarious pet stories to share?
WIAW – low on groceries
It’s time again for What I Ate Wednesday! This week is a Tuesday’s worth of eats but I really need to stop doing this on days when we are tragically low on groceries. I’m a meticulous grocery shopper / meal planner. 99% of what I buy each week is fresh food (produce, meat, and dairy) with only minimal pantry supplies. I find it’s the best way to stay on budget, eat whole / healthy foods, and never have to throw anything away (wasting food makes my soul hurt). Therefore, by the time the end of the week comes, we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Here’s what a Tuesday looks like when we desperately need a trip to Trader Joe’s.
Tuesday started like every Tuesday starts for me… with a session with my trainer. My legs were still not 100% recovered from Sunday’s Broad Street Run so he graciously agreed we could do upper body and I would do my lower body on my own later in the week. Of course, he decided to absolutely kill me during our session… but that’s why I pay him, right?
I wanted nothing more than a delicious fruit smoothie for breakfast, but sadly we are out of frozen bananas (smoothie disaster). In the mix was frozen pineapple, frozen mango, frozen blueberries, soy milk, chocolate protein powder, flax seed, and unsweetened cocoa powder. I finished off the soy milk and I could’ve used a LITTLE more. My smoothie was a little too thick, but that’s ok 🙂 I had a couple spoonfuls to tide me over and enjoyed the rest at my desk at work. Unpictures – cup of coffee and my vitamins, standard.
Mid-morning I got a little hungry so I snacked on a mini-Luna bar I had stashed at my desk.
I had this really awkward and LONG meeting at work. I wasn’t super hungry before the meeting but didn’t want to get hungry in the middle of it (since it was super long). I decided to split my lunch up into two parts. I was craving a veggie-ful salad so I grabbed a small one from the salad bar place across the street. I almost never eat there because they’re STUPID expensive (the pay by the weight places always are) but I made an exception and kept my salad simple.
After the meeting was over, I was definitely hungry again for a little more lunch. I broke into a Diet Dr. Pepper that I brought as a “I have a 3 hour meeting today” treat. I also ate the most bizarre sandwich that tasted amazing. Two slices of Ezekial bread, a touch of wasabi mayo, a Trader Joe’s chili lime chicken burger, black beans, and a slice of gouda cheese. This was a completely random assortment of items and flavors we had in the refrigerator that ended up being delicious. Super score.
On my way out of the office, I snacked on ye another mini granola bar. Apparently that’s a theme today? Got this one for free at the Broad Street expo… it was just ok. Mike and I had a meeting with our wedding coordinator last night and I knew we wouldn’t be eating dinner until late. This was a meek attempt to tide myself over.
Our meeting ended up lasting a little longer than I thought because I had 100 million questions. Afterwards, we went right to Trader Joe’s to grocery shop, but of course at this point we were both starving. I don’t like grocery shopping while hungry, but I did my best just to stick to the list and get out as soon as possible. I managed only two impulse purchases and ate a little of both before arriving home. Chocolate covered, peanut butter filled pretzels and corn chips. Both amazeballs by the way.
Since I snacked a bit on the way home from the grocery store, I kept dinner simple. English muffin pizzas! Whole wheat English muffins, pizza sauce, light mozzarella cheese, diced red pepper, and pancetta. OM NOM NOM.
One thing I severely missed during this day? Fresh fruit. Whole pieces of fresh fruit are a DAILY occurrence for me so I hate when we run out. Don’t worry, I brought like two today 🙂
Questions for you guys:
- Favorite thing you ate yesterday?
- Thoughts on English muffin pizzas?
christinazimm
Pennies on the Run 