Cycling Saturday

Yesterday morning I had two Thomas' Mini Bagels with a variety of toppings. I used PB&Company Chocolate Dreams on one and PB&Company White Chocolate Peanut Butter on the others. Two were with jelly and one was topped with some banana. This breakfast was so good and filling. In total I used 1.5 tablespoons of peanut butters.

While I blogged I had my normal iced coffee.

Steve and I took out our road bikes and biked 25 miles. We averaged a pace of 15 mph but we have a lot of hills in Western Pennsylvania and sometimes I was biking at 7 mph up hill. My heart rate monitor said I burned 950 calories in 1 hour 35 minutes. My average heart rate was 159 bpm. On flat road I go at a rate around 19 mph. At mile 15 I pulled a fruit strip from my jersey to give me a little sugar. One of these has 45 calories and they are very tasty. They are from Target and come in several flavors.

I felt so good after, but it was up in the 90s temperature-wise so I was happy to come home and cool down. Because of the hot weather I decided a fruit plate with yogurt would be a great lunch. I added some lite cool whip to my peach yogurt. This was the perfect post-biking lunch.

I had another iced coffee to give me some extra energy, because husband decided we were going to start painting our office. We are waiting for office furniture that we ordered and need to get the room painted in anticipation.

Also before painting we gave Sophie a bath, the poor girl looked so sad...

Around 4pm I had one serving of trail mix. This is also a Target find. The Archer Farms trail mixes were on sale at Target last week, so I picked up this one. Which I would buy again, I liked the mixture a lot.

For dinner I made Corn and Bean Stuffed Baked Potatoes from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites. These are vegan and the only ingredients are baked potatoes, corn, pinto beans, and salsa. These potatoes take about an hour and a half to make, so I started dinner at 5:30 to eat after 7pm. I really love these potatoes and have made them several times already. I also had a Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burger and a salad on the side.

We opened a bottle of Chateau St. Michelle Riesling and I had a glass.

I had to do some shopping at the mall, and around 9pm I stopped at the food court and had a small frozen yogurt. Sorry didn't bring my camera to the mall. I also snacked on some trail mix and cereal when I got home from the mall.

I'm sad it is Sunday, I enjoy weekends too much especially with summer coming to an end!! See you all tonight!

Fage Friday

I didn't get around to posting about Friday last night, so here it is...

Before I left the house I had an iced coffee with some Hershey's Lite Chocolate Syrup and light chocolate soy milk.

At work I made oatmeal, with 3 ounces of Fage and peaches and raspberries. The peaches and raspberries were so good together.

Around 11am I broke out the colorful grapes that I packed for a snack. All of these were meant for 2 snacks, but I ate them all at once.


At 12:30 I decided to eat my lunch, even though I had planned to go to the gym before lunch. I packed 1 cup of vegetarian chili from last night and some brown rice.


After lunch I needed something sweet, so I went into the chocolate stash hiding in my desk drawer. A few weeks ago I was craving chocolate so I went to Rite Aid and bought this Cookies & Creme Fully Loaded mini chocolate bars. I had never tried them but at the time they looked good. I don't like them much and won't buy them again. I had two mini bars.



At 2:30 pm I decided to take a gym break, and I even wore my Nike + with my ipod to learn how far of a walk my gym is from my office. I was thinking it was 1/2 mile round trip. But it turns out it is 1/3 mile there so it is 2/3 mile round trip. At the gym I was feeling really stressed and worried I would miss a call from a partner while I was on the machine, so I only was able to do 20 minutes on the stair climber and 5 minutes on the elliptical and a small bit of stretching. In total: 25 min at the gym and then 10 min of walking to and from the gym. I figure on a busy day 35 minutes is better than nothing.


Around 4pm I had a Kashi Cherry Dark Chocolate granola bar to hold me over until dinner.



I got home around 6pm and had no idea what to make for dinner. Around 6:30 I ventured into the kitchen and snacked on some Kashi crackers while deciding what to make. We decided to just make the Annie's Mac and Cheese with peas and Boca Crumbles. We use 1/2 cup Fage instead of milk to make the sauce. We shared a sliced tomato on the side.




After dinner I had another iced coffee. We then went to run some errands.



Around 9pm, when we got home, I had a weight watchers ice cream sandwich, a vita-muffin brownie, with cool whip and Hershey's lite chocolate syrup. This dessert total had about 250 calories. I figure I opted not to have a Friday glass or two of wine, so 250 calories was not too bad for dessert.


I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!!!

Dark Chocolate Banana Brownies

I made iced coffee last night, and before leaving the house this morning I made one with 1/2 cup of light chocolate soy milk and 1 tbsp of light Hershey's chocolate syrup. It was gone when I pulled into the parking garage.

At work I had a breakfast of 1/2 cup of oats, 2 medium farm fresh peaches, and 3 ounces of 0% Fage. This was super filling and I couldn't finish the last couple bites.

I packed a container of grapes to snack on during the day. For all the comments on the colorful grapes, 10 varieties of grapes are on sale at my grocery store for 99 cents a pound, so I really stocked up on the seedless types they had. So there are green, black, and red seedless grapes. I had some of these grapes at 11am.

I went to the gym at noon to get in a weight workout. I did a variety of bicep, triceps, and back exercises. I did a few abs, but not too many. Also the walk to my gym is about 6 or 7 blocks, I should measure actual distance sometime.

I ate lunch after the gym. I ate a individual microwavable serving packet of Annie's Natural Mac & Cheese (I love that they don't use animal enzymes), I added 1 tbsp of 0% Fage, 1/3 cup Morningstar Crumbles, and 1/3 cup of frozen peas. This was such a yummy lunch. I also decided to eat the rest of my grapes.

Around 4pm I started to get hungry in my head. I wasn't hungry in my stomach but I started getting sort of light headed. So I decided to go to Starbucks to get a Mocha Light Frap. I had decided that would keep me full until getting home for dinner.

I got home at 7pm and had a WONDERFUL meal cooked by my husband. This morning Steve threw together his Vegetarian Chili into the Crock Pot and cooked it on low for 8 hours. The house smelled amazing when I walked in. I enjoyed a bowl of chili with a salad and a slice of English Toasting Bread from the bakery at a local farm. This isn't whole wheat, but it is pretty good.

This means lots of leftovers:

After dinner it was time for one of the Dark Chocolate Banana Brownies I made last night. I topped it with light cool whip and some Hershey's light chocolate syrup.

And after the dessert I used our treadmill (we bought one from Dick's Sporting Goods last weekend), I did one of the programs that changes the incline and speed. I only did 25 minutes.

Last night, I saw some very ripe bananas on our counter and I asked my husband what I should make, he requested banana chocolate chip bars that I made the week before we went away, I vetoed that idea. I decided I wanted to find a recipe for banana brownies. He was skeptical. I searched around online and put together and modified based on a couple I saw. Steve loves these and thought they might have been one of my best creations so far. You might find them to be a little closer to chocolate cake than brownies. So here is the recipe for Dark Chocolate Banana Brownies:

Ingredients:
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup boiling water
4 egg whites
1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions: Preheat oven at 350. In a small bowl, combine oats and boiling water; let stand for 5 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites, bananas, sugars, oil and vanilla until blended. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in the oat mixture. When stirring in the oat mixture you might notice it is lumpy. I was lazy and did end up with some oatmeal lumps in the baked brownies, but I thought it was great that way.

Spread into a 13-in. x 9-in. pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (do not overbake).

Tomorrow is Friday : )

Kashi how I love you:)

This morning I decided on apple oatmeal. I used one apple that I bought at a nearby farm. It is a Rambo apple which is now in season. By fall this farm has 15 different types of apples that they grow in their Orchard. I peeled and cored the apple and sprinkled it with cinnamon. I do this the night before, because I eat breakfast a work. I microwaved it for 3 minutes because I like it really soft in my oats. I then cooked 1/2 cup of oats in the microwave with water. I mixed the cooked oats and cooked apples and topped it with vanilla yogurt and some crunchy things that came with my yogurt.

This was so good. Thinking about it makes me want this for breakfast tomorrow, but I already packed something else.



Around 11am I was so tired at my desk, I blame it on the Olympics! So I went to Starbucks for a Skinny Carmel Latte. This perked me up. I was good to go hungerwise based on the skim milk in the Latte, but I had some grapes because I was planning a late lunch and a 1pm trip to the gym.




At the gym I did 30 minutes on the stair climber. My heart rate monitor said that I burned 300 calories. My heart rate was at 160 bpm almost the whole time, which is intense for me. When I got back at 2pm I was ready for lunch. I was soooo excited because I packed a new Kashi product that I picked up on Monday. It is a frozen pocket bread sandwich, the bread was so good. I had mine in the fridge all day instead of the freezer, so I think mine was softer than if kept in the freezer until microwaving. The flavor of it was great. It states on the box that it is Vegan.

This is just a very small paper plate, so don't think this is a huge pocket, but it is very filling.

I also had a salad on the side. It was romaine lettuce, green beans, and mushrooms, with a little Kraft Light Done Right Balsamic salad dressing.

My lunch filled me up well, until around 6pm and I was suddenly starved. I should have packed an afternoon snack for sure!

For dinner I had a Garden Burger brand patty the Chik’n Grill one. I love this patty so much! I ate it on a whole wheat english muffin with some mustard and tomato. I had the rest of the tomato on the side, with some Kashi crackers and cubed soy cheese. I had more crackers than showed on this plate, because I was eating them as my muffin toasted. I ate too fast to really enjoy this (need to work on this). I am ALWAYS rushing and feel like I don't have time to eat my food slowly and really enjoy it.

After dinner I was still hungry, because I let myself get too hungry and then ate too fast. I had a pack of Quaker Mini Delights and some Silk Light Chocolate Soy Milk (love this).

I should do a side by side taste taste of 8th Continent vs Silk light chocolate soy milk sometime. Which do you prefer?

I baked my husband Dark Chocolate Banana Brownies, I didn't try one yet, but I may post about those tomorrow. It is 11pm and I need to get ready for bed, so until tomorrow....

Hawaii!

Thank you for all the kind words about the loss of our yellow lab. Pets do feel so much like family, and it is hard when they are gone.

On a happy note, here are some pictures from Hawaii.

This is a pretty picture from a flag at Pearl Harbor.

Here is Steve in Maui.
This is a beautiful picture of a sunset in Honolulu.



This is me holding up a fish I made by weaving at the Polynesian Cultural Center.


This is me and Steve making music by banging bamboo sticks on the ground.

This picture is my shock of how much a carton of ice cream is that would normally be $4.99 in Pittsburgh. How much does Edy's or Dryer's slow churned cost where you live (not on sale)?? I want to move to Maui, but with these prices I don't know how I would live. The cost of living in Pittsburgh is so wonderful.

I think this is the only other food picture I took the week I was gone. This is a nonalcoholic smoothie in a fresh pineapple. It was so yummy!

I plan to be back to regular food blogs tomorrow. Have a wonderful night!

Sad Monday!!

I know I had promised Hawaii pictures and a regular post, but today I had to go with my mom to put our 14 year old yellow lab Becca to sleep. This was very hard for my mom because Becca was such the perfect dog. It hurt so much to see my mom cry and I was sad too because I grew up with Becca. Here is a picture from a month or so ago. She still looked happy even though she was sick with cancer. My mom took such great care for her!


We miss you Becca!!!

I thought I would take this post to introduce you to my mom's other dogs...

A year before we got Becca we bought what was my first dog ever, Champ the Maltese. Champ is now 15 years old. He is still moving around, although we joke that he had Dementia.


These were my mom's only dogs until 2 years ago when she got sad knowing that Becca and Champ were getting old. So December of 2006 my mom got a Powder Puff Chinese Crescent (usually the Chinese Crescents are the ugly dogs with no fur, but the Powder Puff has the same body type but with lots of hair). My mom named her Noelle because she got it at Christmas time.



Then in May of this year my mom added another to the family this is the Yorkie named Angel Baby:)

Well this post is obviously not health related (and I even took food pictures of all of my meals for Monday) but the sadness of losing Becca made it too hard to post about food. I will try my best to give you a good post tonight about Hawaii or healthy living!!

Thanks for understanding!