Wheat free snacks

I am a Girls on the Run coach this Spring and one of my girls is Gluten Free. As a coach I am responsible for bringing a healthy snack for the girls each practice (Monday and Wednesday nights until the end of May).

I brought organic fruit strips last Wednesday. But I want to have as many different snacks as possible. I don't want to single this girl out, so I want to always bring Gluten Free snacks. I have some ideas. But if anyone can help me think of some, I would be very thankful. I am sure that VeggieGirl will be especially helpful :)

Here is an explanation about Girls on the Run:

Girls on the Run® is a non-profit prevention program that encourages preteen girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through running. Our curricula address all aspects of girls' development - their physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual well-being.

I have a yummy meal planned this weekend, so hopefully it is a success and it turns into a great blog post.

Also last night for dinner I had a creation that was inspired by the Chocolate Covered Vegan - Katie. I will post pictures and talk about that tonight!!

Shepherd's Pie Vegetarian Style

Steve and I had a dentist appointment today so we got home earlier than usual from work and had time to make a new recipe. I have the Hungry Girl cookbook and there is a recipe on page 278 for squash-tastic shepherd's pie. While the real recipe calls for turkey, I used Boca crumbles and vegetarian gravy. Also I used fresh carrots and celery and frozen peas, instead of all frozen vegetables. I googled the recipe and I found it in this article.

We cooked it for 25 minutes, but I think it would have been better cooked longer so the top could brown more like a normal shepherd pie.

Here is what it looks like inside:

Here is my portion with some kale chips. This looks like a huge portion, but it is a salad plate.

I really loved this recipe and love that we have a ton of leftovers from it.

I also enjoyed the last treat that I had left from Gina's package. It was a goji berry bar. And how cute is Gina that she even cut these like hearts. I need to get my hands on a dehydrator so I can try to make Gina's recipes!!

Now for a heart healthy drink that I have been loving - POM wonderful!

I buy San Pellegrino by the case from Sam's club, and a little bit of POM juice goes a long way to add flavor to my sparkling water. Plus pomegranate juice has a lot of great health benefits and one bring great for cardiovascular health. I really value the importance of heart disease because my mother has suffered from heart disease her entire life and my father died from a heart aneurysm when I was only 11. So the fact that studies have show that pomegranate juice is beneficial for people like my mom means that it must be a drink worth trying!

Thanks Diana for introducing me to this great product. I'm glad to have something to drink sometimes instead of water.

Is being a lawyer all that bad?

Sorry I was MIA, I ran the 10 miles on Saturday and ended up with a nasty cold. I think I was starting to get sick Saturday morning and then running 10 miles in 20 degree weather just didn't help. It was the hardest 10 miles of my life, and I have run a 1/2 marathon before. I ended up walking a few times. I averaged 10 min/mile, which is slower than I normally run. I finished the 10 miles in 1 hour and 40 minutes. I will post a picture and my ipod playlist from Saturday later today.

A few posts ago, a reader Gabriela asked if being a lawyer is really that bad?

So I'm going to try to answer that . . .

I really enjoyed law school. I loved the thought involved, and I love reading and didn't even mind the endless amount of law reading I had to do. I love having the legal knowledge that I acquired from law school. So, I'm not trying to discourage anyone from going to law school, but you might want to find out a little about the legal market right now. Maybe check out this blog: http://www.abovethelaw.com/.


I don't know that I necessarily hate the practice of law as much as I think that I'm not a very good match for my current employer. I'm a corporate law attorney, and I work for one of the 10 largest law firms. My firm has about 2000 attorneys worldwide (although impending layoffs might change this really soon). When working in a large firm there is a huge emphasis on billing hours. Currently I struggle in this area because I came to a large firm wanting to do corporate work. I really was hoping to do mergers and acquisitions and other transactional work. Well I graduated in May 2007, began work in September 2007 and the last two years have not been good for corporate work. So I am forced to take any work I can get, just so that I can bill hours.


My ideal position would be working as an in-house attorney for a corporation. I was offered a position with a corporation prior to law school, but always thought that I needed a "big firm" on my resume. Also, the pay for in-house positions are often not as high as big firms. I have learned that money isn't everything, but when you are offered a big firm salary as a naive law student with almost a hundred thousand dollars in student loan debt, money is hard to pass by.

The most enjoyable work I have done at my firm is pro bono work for people that can't afford legal fees. These people are always so kind and thankful for a 20 minute phone call from me, where I try to help solve their legal problem. Thanks and praise are not common in large law firms.

My last problem with being a lawyer is that I didn't realize how much I would hate sitting at a desk all day long. That is why I said if I wasn't a lawyer I would want to be a personal trainer. I get up and go to the water cooler or bathroom so many times during the day, just because I hate sitting still.

I'm hoping the economy turns around and I can start having more billable hours and obtain work in areas that I like. Who knows, then maybe I'll be so happy with work that I'll encourage all my readers to become lawyers : )

Have a great Tuesday! If anyone has any more specific questions about my thoughts on law school and lawyering, please ask!!

Keep reading, because I have a lot to catch you up on including my first day of Girls on the Run, Dave's Killer Bread from Andrea, and POM juice. So I promise more posts.

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.