What I ate

Good things come to those who blog

7 Comments

First thing first, check out this video of Caitlin on The Today Show for her project Operation Beautiful.  I cannot wait to meet Caitlin at the Healthy Living Summit next week!   Super excited 😀

Last Friday, I made a confession on my blog.  I indeed hoard the Smucker’s blackberry preserves when there are leftovers from breakfasts at work.  For some reason, the catering company we go through hasn’t been bringing blackberry preserves the past few months!  😥  We have an abundance of strawberry and grape jelly in the break room–but no blackberry preserves.  I’m not a big fan of jelly….  I love the seeds and tartness of the preserves.  Jelly just tastes cheap to me.  I guess I just have a high-class palate 😉 

To make this situation worse, I was down to my last blackberry preserve packet, which I have been hoarding for quite some time.

The other day, I got this photo via text from my friend Jaci, who happens to work for the jelly company in question:

Are you kidding????????  Tim (jaci’s BF) dropped the preserves off to me today, and I now have a total of 54 single-serve blackberry preserves in my possession!  AMAZING :mrgreen:

Breakfast #1

Day #4 of eggins & broccoli (with reduced sugar Heinz Ketchup):

This is what happens when I get super busy… Same foods day in, day out.  Good thing they were tasty!

Breakfast #2

You guessed it – overnight oats 😀

Every time I eat overnight oats I am momentarily awe-struck by how amazing they are.  I just love LOOOOVEEEEEE them!  So creamy and the absolute perfect complement to any berry!

Lunch

I got home pretty late last night, and was having trouble finding something to pack for lunch.  I did some freezer diving, and found some taco meat I had cooked up and frozen a while back.  HELLOOOOOO Taco Salad!

This salad consisted of 1/2 a bag of lettuce, 1/4 lb 92% taco seasoned ground beef, 1/2 a roma tomato, 1/4 chopped red onion, banana pepper rings, and 2 tbsp breakstone’s fat-free sour cream in a ridiculously large bowl:

I don’t usually put carrots in my taco salad, but this was the lettuce mix on sale at acme this week so I just embraced it:

Ready to chow!

TASTTTTTY.

Stats on lunch:  285 calories, 25g carbs, 8g fat, 27g protein, 12g fiber

 

Inspirational quote of the day:  There are no unreasonable goals, only unreasonable timelines.

 

Continue Reading

Recipes

Spinach Caprese Quesadilla

5 Comments

While at work yesterday, my mind kept drifting to dinner–but nothing was sounding good to me.  Since I have an abundance of tomatoes and basil (thank you backyard garden for your fruitfulness 🙂 ) I decided to do something caprese inspired. 

Caprese is one of my all-time favorite Italian dishes, and it typically consists of tomato, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.

Before diving into to the caprese, I got to work on some brussel sprouts.  I halved 10 brussel sprouts, trimmed down any rough ends of the stem, and then made a small slit down the core of each sprout half.  I read that making this little slit on the rougher part of the sprout helps to ensure even cooking.  I put the sprouts on a cookie sheet that was liberally sprayed with cooking spray, then seasoned them with S&P, and gave them a good toss before throwing them into a 415 degree oven for 17 minutes.

Brussel sprouts!

Now onto the caprese!  First, I sliced up 1 roma tomato and 1 Sargento light mozzarella string cheese and put them into a bowl:

Then, I drizzled the tomato and mozzarella with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and a 1/2 tsp olive oil and sprinkled with some salt and pepper.  Next I added 3 sliced up fresh basil leaves and tossed everything to coat.

Meanwhile, I topped a Mama Lupe’s Low Carb tortilla with some fresh spinach and topped with the tomato mozzarella mixture:

I topped this off with a second Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla, then I popped this baby onto the George foreman grill for about 5 minutes (until the tortilla was crisp and the cheese was melty):

None of these pictures do the quesadilla justice!  If you like caprese, you will love this:

I’m hoping I get some tips on taking pictures of food indoors at the Healthy Living Summit!  I can never seem to get indoor pictures quite right!

By the way, if you love caprese too check out the recipe I tried for hot caprese! I also added a “rating” scale to my recipe page :mrgreen:

Stats on dinner:  325 calories, 43g carbs, 12g fat, 20g protein, 14g fiber

 

A few hours after dinner, it was time for my night time snack.  I was craving a green monster smoothie, so I put the following into the blender:

  • 1/4 cup Stonyfield Farms Fat Free Yogurt
  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 2 cups spinach
  • 1/2 cup fresh frozen strawberries
  • 1/2 cup fresh frozen blueberries
  • 1 packet Truvia
  • 1 ice cube

Green Monster:

This guy was so much GREENER in person than in these photos… my camera was being stubborn last night!

Stats on the green monster:  119 calories, 24g carbs, 2g fat, 8g protein, 6g fiber

 

Question:  what’s your favorite “healthified” Italian dish?

Continue Reading

Fitness, Restaurants

5 steps forward, 5 steps back

6 Comments

Over the past 4 months I’ve had on-again off-again knee problems.  🙁

I’ve played soccer since I was in elementary school, and never had any issues.  This past spring, I decided to take up running.  I was AMAZED by how much I enjoyed it!  About a month into my newly found passion, I had a sharp pain in my right knee during my morning run.  I didn’t twist the knee, or land funny, or make any other type of movement to cause the pain.  It just sort of happened.  I attributed the pain to weakness (i.e., “push yourself harder, Mary“) and ran about 1 more mile to my house.  That genius move resulted in me limping around for about a week or so.  I tried several times to pick up where I had left off, with no success.  I even went to see an orthopedic doctor who told me “some knees just aren’t made for running.”

Unacceptable.

Then a couple months ago I developed a plan of attack in the form of my interval training plan.  Basically, the plan was to start off with walking/running intervals and slowly increase the running time over a period of weeks until I was running the entire time.

Things were going super smooth, and I was up to 7 minutes running and 3 minutes walking…. that is until I hurt my knee again on vacation a couple weeks ago.  I think this time it was due to overuse–we did a TON of walking and I was still doing my regular intervals on top of it.

It’s been 2 weeks since vacation, and I’ve tried several times to get my run on.  This was not going well at all — I could only do 1/2 of my regular intervals before feeling the pain start.  At least I have learned my lesson and now stop running at the first sign of knee pain!

So this morning I decided to start the interval all over again… yup… all the way back at 4 minutes walking, 2 minutes running.  Slowly but surely, I am determined to get to running a 5K with no knee issues!

Breakfast #1

Leftovers from yesterday’s eggins–with one new addition:

Heinz reduced sugar ketchup.  After my ketchup post last week, I started thinking about how much ketchup I actually consume in any given week.  As much as I love ketchup, it’s really just a bunch of empty calories.  So I decided to give this reduced sugar version a shot:

The ketchup was pretty good — though it oddly tasted sweeter than regular Heinz ketchup.  I’m going to try and use the reduced sugar ketchup in place of the regular stuff as much as possible.

Stats on B#1:  161 calories, 9g carbs, 5g fat, 21g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

Overnight oats 🙂

Last night, I put the following into a bowl:

  • 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats
  • 1/2 cup almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • sprinkling of cinnamon

I mixed everything up and left them in the fridge overnight.  This morning I added about 6 sliced strawberries (thank you to my mom for hooking me up with these DELICIOUS strawberries) and a 1/3 cup fresh blueberries:

All mixed up:

These overnight oats never get old 🙂

Stats on B#2:  236 calories, 45g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

My all-time favorite hummus comes from Nate’s Deli in Cleveland.  A close second would be Trader Joe’s hummus.  Unfortunately, neither of my long distance relationships with Nate nor Trader Joe are able to satisfy my frequent  hummus cravings, so I’ve been on the hunt for a tasty hummus that I can find locally.

I picked this up at the grocery store last night:

I especially liked the simple list of ingredients (chick peas, tahini, fresh spinach, lemon juice, garlic, and salt) and it is only 33 calories for a 2tbsp serving!  The flavor was a little on the bland side, however.

For lunch, I made up a sandwich with a 3.5 ounce grilled chicken breast, 1 tbsp Amir Hummus, 1/2 a roma tomato, sliced red onion, and 1 cup spinach sandwiched between a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain Deli flat:

Notice that I used my tupperware lid as a plate instead of using a paper plate.  “Kelsy” would be proud 😉

Now that’s what I’m talkin bout:

I could eat this every day:

I also had some cucumber salad on the side.  This cucumber was straight from the BF’s mom’s garden!

Stats on lunch:  323 calories, 37g carbs, 3g fat, 40g protein, 10g fiber

 

Question:  Have you ever had an injury that prevented you from doing an activity you really enjoy?

Continue Reading

Recipes

Chili Yam Fries

7 Comments

I had an appointment to get my hair cut this evening FINALLY.  Is it just me, or is there a thin line between being happy with your hair and your hair looking like the coat of a baby wildebeest?  Same thing goes for cutting my nails–one day they are a fine, respectable length, and the next day they’re so long I feel like a neanderthal 😯

Hmmm.. hair and fingernails… not exactly the best segue to dinner, are they?  (PS – no clue that’s how you spell “segue” til I googled it)

After the hair appointment I headed to the grocery store.  A couple times a year, our local grocery store has a huge meat sale, and I kid you not, it is literally the talk of the town.  And I don’t mean just for the week of the sale, it’s a highlight throughout the year.  You can be at a cookout several months later, and the BBQ’er will proudly announce “got these here ribs at the meat sale (insert head nods here).  Buy one, get one free.  Can’t beat it.  Just can’t beat it.”

Case in point, check out the text I got from my friend Tim this evening:

 

At the grocery store, I picked up a random assortment of veggies and all the meat I could carry 🙂

It was already 7:30 by the time I got home, and I have a ton of work to get done tonight so dinner was a hodgepodge, albeit a tasty hodgepodge.

I picked up something new at the grocery store:

 Chili Garlic Sauce (found in the Asian food aisle).  I also picked up a yam.  I recalled seeing a recipe somewhere for chili yam fries so I figured I’d give that a shot tonight.

I scrubbed up the yam and chopped it into big bite size pieces, then tossed with:

  • 1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
  • 1 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce
  • S&P

Into the bowl:

I sprayed down a cookie sheet, tossed the yams on topped, and cooked in a 415 degree oven for 25 minutes, stirring once.  The chili garlic sauce smelled SPICY.  I had a momentary flashback to my brief encounter with chipotles in adobo….  My face hurts just thinking about that!

Meanwhile, I sprayed down another cookie sheet and threw 6 halved brussels sprouts on it.  Then seasoned with S&P.  These also roasted at 415 degrees, but only for 17 minutes.

While all that was going on, I peaked in the fridge and found that I still had a grilled chicken breast from last week and some classico fire roasted tomato sauce that I had defrosted.  So, one thing lead to another, and here’s what I ended up with for dinner:

Two thumbs up on the chili yam fries bits:

 Roasted brussel sprouts rock my world:

More brussel sprouts for good measure:

Stats on the hodgepodge*:  325 calories, 40g carbs, 5g fat, 29g protein, 9g fiber

*hodgepodge consisted of 4 ounces chicken breast, 1/4 cup classico fire roasted tomato & garlic marinara, 1/2 of the chili yams, 6 roasted brussel sprouts

Continue Reading

What I ate

The great salad extraction…

3 Comments

Before we get into my salad debacle, let’s recap breakfast!

Breakfast #1

While getting ready for work this morning, I realized I wanted NEEDED eggs for breakfast.  I was already crunched for time, and considered passing on my fav B#1, but then it dawned on me.  EGGINS. 

“Eggins” are baked eggs that I cook up in a muffin tin.  Get it?  Egg + Muffin = Eggin 😉 (bear with me… it is Monday after all). 

I had 9 eggs in the fridge, so I decided to go with 2 whole eggs and 7 egg whites.  I mixed these up with S&P, Frank’s Red Hot, and a splash of water, and then evenly distributed them into 6 regular size muffin tins.  I also threw 2 cups of broccoli into a pan that I had sprayed down with cooking spray.  I seasoned the broccoli with some S&P, then threw everything into the oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes while I continued getting ready for work.

2 breakfasts in < 5 minutes prep.  Bada bing, bada boom 🙂

I had 1/2 of the above ingredients at work today with some ketchup, of course:

Stats:  171 calories, 12g carbs, 5g fat, 21g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

Blueberry Chobani + Strawberries:

Mixed into a fruity frenzy:

Tasty!

Stats: 163 calories, 26 g carbs, 0g fat, 14g protein, 2g fiber

Lunch

Now we get to the salad debacle.  Yesterday, I went to my sister’s for a cookout and brought a huge salad.  There was a ton leftover, which meant lunch for today 😀

Sad story:  the lettuce in the salad was EXTREMELY wilty and soggy this morning.  If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s soggy lettuce (and olives–not that there were any olives involved in this story but I just want to make sure we are clear 👿 ). 

Wilty and yucky:

I’m not one to waste food, so I decided to perform a salad extraction.  In preparation for this procedure, I brought a bag of lettuce from the fridge at home.

My saviour:

Piece by piece I sifted through the salad pulling out any of the soggy pieces.

Icky bits:

Icky on the left, crispy on the right:

So fresh and so crisp, crisp:

I also had a Jennie O Turkey Sausage on the side with some mustard:

I may or may not have spent some time playing in the paint program over lunch…

Continue Reading