Warm Fruit, Cottage Cheese and Blueberry Oats

I wanted something warm so I heated up frozen blueberries and pineapple. The juices came out of the fruits and I thought I would make fruity-oats, so I put in some quick cook steel cut oats and added a little water. In they went to the microwave for a couple minutes and on top went Cottage cheese (cabot is delicious!!), Cinnamon, Banana (organic) with Smucker's All Natural Peanut Butter.

With Black Coffee:


Blueberry Oats Underneath:



Up early today thanks to jeff (really thanks because I hate sleeping in!) ... HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE!

the plan:

gym ? run ? keep your fingers crossed for a 6 miler depending on my knee/toe status.

yoga- it really does fill body, mind, and soul.

Maybe looking at trucks with Jeff, we might drive down to the beach tomorrow to look at one ( its only about 1.5 hr away)

Maybe heading to his parents for new years eve festivities !? I don't think we really want to spend money on going to a bar to stand in there, sweat, be squished, and drink crappy free champagne. I am always in the mood to dance though!

I usually don't even photo what I drink unless its something other than water, but just so yall know- I drink a glass of water before each meal and another 4-5 throughout the day as well. Water is SO important to help with proper digestion and helps your body cell functioning. If I drink something else, I usually make note of it.

Speaking of drinks, hope all of you have a safe, fun plan for tonight!

Banana Almond Maple Oats

Breakfast:

Steel cut Quick Oats (from Trader Joes $2.29 for 17 servings)
organic banana ( it seriously fell that way in the bowl too)
I put a sprinkle of slivered almonds, a drop of maple syrup right in the middle and peanut butter all around the banana.
I also had a little of the smoothie I made for Jeff... milk, protein powder, pb, frozen mango, frozen pineaple and frozen strawberries.

I love how the snowman want to get all their stick-hands on my bowl!! Isn't that cute! The placemat is from Target (last year ).

the plan:
Body:

Run in the morning, strength training in the evening with Jeff!

Mind & Soul:
to be determined
I meditated yesterday after my 40 minute yoga session and I swear it was like waking up to a new day after! Felt fantastic.

Peanut Butter Mashed Banana French Toast Sandwich!

phew.. I bet you can't say that as fast as I ate this bad boy...

Peanut Butter Smashed Banana French Toast Sandwich!

- I dipped two slices of toast in 1/3 cup egg whites mixed with 1 T milk
-laid in the pan, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar
-flipped
-put in the remainder of the egg batter in the pan

then... I smashed half a banana on one side, spread the other side with little all natural Smucker's peanut butter

While the french toast cooked, I made Jeff a smoothie: milk, protein powder, peanut butter, frozen mango, frozen pineapple, frozen blueberries, and the other half of the banana.

I dropped Jeff at work this morning so that he could go rent a car! I stopped and went christmas shopping on the way home! Since it was early morning, it was really nice not to deal with crazy busy parking lots and people!

The plan for the rest of the day ( ONE WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS EVE! time flies)

Body:
Rest/ Yoga ... Yoga is wonderful for me because it helps an incredible amount with my asthma. The breathing stretching techniques are just fantastic, relaxing, and rejuvinating. I have a "power yoga" dvd but its not cardio-intense. I break a sweat but its nothing crazy, and I literally know the dvd without having to watch it- I put it on for the background waterfall music! I am resting from my normal running or strength training routine today. Jeff and I may go to the gym tomorrow though ;-) ?

Mind:
I am going to keep looking at jobs- I am trying to narrow down my decisions/options/likes/hours... its tough! I also am reading the next chapter in Eat, Pray, Love. I bought it so long ago it seems and would like to finish it! I feel like I need SOMETHING to keep my mind active and to stay "balanced".

Soul:
to be determined.... jeff and i may have a relaxing evening at home... and heck, I already got some christmas shopping out of the way, I went through with getting a haircut and am enjoying it!

I hope to hear back from the volunteer position so that I can get started- that will be very rewarding to help underpriviledged kids/families with nutrition and healthy eating on a budget! I don't have a job so I certainly know what its like to be stuck to a budget! I still manage to eat lots of fruits, veggies, organic, local, healthy foods so I know I can help them do it too!

Paper # 3 Done!

"Eat me Eat me Eat me" said my breakfast to me:

British Whole Wheat English Muffin ( from Trader Joe's)- meh its okay

Slice of Healthy Canadian Ham

1/2 cup Cage Free Egg Whites (Trader Joe's)

w. hot sauce and

Black Coffee in my snowman mug from college

Banana with Smucker's All Natural. I have been eating Smucker's All Natural since freshman year of college (8 years!) and I have never gotten tired of it. So yummy, the only ingredients are peanuts and salt.

The banana was really small...

2 Lunches ?

I normally do not have a mid-morning snack- most of the time I am writing or reading or exercising before lunch and just never hungry. I think it has alot to do with habit because when you are used to not snacking mid morning, you usually aren't hungry. But today, I was heading to campus mid morning (10:30) in hopes of getting as much of my project due tomorrow done as I could. So I had this Chobani Blueberry to hold me over..

SO GOOD! I swear, this is by far my favorite yogurt. I strive to consume organic dairy products ( Check out the Tag "CLA" for info why) but this yogurt is just soooo delicious. I have tried stoneyfield organic, fage, and Trader Joe's brand and Chobani just beats all of them in texture and taste ( in my opinion!). I for sure like all of the others but Chobani ROCKS!

I was so involved in my project, I realized I needed more fuel by 2 pm- grabbed an Odwalla Protein- another yummy mini-meal

( sorry for the repeat photo - didn't have my camera today on campus)
Good news- I finished my project at 4 pm!!! Woohoooooooo!!! It is due tomorrow by 5 but I am not even going to look at it anymore since I need to spend all day studying for either/both of my finals next week AND... getting ready for Jeff's work's Holiday Party. It's at the Umstead Hotel and Spa... Gorgeous new, total upscale, ritzy place.



Quick Dinner:

Big Delicious, In Need Of Veggies Salad

( greens, red pepper, green pepper, mushrooms, snap peas, EDAMAME, hummus from the other day)
Smoked Salmon from TJ- this brand was SUPER SALTY... i mean "country ham" salty... ick
Garlic Twists ( I used TJ pizza dough with garlic herb seasoning and cheese)

Body:
Gym trip Late Afternoon: Elliptical 30 minutes, Bike 4 miles

Mind:
Paper #3 FINISHED!! It was actually a series of small papers combined for this project on College Women Food Choices. I will make a separate post to explain it!

Studying tomorrow for Research Methods Final and/or Nutrient Metabolism Final ( Lipids)

Soul:
I got a big ol chocolate bar (hershey's dark pic tomorrow) and Jeff and I are watching "Tropic Thunder"...

I am getting in trouble for writing and not watching so its boyfriend-time

Savory Oats, Attempt #2 COMPLETE SUCCESS

Body:

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Can you tell I am excited? I ran 5.15 miles in 42 minutes!
It was hard, the first mile was easy - i was like this is so awesome this is so awesome- and then I started coughing and was thinking to myself "I can I can I can I can" every step of the way until the 5 mile mark.

Sigh... my quads are super sore from yesterday's lifting but I am fairly confident by thursday (rest day tomorrow) I will feel fine!

I am a little sore all over, just in that lovely " ooh we missed you exercise" kind of way.

Mind:
Heading to work on paper- metabolism paper only today- lots of reading and then writing- Hyperglycemia Cell Metabolism this is your warning, I will conquer you !


Soul:
I love running I love running fast I love running slow I love being able to run I love runner's high I love that my knee did not hurt one bit I love running

I am so excited for my parents to come here - It takes off SO much stress from me and I can relax and conquer the (world) I mean, metabolism paper.

Pre-Run Fuel:

English Muffin
Nonfat Cottage Cheese
Pumpkin Butter
Banana
Flaxseed Butter

Savory Oats Lunch:

In this order, I re-arranged from yesterday


3/4 cup Leek and Potato Soup
1/2 cup irish oats
Trader Joes Poultry Seasoning (which actually contains all healthy spices and no salt or chemicals!)

Heated up in the Microwave for 2 minutes..let cool while I seperately heated up 1/2 cup frozen spinach and broccoli. Drained out any excess water and added it to the oat soup... Added some chopped red pepper, parmesean and pork from last night

Heated it all up for another 1 minute...

YUMMMMM!

So I had an apple and pumpkin butter on the side but then since pork and apples go so nicely together- I threw in some apple into it to.




I would recommend this to anyone and everyone!

Goodbye Thursday Hello Weekend

Breakfast:

Pumpkin Pie for 1!
Oat crust, filling as usual, and organic oikos vanilla on top and a half of a banana on the side.. with flaxseed butter

Here is the explanation:

"Crust":
1/2 Cup total of Irish oats ( I mixed flaxseed cereal with it too)
Put into an Oven AND Microwave safe dish (I used this corningware dish) with
1/2 cup water ( so that the oats are soaked but not floating in water)
Microwaved for 2 minutes
Spread out oat crust to the sides of the dish so that its a flat crust like shape
Put oven-safe dish into (toaster) oven at 375 for about 5 minutes

"Filling"
Mix following ingredients into a separate bowl
1/4 cup organic pumpkin (puree not filling)
1/3 cup egg beaters- or I've used carton egg whites only or 4 egg whites
pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon Brown sugar
1 teaspoon of Maple Syrup (or more brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon of Baking Powder
Microwave for 2 minutes or until slightly firm all over

Put-It All-Together:
Take out crust dish w/ oven mitt!
Spoon this slightly firm mix into the crust dish
Put back into oven for another 5-7 minutes + at 375
Topped with a spoonful of "cream" aka nonfat greek yogurt, sprinkled with cinnamon

On the side I had a half of banana with pb


Lunch: Whole Foods Salad


If you often read my blog, you can tell that I NEVER treat myself to lunch out. Mostly because I enjoy preparing my own food, secondly because I HATE to spend the money when it is so much healthier and CHEAPER to plan a tiny bit and have foods for lunch. However, being sick and being on campus until 1 pm ( and having class at 3:45) I knew it would be the best option to either stay or head to Whole Foods less than 1/4 mile from campus! So, I thought it would be a nice treat to myself to get a yummy made-my -own salad!
Broccoli

Roasted and non, Red Bell Pepper

Quinoa

Chicken

Mixed greens

Feta

Purple Cabbage

Cucumber
Corn and Black Beans
Two quarters of roasted potatoes ( top right)

And, an artichoke

Pineapple and Strawberries

Dinner:


leftover Whole Wheat Pasta and Sauce, Half of a whole grain bun for a mini-tofu sammy, extra veggies (peppers, cauliflower), parm cheese, some chicken in there too...

Body:

I certainly DID NOT feel well enough to get in a workout after class ...ARGH! I barely had a voice and felt really tired after the interview and lunch. But I needed to stay for class. Calling the doctor in the morning for meds!

Mind:
Met April on campus at 9:30 to get equipment, then we met our freshmen interviewee for our project on College Freshmen Food Choices. The interview we conducted took about 30 minutes, then we went to the library and transcribed the interview. Apparently this takes a looonnngg time, ( it took about 1.5 hrs)

Class: we talked more about TG, but mostly cholesterol and phospholipids and went over our exam from last week. I did alright ( I got a B)... but so many people in the class did worse than the last exam and we all studied so hard. I think it was because there were SO many places to mess up, SO many enzymes for each pathway - so he gave us an extra credit opportunity to work in groups and re-do the first problem. We did great!

Soul:

It was so nice to treat myself to Whole Foods, $8 for lunch is outrageous but I never do it! I sat outside too, the sun was really warm but the air was cool.

It was also SO nice to be out of the house all day! Even though I still felt ill and was exhausted, i have been "couped up" in the house all week being a total bum on the couch! ( i needed to be but..)

After lunch i searched for articles to support my metabolism research paper and found a bunch!

Another lake trip to Nana's is in store for this weekend since she is having "thanksgiving" early, but I am un-sure if I will go mostly because I have been so sick that I haven't been able to get alot of my research done. I also would hate to bring my cold with me and get nana or any of jeff's sisters/neice/nephew sick!

It's Thursday!!! Grey's and Ugly Betty soon and I am catching up on Private Practice right now...

Rocky Road...

Body:
Doctor says it might not yet be a respiratory infection but I did get an icky strep test that (thank goodness) came out negative! So rest it was after buying some crucial theraflu for sore throat. As soon as I got home and took it, I fell asleep. I pretty much slept all day because I did not sleep AT ALL last night! Awful, I was up every hour ( i looked at the clock) from my throat hurting etc etc.

Mind:
I even stayed home from class... I HATE missing class but there was just no way it would be good for me to bear the cold and strain myself and making classmates sick ( esp. since there were food presentations today too)

I did do three suduko puzzles after waking up late afternoon

Soul:
I found a race next week, Thursday morning 8k around my Campus!!! How awesome is that! I loved training with my runs around campus and I was looking for a 10k to keep my spirits up since the non-race marathon a few weeks ago. I am going to try to kick this nasty bug with lots of rest and hopefully be up and going by thursday/friday of this week .. It will feel so good!

I totally called my mom - It will never go away, needing your mom's comfort when you are sick. I actually broke down on the third time I woke up last night, 1:30 am, I banged my hip on our doorknob trying to get back to bed without lights on. I crashed and just started bawling, which made me literally heave because of all my congestion and throat pain. As I was blurting unaudibly " i can't breathe I am so miserable I just want to sleep I hate this"....Jeff almost laughed at me but was seriously SO sweet, he was rubbing my hands and patting my back telling me to try not to cry because it would make it worse. He is so wonderful.

So this is the first time all day I have had any energy to do anything!
Onto eats... I did eat today and last night I made the most amazing dessert so I should start with that..



HOLY YUM! Rocky Road Brownie for Two ( B-healthy -style)
-three tablespoons no-pudge brownie mix

-2.5 tablespoons nonfat greek yogurt ( i used Oikos Organic Vanilla)
-mixed it very well

-microwaved for 2 minutes

-topped that with:
- Marshmallows

- Pistachios, Almonds, Pecans
- Flaxseed Butter

So freakin delicious! yum!

I know the marshmallows and the mix aren't incredibly healthy- but all the other ingredients are - IT WAS AWESOME!

Tuesday Breakfast:

French Toast
- two egg whites

-splash of organic 1% milk

-cinnamon

-a half teaspoon of Splenda Brown Sugar Blend

-whisk very well

-Dip slightly toasted bread into this mix, then into a hot pan ( on medium)
- While it was cooking I heated up some fruit - I could definately use the extra vitamins/minerals/antioxidant
- pineapple

-strawberries

-blueberries

-cranberries

When the french toast was done, I took it out and sliced half of a banana into the pan. Turned off the heat and let the sugars caramelize - YUM

Two dipping sauces: Chobani Strawberry Greek 0% Yogurt and Flaxseed Butter

Fantastic breakfast- I was hoping it would make it a fantastic day, but the cold won...

onto...

Lunch:
I got back from the doctor's and had...
Chicken Noodle Soup ( Healthy Choice)
added extra chicken and extra veggies!
On the side I slathered up a mini whole wheat tortilla (Trader Joe's) with hummus

Dinner:
Easy casserole + Tofu on the Side
-Annie's Mac and Cheese ( organic)
-Made as directed but used a splash of organic cream and 1/4 cup nonfat plain Chobani

- While that cooked, I defrosted broccoli in the dish

-Added sliced up "healthy style" canadian ham bacon ( it literally says it on the package "health style")
- I added the Annie's into my dish, mixed all of it really well

-Crushed four triscuits very well and spread on top

-Shook Parmesan cheese on that

-Baked for about 20 minutes on 350 ( in my toaster oven of course)

For the tofu, ( which is making its first appearance on the blog! wooohooo applause please)
I dried it out with a few paper towels, then sliced the pack in half. I left one half in the fridge for later and this half I used
Olive Oil

Pepper, Salt

Hot Pepper Sauce ( dashes of Frank's and Tabasco)

And let it saute on several of its sides.
I have to say, it was alright, but it was tofu.
Does anyone have any good recipes for tofu that do not include a "sweet" factor?

I found a bunch with maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, etc. I was trying to make it taste like buffalo chicken but it didn't do it for me. I will not give up on tofu though. ( I have actually tried several times before) ..

Pear vs. Bananas, The Final Showdown

"IMPOSTER!" cries Banana, "How dare you try to pass yourself off as banana?"
"I admire you so much for your high potassium content, when you get to 9 inches long you have 4 g of fiber and you get to have 2 mgs of sodium, I don't have any!!" Plus you have your super cool cousin, Plaintatin...and I just have a million gazillion brothers and sisters!"

"Awww, its okay Pear, you are deliciously sweet and juicy. You are a good source of fiber and potassium too! I love you Pear"

"I love you Banana"

Hooray...

( but secretly, I mean cmon, if you have to imposter banana, it totally won! Plus it goes well with so many things oatmeal, toast and pb, banana pudding, banana's foster, stuffed into french toast, mixed in yogurt, blended into a smoothie.. I <3 bananas).

In the middles is a Kashi Strawberry Flax waffle, with Strawberry Chobani on top, on the side is a tsp of opb! *you down wiht opb, yah you know me, you down w/ opb, every last lady...***


( and if you have no idea what this is all about, check out my post from Monday "Pears vs. Bananas" the way I put them into the bowl made it look like the pears were hovering over the bananas, which were curled up onto the sides of the bowl like they were running away. I know how silly I am!)

Pears vs. Bananas

Breakfast:

Irish rolled oats, with a spoonful of organic pumpkin mixed it, added cinnamon, brown sugar pinch and.. pear slices and banana slices.

I love how the Pear slices are staring down the banana slices like "Whatch you think you doin in my bowl of Oats, Bananas ? Don't you know pears go better with pumpkin oats???" ..banana slice's curl up onto the side of the bowl....
I didn't want them to fight so in comes a spoonful of peanut butter to mediate...

Everyone is peacefully in my stomach now...

Saturday Tailgating

But first... a couple Halloween photosThese are some of the "hockey guys" Jeff has been friends with for such a long time. They decided to all dress up as the Village People- It was HISTERICAL! We had cars passing us and singing Y...M..C...AMy gay indian and I... I dressed up as Wilma Flinstone and yes, I really died my hair with a semi-permenant hair dye to make it red ( didn't turn out super red though). Jeff's sister (aka K-C Mo) was Betty. I have to get her pictures of us!

Onto Saturday, we had tickets to go an NHL hockey game. Jeff's dad plays in a Over 50 men's hockey leauge and his league got to play after the NHL game on the same ice! It was such a fun time! So I started out my day with a blueberry chobani filled with some Kashi cereal, and an apple and half a banana with pb.

At the tailgate, I had chips and bean dip ( this guy times 5) And there is a spread of our dip, and K-C Mo's chili (yum!)
I had a little taste in a dixie cup...

The tailgate also had peppers and onions for brats, and some chicken thighs. I had half of a chicken thigh but was really dissapointed because after taking off the skin I realized the bottom half was all bone- so I ate the equivalent of probably 1/8 of a serving of chicken.. bummer
So then inside we watched the game and of course it was cold so I grabbed a cup of coffee...

Then we watched Jeff's Dad play- the old man!

They gave out free pretzels since the NHL game was finished- so KC Mo and I split one with some (gross) honey mustard ( I actually threw away the hm after trying the bottom of this piece!)
Jeff's dad's team won! Horray!
When we got home finally at 8:30 pm, I was suprisingly not very hungry. Grazing always does that to me, I feel like I never got "enough" food but I am also not "hungry" because I had been eating all day long ( or so it seemed). I know logically I needed more protein and vegetables so I threw together a small veggie-full "omlet" with some kashi whole grain crackers.

Hello November AND one extra hour of the day!!!

Body: Rested but lots of walking around the tailgate and stadium! ( and got 10 hours of sleep!!)

Mind: After we got home I looked up some information for my presentation tuesday and read over my other group members' slides.

Soul: It was fun to play corn-hole outside and take in a professional hockey game AND watch Jeff's dad play in a professional arena. Unfortunately, my sniffles just got worse and worse as the weekend has progressed so.... Ick!!!

I am drinking lots of water, I have been resting and not working out, what else can cure me ?

Pumpkin Sprinkles

Update on Body:

I just ran ....9 miles... ! And on the 7th mile I thought of all the great readers on here that comment and knew I could keep going! So THANK YOU ! I ran around my campus 6 times! Each loop is 1.49 miles according to mapmyrun (1.3 according to my car) and I ran extra in between stuff. WOOHOOO! That is the farthest I have run so far - and had I not stepped off into the grass and strained my arch on some rocks-I would have kept going. But at that point, I wouldn't risk any more strain.

Lunch:
Protein Plate: 3 egg whites hard boiled, nonfat greekyogurt from Trader Joes with a scoop of protein powder mixed in AND Halloween Pumpkin sprinkles! hee hee- I wouldn't recommend mixing protein powder like this but it was all function ( recovery muscle fuel )... and for delicious warming comfort- a nice bowl of Quaker Simple Harvest Hot Cereal- mixed with water and a cut up apple inside , cinnamon sprinkled all over! YUM!

Off to shower, then class to fufill all my ( some of my) "Mind" stuff