10 miles at 10am

So I am preparing myself for the 10-mile race I am participating in at 10 am. My husband signed up for the 15 miles. The 10 mile is part of my training for a 1/2 marathon I'm running in one month. It will be my 2nd 1/2 ever, but I am going to be better prepared last time.

Last night I had a fantastic meal. We picked up food at one of my favorite places to eat out - Aladdin's Eatery. There are a few in Pennsylvania, and besides here, you can find it in 6 other states.

I started out with a bowl of vegetarian lentil soup that was full of flavor.

I love lentil soup, but the one time I tried to make it in my crockpot was very unsuccessful. Anyone have a good vegetarian lentil soup?

Steve and I got the hummus appetizer to split. It also comes with a whole bunch of pitas. I had three spoons of this on my entree.

For my entree I had the falaffel salad pocket. It is served in a pita. There were 3 falaffels that I broke up and spread all over my salad.

This dinner left me so satisfied. Normally I would rather eat at home, but I could eat Aladdin's food every day I think!

See you sometime tonight after my race. I hope to show you the playlist I made last night for this 10 miles.

More than you wanted to know about me...

I was tagged by a Toronto girl out West to tell 25 random things about myself. Now I didn't do this the 5 times I was tagged on facebook, but here it goes . . .

1. I have a brother who stuck a raspberry in his ear and ended up in the hospital for a week because of it. I have another brother who stuck an eraser up his nose and forgot it was there until a doctor found it.


2. I didn't wear glasses until my senior year of college, now I'm basically blind without them.


3. I waited in line outside a bookstore in Oxford, England at midnight to get the fourth Harry Potter Book. I was spending a year studying there, and some of my friends convinced me to go. I don't think I even ever finished reading that book!!!


4. I met Jenny McCarthy, and she signed a pair of shoes and a hat for me. She told me I was a very sweet sister because I had the hat signed for my older brother. I knew I was a great sister, but it was nice for Jenny to reaffirm that fact.


5. I haven't ate meat since I was 11. My brothers are to thank for this. Who knows what I would be like if they hadn't made mooing sounds as I tried to eat meat as a child.
6. I wish that I was a personal trainer and not a lawyer. I would be a nice version of Jillian Michaels, although, she is most likely so famous because she yells.


7. Sometimes I close myself in a bathroom and put on my ipod, hold a brush in my hand and pretend that I'm on stage. One time I was doing this in our bedroom. I didn't close the door, and because of my loud ipod I didn't hear Steve come up the steps, so my secret was discovered!!


8. I celebrated my 13th birthday in Paris, my 14th birthday in the United Kingdom, and my 16th birthday at student council camp. But I always hated having a summer birthday, because I never got to bring a treat to school for my birthday.


9. I had a benign tumor removed from my ear during my third year of law school. The tumor destroyed three hearing bones that had to be replaced with prosthetic bones. Because of this surgery I can never swim or put my head under water again. I used to swim laps in the pool, 3 days a week and a mile each time. At least I didn't lose my hearing and it wasn't cancerous.


10. I took gymnastics the entire summer before college to prepare for college cheerleading tryouts, only to break my elbow doing a back handspring a few weeks before my freshman year. My mom thinks me breaking my elbow was the best thing to happen to me, because she doubts I would have graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 3.9 gpa if I had been a cheerleader. I'm starting to think it wasn't such a blessing, because if I didn't graduate with a 3.9 I would not have become a lawyer, which it turns out is not much fun.


11. I'm a huge homebody. I would rather play scrabble and watch a movie on a weekend night then go out. I would rather make a home cooked meal than go out to a restaurant.


12. Despite being a homebody, I LOVE LOVE LOVE to travel, I really start to get irritated when I haven't left Pittsburgh in more than a few months.

Okay that was only 12, so count this cute picture of Sophie dressed up for Halloween as a stand in for numbers 12-25 :) .....

Okay I'm tired and need sleep. Have a great night!!

Enjoying Real Ice Cream

First, I wanted to thank the new visitors to my site, or at least the first time commenters. Your comments mean a lot to me, and I hope that you continue to visit and comment on my blog.

I forgot my camera when I left the house yesterday, so I don't have a post with all my meals. But, I thought I would highlight two items that I ate and loved.

For lunch I had Meatless Meatballs from Trader Joe's. I love these. My husband likes them a lot too. Yesterday I had a serving with a few cut up tomatoes and diced fresh chives. I loved how the fresh tomatoes and chives tasted warmed up with the meatless meatballs.

I ran 4 miles while watching the Biggest Loser last night, and on the way home from the gym I picked up a little treat. I had planned on having a VitaMuffin, but I decided that I wanted a bite of ice cream to go with it. I usually buy the Edy's Slowchurned, but really that stuff has many ingredients that I don't understand. So I decided to splurge on a pint of real ice cream. I bought Green & Black's organic ice cream, because I love Green & Black's chocolate so I figure this wouldn't disappoint. This pint cost $4.99 so it was a bit of a splurge in price and calories.

Here is what my treat looked like. I was so satisfied after that ice cream on my plate and didn't even want more. I think that the fact that it was real ice cream made me savor it more. I would highly recommend this ice cream. I can't wait to try the chocolate ice cream from Green & Black's, because it is made with dark chocolate.

I had found this article a few days ago and have been wanting to share it with the blog community. It discusses taking picture of food and how some restaurants forbid it. Apparently Whole Foods has a policy that does not allow photographs in its stores. Has anyone been told to put away their camera in Whole Foods or in a restaurant?

Also go head over to For the Love of Oats and wish Lindsay a great 1 year of blogging and enter to win some prizes!

National Banana Bread Day

I have been enjoying smoothies most mornings, which is a little weird being that it is so cold outside. I use 1/2 cup skim milk, a carton of yogurt, 1 tbsp flax meal, 1/2 tbsp wheat germ, 1 scoop of protein powder, and frozen and/or fresh berries.

Around 11 am I had a morning snack of a Hot'n Healthy Pure Protein bar. I have been looking for the chocolate chip brand of these, but no luck yet.

The pure protein bar held me off until 2pm! I think part of my lack of hunger was stress that I talked about in my morning post.

For lunch I packed a salad in one bowl with just lettuce, spinach, and arugula. Then in another Tupperware container I smashed with a fork 1/2 cup of chick peas and mixed them with 1 tbsp Dijon mustard, 1 tsp olive oil, a few splashes of balsamic, 1 tbsp flax meal, tomatoes, and celery. I pack it separately so it doesn't make the lettuce soggy.

I read this morning on the Hungry Girl newsletter that it is National Banana Bread Day. And on my drive home I passed a Bob Evans with a sign that it is National Banana Bread week, so I thought that it was only appropriate that I have some banana nut with dinner.

Last week I received a shipment of VitaMuffins that I bought off of the VitaMuffin website. One of the flavors that I ordered was the Banana Nut.

I had an unconventional dinner (my husband had a test for his MBA program tonight). I had a bowl of oatmeal topped with the Vitatop. I had 1/2 cup oats with 1 tsp almond butter and 1 tsp honey.

Sorry for all the white in this photo...it is so hard to even see the oatmeal.

I am off to my Monday night Pilates class. I will be eating a snack after that. Most likely some grapes, because I have way too many in my fridge.

Tracking Calories

I have noticed a tread in my eating that I am trying to change. So I have decided to log my meals at SparkPeople.com. I tried to copy the picture of my screen so far today, but it is rather blurry and small. But at least maybe you can get the idea, if you have never used SparkPeople, of how it is set up.

The top of this picture should say "Breakfast". I had a smoothie (pictures later tonight) that had a ton of ingredients, so that is why there are so many things under breakfast. Additionally, it allows you to add meals, so I added a morning snack, because I try to eat smaller meals every 3 hours, instead of 3 large meals.

Okay on to that tread. First, I am a crazy emotional eater. I've been stressed about some things lately (the major item being work security, because we were put on notice that there will be associate layoffs, possibly by the end of March). Secondly, I tend to eat not enough some days, and then too much to the point that I feel ill other days. I'm hoping that by logging my meals, I can maybe avoid emotional eating and eat around the same amount of calories daily. Finally, I am scheduled to run in two 1/2 marathons (one in March and one in May) so I want to know that I'm fueling correctly for those races.

If you have never visited SparkPeople, I would highly recommend stopping over there. Even if you don't need or want to track your calories, it has great articles and wonderful recipes.

Country Bob Winner and a Fabulous Package

I used Random.org to determine 2 random numbers and 8 and 5 came up. That means the winning comments are:


Ariel said...
Your tofu looks great! I'd love to try that sauce on some tofu or tempeh.


and


Tiffany P said...
I've been seeing this sauce everywhere! Would love to try it! Hopefully I'll win!! I luv ur blog by the way!


Ariel and Tiffany, send me an email with your address and I will send it to Country Bob's!


Last night I got two boxes: One was an order of Vitamuffins that I ordered and the second was a package from the wonderful Gina at the Fitnessista. Look at all these goodies!!


I had to rip open a bag of macaroons right away! They were just as amazing as everyone has said. My husband even said "We need to get you a dehydrator so you can start making these." He was just as impressed as I was. I was also excited to find two bars that I have never tried before. I have not tried the Goji berry bar (shaped like heart) yet, but I can't wait to try it!

Here is a close up of the packaged macaroons. Gina packed them so well :)



I already had two last night and two this morning :) My husband even thinks the blog world is pretty wonderful after receiving this package!! Thanks Gina!


I will do a post this weekend to tell you all more about my Vitamuffin package including a comparison to the Fiber One Muffins I bought last weekend.

Have a great Friday!

Zoe's Granola

Yesterday I was so excited to come home to a package from Zoe's with some of their yummy granola. I had won these from MizFit a few weeks ago. I have had Zoe's O's before but I had never tried their granola before. I received the Honey Almond Granola and the Cranberries Currants Granola.

I really loved this granola. It states that it is a New Crunchy Recipe, but although it is crunchy I liked how it felt airy because of the rice crisps and soy crisps. I hate when granola is too hard to bite down on. I also loved that it included ground flaxseed, because this is something I often add to my breakfast.

This morning I enjoyed 1/4 cup of each type of granola over some Stoneyfield Farms Nonfat Yogurt and some berries.

Here is a close up of the granola:

I also loved that (even after shipping) there were large chunks of granola. When I'm snacking on granola I like being able to pick out a few big chunks.

Go check out Zoe's website and learn more about their great products. I loved how they even include a mission statement!!

Thanks MizFit for hosting this great giveaway and thanks Tori for sending me along this great product to try!!

Also, don't forget to comment on my post here to try to win some County Bob's Sauce.

Product Review and Giveaway!

For over a month Sundays in our house have been "Crockpot Sundays". We have made something in the crockpot that we could enjoy all week. This week I tried to throw together a minestrone with what we had in the house.

I found these goodies in the pantry:

I drained the beans before throwing them in the crock pot, but everything else I just tossed in as it. The parsley wasn't from the pantry, that is in the fridge. I cut up a few pieces of parsley and threw it in a pan to saute with these veggies:

In this pan is celery, mushrooms, onions, parsley, 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic, and carrots. I saute it in a little EVOO for a few minutes before adding to the crockpot.

I put the crockpot on low for 6 hours. After 6 hours is up I added some of this wonderful pasta and cooked on low for another 30-40 minutes.

When it is done I have this:

We both had this soup for dinner last night, and there were 4-5 servings left over for the week. I had a serving for lunch today too!

Saturday I went to Sam's Club and found these Fiber One muffins in the freezer section.

Steve and I each tried one with a smoothie for breakfast on Sunday. I cut the frozen muffins in half and put a little bit of Smart Balance Light on each half. I then toasted them in our toaster oven for 3 minutes.

I try to stay away from prepackaged foods as much as possible, but I liked these. It does say that the topping on the muffin has some HFCS, although there is barely any topping on each muffin. A vita-muffin may be a better choice, maybe I will compare the nutritionals of the two on a later post.

Finally, another product review and a give away!! Country Bob's was kind enough to send me two bottles of its All Purpose Sauce. Plus Country Bob's promised to give away some of its sauce to two of my readers!

I used the all purpose sauce to marinade some tofu. I then baked it at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

I thought this All Purpose Sauce worked great and was a fast alternative to mixing my own marinade.

I enjoyed my tofu over some veggie stir fry.

My husband also used the All Purpose Sauce on his Chicken and he thought it worked great.

If you want to try Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce. Leave me a comment on this post by Thursday Night at 5pm. Also if you want an extra chance to win, mention this contest on your blog and link back to this post. I will pick a winner by randomly picking a number.

Valentine's Day

Yesterday morning Steve made me buckwheat pancakes shaped as hearts with frozen berries that he warmed up in the microwave.

It looked like the hearts were bloody :)

Steve also bought me roses.

I order Steve a cookie bouquet by Cookies By Design . He likes a variety of cookies, so I got him the cookie basked instead of all iced sugar cookies. I love ordering these cookie bouquets. I have bought them for birthdays and engagement presents. They are so cute.

The cookies taste very good too : )

Have a great Sunday!! My firm is closed tomorrow, but I'm going in. I hope no one is there and I can escape at lunch!

Secret Valentine!

Victoria from the Idle Loaf was my secret Valentine. She got be three bars that I have never tried before. I already tried and really enjoyed the Boomi Bar and plan on trying some of the other flavors of Boomi Bars.

I already tasted some of the dark chocolate, which is one of my favorite brands (Green and Black's).


Close up of the bars:

Thanks Victoria!!

Happy Friday :)

Boomi Bar

My secret Valentine was Victoria from The Idle Loaf. I will post pictures of the complete package she sent me tonight, but one of the bars she sent me was a Boomi Bar.

This is an image I took from the website, because I'm at work and don't have my pictures here:

The flavor Victoria sent me was Perfect Pumpkin. I loved it. I have never tried this bar before and I was really impressed with it. The ingredients in Perfect Pumpkin include: Pumpkin Seeds, Honey, Dates, Raisins, Apricots, Cranberries, Crisped Rice, Puffed Amaranth, and Salt.

I loved that the sugar count was only 3 grams.

There are 13 different flavors, and I can't wait to try the other kinds. I don't know if any are without Honey and therefore Vegan, but they all are labeled Gluten Free.

Thanks Victoria for introducing me to such a yummy snack!

Has anyone ever tried this bar? Which flavors have you tried?

Eating in Paris (in Vegas)

Vegas was a ton of fun, and it was hard to go back to work today :)

For Steve's birthday I made reservations at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in the Paris Hotel and Casino. It is in the Eiffel Tower and we got a window seat, so we were able to watch over the Bellagio fountains.

The restaurant is on this level of the Eiffel Tower:

For a starter I had the Autumn Greens, Roasted Beets, Blood Orange:

This was an amazing salad!!

For my entree I had Baked Herbed Crepe, Artichoke and Walnuts, Slow Roasted Tomato Coulis, Basil Pistou

For dessert Steve and I split a Chocolate Eiffel Tower Soufflé. We had to order this when we ordered our dinner, because it takes a half hour to make.

In addition to the dessert we shared, the restaurant brought this out for Steve. It was a mouse of some type I think.

We also shared a bottle of wine that I didn't take a picture of. This restaurant was WONDERFUL. It was the best meal that I have in a long time, but it was very pricey.

Off to Vegas...

I'm on my way to the airport to fly to Las Vegas. It is my husband's birthday gift. Steve will turn 26 on Saturday. He is 7 months younger than I am, so it is about time that we were both 26!

See you Monday night for a recap of my Vegas trip! Have a great weekend foodies.

Parade Day!

I have been super busy and have not had any time to get things crossed off my to do list, including my daily blog. I'm great at taking pictures, but I always run out of time to post!! My husband and I are going to Vegas Friday morning until Monday night, so that makes this week a little more crazy! If you have any Vegas suggestions let me know (we have never been there)!

Here is what I ate yesterday...

For Breakfast I made a smoothie, that ended up much smaller than I planned! It has greek yogurt, milk, frozen berries, and protein powder.

Because my smoothie was so small, I picked up a latte before work to fill me up:

For a morning snack I had a tbsp of Almond Butter and an apple. Speaking of almond butter, check our Hangry Pants' contest to win some!!

Downtown was crowded today, because there was a parade for the World Champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Here is what it looked like:

This is our quarterback "Big Ben":

This is our kicker Jeff Reed (funky hair) and punter. Please don't the crazy guy on the walk/do not walk light! Not sure how he got up there, or how long he lasted.

The best part about parade day was my firm let us wear jeans and jerseys or sweatshirts!!! I loved it.

For lunch I had a wonderful salad. I mashed some chick peas with a fork (although some still look whole) and added a little home made vinaigrette, red pepper, and celery and poured it over a bed of lettuce right before I ate it. So I took the mashed chick pea salad in a separate container so it didn't make the lettuce soggy.

About an hour later I had a grapefruit:

On the way home from work I got stuck in traffic, so I pulled a peanut butter Luna bar out of my glove compartment (don't worry I checked the date and this one wasn't recalled). I took the picture of the wrapper at home.

For the second half of dinner (the Luna counting as the first half) I had a Boca burger on an Arnold's sandwich thin. I had hummus and soy cheese on the sandwich too.

After dinner I had some milk and a pumpkin pie kashi bar. I love these. They are tiny, but hit the spot.

I used my treadmill upstairs for 30 minutes as my exercise. I don't know if it is new, but it is so so so hard to run on. I can whip out the miles on the treadmill at the gym, but my home treadmill is torture and I end up walking on a steep incline. I wish I new what was up with it. We installed it, so maybe we didn't grease it enough or something??

Okay well back to work! Have a great day :)