Great Products = Lots of Pictures!

I woke up this morning and started getting hungry so I ate the last blueberry oat bar. I need to make these again this weekend.


On the way to work I munched on 1/4 cup of Udi's Granola, that I measured out into a snack bag. Yesterday I just received a package in the mail with a bunch of different flavors of Udi's Granola, and today I had the Cranberry. This actually filled me up pretty well. Until I had a sample from my grocery store a week ago, I had never heard of Udi's. Apparently it is also a restaurant and bakery in Denver, Colorado. The ingredients in the Cranberry are: Thick-Cut Rolled Oats, Wildflower Honey, Dried Cranberries, Canola Oil, and Walnuts. I've never made homemade granola, but my guess is that this is much closer to tasting homemade than other granola on the market. Also included in my package was a recipe for Udi's Granola Chocolate Chip Cookies, which I may try to make in the next couple of days.

At work I ate the berries that I was going to eat with my granola, but instead ate in the car. Overall this wasn't a big enough breakfast (oat bar only had 100 calories, granola 120 calories, 1 cup of berries about 50 calories). Normally my breakfast is about 350 calories. So I think my smaller than usually breakfast is the reason I am still hungry while I type this.


I was in meetings all morning and ate lunch at 12:40. I packed hummus, tomato, and romaine lettuce on a Ezekiel english muffin. I had too much lettuce and tomato so I ate the extra on the side with a little salt.

While eating my sandwich I was reading the post on Jenn's blog and saw her Starbucks trip and instantly craved it, so about 10 minutes after my sandwich was done and I made sure I was still hungry I walked to Starbucks and got the Grande Mocha Light Frap.

Around 4:15pm I started getting hungry so I ate the three Back to Nature Classic Creme cookies that were tucked away in my desk drawer. These tasted so good, but didn't do much to curb my hunger.

I got home about 6:20pm and while my husband and I got dinner ready I snacked on a handful of baked tostitos.

For dinner we had a pack of Rising Moon Creamy Artichoke & Olive Ravioli which was Vegan. The packet has two servings at 240 calories each. I really have loved all of Rising Moon's Raviolis that I have tried. My husband loves them too and would have no idea that they are Vegan. I am really sad though because I think my Whole Foods has stopped carrying these, so now I need to find them someplace else!

We covered the Ravioli in Newman's Own Sauce (we added fresh mushrooms and Morningstar Crumbles to the sauce). We add Morningstar Crumbles to so many of our dishes, but it has never let us down! On the side we had a salad.

After dinner I had one of these for dessert (it jumped into my cart at Target). I loved it, because 1) it was portioned controlled and 2) I love Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough!

After dinner and my dessert I went to my hour Pilates class, and I could really feel my abs working hard. Pilates ended at 9pm and then I had to stop and pick up a card for my brother in law's graduation from his Nursing Program. Steve and I are attending a lunch tomorrow at his University. I am just sneaking out of work from 11am - 1pm. Hopefully they have something healthy and vegetarian. When I finally got home around 9:40pm, I started to get hungry again, so I had a bowl of grapes.

Wow that was a lot of pictures for one day!! Now it is way past my bed time!

Freely Full!

On the way to work today, we stopped at a cute little drive-thru coffee place called Island Bean Company. I had the sugar-free nonfat almond latte, and silly me asked for a Grande when it is a Medium anywhere but Starbucks.

At work I made a French Meadow Sprouted Bagel with pb and jelly. This was the first time I tried the 100 Calorie Pack of Justin's Nut Butter Honey Peanut Butter, and I liked the Maple Almond Butter much much better. The jelly was just a little sample of some sugar free jelly that I wouldn't buy on my own. The bagels impressed me because they have 13 grams of protein. I spotted them in the Frozen Foods Section at Whole Foods.

At 11am I snacked on a Kashi Blackberry Graham bar to fuel my lunch time gym work out. I went around 11:30 and did upper body weights and 35 minutes of intense spin (in 35 minutes I burned 300 calories).

When I got back from a good gym workout I was ready for lunch. I packed about 1/3 cup oats, 2 tbsp flax, 1 tbsp sliced almonds, and cooked it with 1 banana. I topped it off with some fresh berries and a new flavor of yogurt that was on sale and I normally wouldn't buy based on the unnatural ingredients.

This worked as an addition to my oatmeal, but it was less tasty by itself, maybe because it tastes too artificial?? I prefer the Yoplait White Chocolate Strawberry flavor over this one.

Around 4:30pm I ate my snack pack of grapes.

Steve and I ate out tonight because I had received a free entree coupon at any Big Burrito restaurant for my birthday and it expired today. There are 6 different Big Burrito restaurants, which are all located in Pittsburgh besides Mad Mex because the Big Burrito Company opened Mad Mex in other Pennsylvania cities.

We decided to go to Soba, which is described as "Pittsburgh's premiere example of Pan-Asian cuisine." Steve and I started with sharing the avocado maki: "wok seared corn and herb salad."

I also had a Volcano Martini which included montbisou framboise, blue curacao and sparkling wine.
My main entree was corn, green bean and lo mein noodle stir fry: with patty pan squash, chanterelle mushrooms, and garlic chili sauce. This plate was shallow and I ended up eating it all.

Although I was really full, I also had a free birthday cold stone coupon that expired today. So I got the sinless sweet cream with cherry pie filling, chocolate shavings, and whipped cream. If you live near a Cold Stone you should sign up for their Birthday Club and get a free Love It Signature Creation for your Birthday.

I feel like that was a lot of food, but I can't let a free coupon go to waste:)

Where did the weekend go?

I'm feeling a lot better and feel refresh after a 5 mile walk with Steve and Sophie (Sophie didn't really do much walking, she pretty much slept in my arms). So here is Sunday and Monday.

Sunday

We have so much fruit, so for breakfast I had a fruit salad and two of the Blueberry-Oat Bars I made last week.

For lunch I had some leftovers from Sunday's party. Some of the roasted red pepper hummus I made, some guacamole, a tomato, some baked tostitos, and pretzel crisps.

I started feeling stick, with a huge migraine a little after lunch and the day went down hill from there. I was supposed to go on a long bike ride with Steve but I felt so exhausted that I needed to lay down. I told him I would go after a small nap. Well I ended up sleeping from 2-4 before Steve came to check on me. When he woke me up, I had a full blown migraine and told him to go without me. I tried to have a snack of 1 cup of cereal and 1 cup of skim milk.

I then fell back asleep from 4-6:15pm. We had made plans to have dinner at another couple's house who live down the road. We told them we would be there at 6:30, so even though I had a migraine we figured we couldn't cancel. They were making homemade Belgium Waffles with a mix from Williams Sonoma (Sorry no picture). They had the most heavy duty waffle maker I have ever seen. It made two Belgium waffles at one time. I had mine with a little maple syrup and a side of cantaloupe. We stayed there talking until 9:30 when my headache had come back strong.

Monday

Unfortunately a night of sleep didn't rid me of my migraine and I felt horrible this morning. Because I felt like crap last night, my husband was great and packed my Monday meals. He made this beautiful fruit salad for breakfast. I didn't eat breakfast until close to 9am, and even then I thought I was too sick to eat.

I had packed my gym bag to take a lunch time spin class, but my migraine was still around and I felt too weak. Even at lunch I didn't feel very hungry. I really didn't feel in the mood for the wonderful taco salad my husband made, but I convinced myself to try to eat it. I'm glad I did because it really did taste wonderful. In one container I take a chopped romaine salad and then in another I have one serving of Baked Tostitos, 1/3 cup Morningstar crumbles, salsa, and 1 slice of soy cheese. I microwave the taco mixture at work and then put it on top of the salad.

At 4pm I decided to eat the Fiber One Bar that was a sample in our Sunday newspaper, that my husband packed in my lunch. It was a little too sweet for me today, but other times I've had these I liked them (although I do not like the list of ingredients). I have never bought a box of these, but I have purchased them in an emergency from a gas station or from a vending machine.

I got home around 6:30pm and decided to try some frozen Indian food that Steve and I bought at Whole Foods last week.

Here is my Ethnic Gourmet dinner out of the box with the Naan Bread. The Ethnic Gourmet meal tasted pretty good, although I don't think that it was quite as good as the Amy's Frozen Indian Meals. The Korma had 300 calories and one piece of the bread had 182 calories. The Naan bread was actually really good and I'm sure we will buy it again.

I split the third piece of Naan bread with Steve.

The walk made me a little hungry so I had a handful of Trader Joe's mini meringue.

I am super tired and am hoping that my headache doesn't come back, so I better get to bed.

Stay Tuned!

I got a huge migraine last night that has continued to this morning, so I didn't get to post Monday. I will post tonight about Sunday and Monday.

Any one have migraine problems? Recently I've been getting a couple a week. My mom said maybe some food is triggering it, but two of the major triggers are wine, coffee, and chocolate and I didn't have any of that yesterday when this started.

Have a great Monday!!

Hot Weekend!

The last two days have been busy and have flown by so here is a recap of Friday and Saturday:

FRIDAY


I was working from home today, because Sophie had an appointment at the Vet at 3:30.

For breakfast I had a bowl of cereal with peanut butter granola and Trader Joe's High Fiber Cereal, with unsweetened chocolate almond milk and berries.




Lunch I tried some of the homemade hummus and orzo salad I made for the potluck I had Friday night. Along with some pretzel crisps, kashi crackers and soy crisps. This plate looks huge, but it was a small salad plate. I made the Orzo salad with whole wheat orzo, tomatoes, capers, olives, peas, EVOO, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. The hummus recipe is from the Veganomicon cookbook.




With lunch I had some TJ meringue and a spoon of Peanut Butter & Co.'s Dark Chocolate Dreams.



As a snack before my friends came over, I had some grapes.


Once my friends came I started gossiping with them and didn't take any pictures. I the same stuff pictured in my lunch, plus some fruit, and my friend brought some vegan flat bread that I tried.

My husband made us dessert. Although he went to the movies because it was a girls night. I asked him to make Veggie Girl's Cookies and Cream Muffins. These were so good. I love cookies and cream things, so these looked so good to me. Steve even decorated them. I had one of these with dinner. I am so amazed on what a great job he did, because I'm the baker in the family.

While I didn't drink at my pot luck, when Steve got home from the movie, we went out with my girlfriend Sarah and I drank two small gin and tonics.

SATURDAY

Today we were rushed to get out the door because Steve had a playoff soccer game an hour away. We decided to take Sophie and planned to be gone all day. I wasn't hungry at all, so I just grabbed a Ginger Snap Larabar. This tasted great and actually filled me up more than some of the other flavors.

After Steve's game ended around 1pm, we were really hungry and because we didn't have time to pack lunch we had to get something to go. Steve watched Sophie in the air conditioned car and I ran into Eat n' Park. I had wheat toast (no butter) and egg beaters. I was so hot, so I also got a sugar free mocha milk shake.

We had a 3pm birthday party near where the game was, we were there until after 6pm. I drank three bottles of water because it was so hot. I also snacked on a few pretzels and tortilla chips until dinner. There was not one vegetarian think at dinner, so Steve and I told the hosts that we had dinner plans and we left. Because it was after 6pm and home was an hour away, we decided to stop to get Whole Food's Salad Bar/Hot Food Bar. I filled my with a lot of romaine lettuce and then sampled a little of many things on top.

With dinner (because we were outside all day and I was really hot) I got a Mocha Light Frap from Starbucks.
When we got home I was still a little hungry, so I indulges in two of these cupcakes.

Thirsty Thursday!

Last night was busy, so here is Thursday....

This morning I had two of the blueberry-oat bars I made earlier in the week before leaving the house. I really can't get enough of these, and plan to make them again soon.


I had packed a different breakfast, but wasn't feeling like it after the oat bars, and I felt really thirsty and overheated so I decided I wanted something cold and went to Starbucks and got an Iced Venti Mocha Light Frap. I always take a picture empty because I start drinking it on my walk back to the office.


For lunch I threw some left overs into a container. I had a little brown rice leftover, some broccoli, cauliflower, and frozen vegetarian dumplings from whole foods. I topped it off with some reduced sodium ginger soy sauce. I was actually so hungry that I was eating this at 11:45.


With lunch I had green grapes and pineapple. Isn't this mug cute? Steve brought it back from a business trip to Hershey, PA.
At 3pm I decided to go to the gym for a quick run, I only got 2.3 miles in, but something is better than nothing. I was feeling hungry before I went, so I stopped at the GNC that is right outside my building. My lucky day because they had 3 Key Lime Pie Larabars on sale. I bought all three but only ate this one:) I never had this flavor but really liked it. It was great at calming my hunger and giving me energy to run.

I had made muesli for breakfast (which I didn't eat then) with 1/3 oats, 2/3 unsweetened chocolate almond milk, 1/8 cup dried fruit, 2 tbsp flax meal, 1/8 unsweetened coconut, 1 tbsp sliced almonds, and some fresh berries. These blackberries were huge! Because I had some shopping to do right after work and I decided to eat dinner at 6pm before I left the office. This was really good, and enough to hold me over until I could get home for something else.

When I got home at 8pm I was hungry so I had some left over couscous in the fridge (sorry no picture).

I have a super busy Friday, Sophie has a vet appointment and tonight at 6:30 a group of my girlfriends from high school are coming over for a pot-luck. We get together once a month, usually at a restaurant, for a girls night out. This is our first pot-luck.

Turns out Sophie is a fitness guru too, look at her getting ready to go to the gym!!

Have a wonderful Friday!!!

Sloppy Wednesday!

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, I really love being part of this community, because with my job, I don't get any warm praise or recognition.

Sophie, our puppy, has been getting us up at 5am, although we are used to waking up at 5:30 to workout, now when we wake up at 5am we just play with Sophie, because we know that she will be along until after work.

When I woke up at 5am I was feeling hungry, so I ate two of the blueberry-oat bars from yesterday's post. I can't get over how good these are!


I got to work a little later than I had pre-puppy, because I feel sad leaving her. I ate my breakfast in my office around 8:40. When Steve picked up the cupcake from Whole Foods he also picked up one of my favorite vegan oat scones from the Whole Foods Bakery. I had my scone with as sugarfree jelly sample we had in our pantry and a 100 calorie pack of Justin's Nut Butter, a new brand of nut butters for me that I just ordered from online. This 100 calorie pack is Maple Almond Butter. I loved this flavor, and I love that it comes in little 100 calorie portions. I also ordered some of the larger packets, which have a higher number of calories. I thought it would be a great thing when travelling, especially when we go to Hawaii in August with no meals served on a 9 hour flight!!!


I went to a spin class at noon and in 36 minutes burned 350 calories, my heart rate was high the entire class, it was so intense. When I got back from the gym I ate my lunch. I packed an Ezekiel english muffin, a little container with 2/3 cup morningstar crumbles and 2/3 cup Newman's Own Spaghetti Sauce, and a slice of soy cheese. This was a tasty, quick, and filling lunch. Vegetarian Sloppy Joes:


Around 3:15 I had some grapes to hold me over until dinner.


For dinner we went to Qdoba because I had signed up on their website for thier e-mail list so I got a free entree coupon for my birthday. I also got a coupon for free chips just for signing up for their emails. So if you liked free stuff and Qdoba, sign up. For my entree I had Vegetarian Gumbo which includes rice, beans, tortilla soup, salsa, and tortilla strips. I said no to the cheese and sour cream.


Steve and I shared the free chips:

I missed Pilates because we were at a furniture store, but I picked up some Pilates DVDs from Target so I plan to try to do one today. At home I also had some of the never ending Bruster's cake from last Sunday.

Have a great day, see you tonight!