Feels Like Home

It feels so nice to spend my evening blogging!  I can’t tell you how at home I feel sitting in front of my computer recapping my day.  I’ve definitely missed this.   In my large recap I forgot to mention something I bought last week.

Anybody love a good bargain story?  I went to an outlet with my family and Andrew last week.  It was mostly Waterford Crystal but they also had a huge selection of Dr. Weil kitchen products.  I bought this brand new juice extractor and am so happy with my purchase.  The exact one I got is The Dr. Weil 9806 The Healthy Kitchen Stainless-Steel 2-Speed Pro Juice Extractor.   If you look on Amazon the MSRP is $375 and they have it on sale for $243.   I did even better then that, much better!  I got this juicer for only 70 bucks!  And so far it has worked perfectly.  I’ve never had another juicer to compare it to, and I’m not sure if it’s better then some of the top brands, but it is good.  The pulp seems really very dry and I’ve had no issues with it. Of course it’s only been a week but so far so good.

My kitchen essentials!

I’ve loved experimenting with the juicer, and of course I went right to the blogger who I felt could help me the most with my new juicer and help me come up with a plan for a “mini cleanse”.  I sent Gena of Choosing Raw an email and she got back to me immediately with some great tips.  Thanks so much for all your help Gena.

I started today with my favorite juice so far.  It has all my favorite flavors and I really enjoy the fresh taste, I looked at many recipes and came up with one that tastes great.

• 1 carrot ( I will increase this I think tomorrow to 2 or 3)
• 2 apples
• 1 lemon
• 1 inch piece of ginger
• 1 romaine heart
• Large handful of spinach

The flavor is out of this world! 

I wasn’t sure if I could handle just juice until lunch time, but this combo kept me satisfied until lunch time.  It’s not the same as being full after a bowl of oatmeal, but the hunger stayed away until about 11:30 and I broke for lunch at noon.

My lunch today was a big salad, the pictures don’t really do it justice it really is very big.

Very green!  I had another whole head of lettuce, a cucumber, and 3 stalks of celery, with balsamic vinaigrette.  Gena suggested having an avocado with my salad but there not something I ever have on hand, I’m not sure I like them to be honest, but I’m definitely going to buy one tomorrow and mix it in with my salads soon.

Around 4 I got hungry and I snacked on my first honeycrisp apple of the year!  I was so excited to see these at the store, but why do they have to be so expensive!?

And yeah I wore jeans to work on a Tuesday, I’m a rebel.  This apple was just a delicious as I remembered.

For dinner it was kind of a “whatever sounded good to me at the time meal”

I had brown rice:

Roasted potatoes with a small amount of EVOO (using the Misto) and sea salt:

Greenbeans and broccoli steamed:

All together:

 

 

Although these pictures are outside, it was gray and cold, so I took this plate back inside and happily gobbled down every last bite.

Now I’m just waiting for Andrew to come home so I can spend some much needed quality time with him.  I also have a little bit of kitchen cleanup to take care of from dinner. 

Thanks for the warm welcome back, I’ve missed chatting with you girls!

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An Al Fresco Dinner

What a day!  I woke up thinking it was Thursday and thought that until I was on my way to work.  Since we don’t work Fridays anymore Thursday is our dress down day so I went to work wearing jeans and everything.  It was obvious to everyone at work I had mixed up what day I thought it was.  Ugh.  But oh well I was comfortable all day at least.

I started out the day with something I haven’t had in so long, unfortunately in my hurry this morning I forgot my camera but I do have some pretty bad blackberry photos to share.

Peach Chobani!  In addition to forgetting my camera I also forgot some cereal for mixing into the yogurt.  But it was still amazingly delicious, it’s been to long Peach Chobani!

Without the cereal though this didn’t do a great job of holding me over for lunch.  I wound up getting hungry around 10 and snacked on some Dr. Kracker’s Cherry Semolina crisps.  These are absolutely delicious!

The serving size is 8 but I probably had about 12, they are so delicious.

Lunch today was an old favorite, rice pilaf, green beans, and broccoli all mixed together.

What a horrible picture of one of my favorite flavor combos.  I can’t get enough of it I crave this at least once a week. 

After work Andrew and I decided to go out to eat.  It’s been a while since we went out just the 2 of us for dinner so we went to our favorite local restaurant, Harborside Bar and Grill.  It was a beautiful day so we got to enjoy being outside on the patio.  To start I had a house salad with balsamic dressing on the side.

I used about a 1/4 of the dressing with my fork dips before almost every bite.  It’s amazing but before I would have easily used 1/2 of it or more, dipping the fork in is just as flavorful and definitely a calorie saver.

Then our waitress brought out some fabulous rolls.  I of course had one.

Warm and doughy, it was perfect.

For dinner I had the Rigatoni Pomadora, a fresh tomato basil sauce, with rigatoni and fresh mozzarella balls throughout.

This sauce is the freshest tasting sauce ever, I don’t think I could make it even 1/2 as good as they do.  I would love to be able to buy a jar of this sauce.  I have about 1/2 of this left for tomorrows lunch.

After dinner we stopped by to visit my sister and parents since she’s been bugging me for the past 3 days to come over.  It was a nice night hanging out on their patio enjoying the weather.  After it rained for almost all of May and June, it’s definitely made me appreciate the past 2 weeks, we’ve had the most beautiful sunny, warm days lately, and I’m definitely grateful for them!

Sweet Summer Cravings

I am feeling so much better today!  It’s amazing what a difference 24 hours can make.  I ate all my meals today and felt more like myself again.  I’m a pretty easy person to get along with but I can get pretty ugly when I’m mad.  I’m just happy that it’s all over and we’ll see what happens from here on out.  Once again I got some great advice and support from you gals!  You are the best!

I can’t tell you how happy I am that tomorrow is Thursday!  As usual I have off on Friday and then have the next week off!  After all the stress from yesterday I’m ready to have some relaxing fun times with my 2 best girlfriends and their boyfriends on the camping trip this weekend.  I just hope tomorrow goes by quickly, it kinda feels like the last day of school or something which is stupid because it’s only 10 days off not a whole summer.

So we need to do some serious food shopping, we don’t even have the staples of milk, bread, or eggs, but it seems stupid to do it before the we go away for the weekend.  So I was kind of scrounging in the kitchen for meals.  Once again I totally forgot my camera, I used my Blackberry though while I was at work, not the best pictures, sorry!

For breakfast I had a chocolate chip clif z bar with pb and then an orange on the side.

 

Oranges are so good right now, I can’t get over how juicy and delicious the last few I ate have been.

Lunch was exactly what I said it would be last night.  Leftover Chicken parm.  I meant to bring a side salad but forgot this morning.  So I guess the tomato sauce is going to have to count as my vegetable for lunch.

I definitely made up for my lack of veggies with dinner though, ever since I mixed the rice pilaf with broccoli and green beans last week I’ve been wanting it again.  It’s just way too good.

Just to prove there is rice under there, here’s a shot with some peaking out.

I definitely went back for the last spoonful of rice with another piece of broccoli and a whole mess of green beans.  Such a simple meal but it’s so darn good,  I can not get enough.

After dinner Andrew and I decided we wanted dessert.  So unlike us!  We decided to go to a local Italian Ice place which also serves Ice Cream and Cream Ices.  I got a small pb cookie dough cream ice.

So delicious, I’m going to pretend it’s summer even if it doesn’t feel like it at all!

Well I’m off to start packing things up for the weekend.  Tomorrow night Michelle, Jessica, and I are going shopping for the camping food, anyone have any suggestions of healthy foods to eat while out in the woods? 

Random Foods

Hi Friends!  How was your Monday?   Mine went by super fast I can’t believe it’s almost over already.  I’m hoping the rest of the week goes quickly as well.  I had project management training all day which took me away from my desk, it made the day fly by, and I’m hoping I’ll be so busy tomorrow catching up on things that I should have been doing today that tomorrow is going to be another fast one.

I started off the day with Vanilla Chobani and another Luna bar mixed in, just like last week.  This time however it was the chocolate peppermint stick bar.  What a great combo of flavors.

My camera was acting kind of funny today as you can see, it’s like in soft focus or something.

Lunch was something I’ve been craving for a while.  Every time I open my freezer it was staring me in the face.

So delicious!  Amy’s burritos are awesome and this one was fantastic!

Definitely not an attractive lunch but delicious none the less.  I also had a peach on the side.

I think I have one more peach left, I’m definitely going to have to stock up they are so delicious!

Later I had a Granny Smith Apple for a snack.

Once I got home from work I snacked on a pickle while trying to decide what to make for dinner.

It was actually sunny out!  I’m almost out of pickles too, seems like I need to go shopping again.

For dinner I didn’t really have a clear idea of what I wanted, I knew I wanted broccoli, and definitely green beans, but couldn’t decide what else to have.  So I decided to make a quick box of rice pilaf and just mix the veggies in.

Kind of random but it’s just what I wanted.  And of course all that fiber filled me right up. 

I was still in a snacky mood so I decided to break out the watermelon!  Oh I was so excited to have my first piece of the season!

It was so juicy and delicious, it made me want the hot weather even more.  I hear this weird weather might only last 7-10 more days and then we might actually have  summer weather soon.   On the news they were talking about this June vs. June 2008.  The average temp last year for the first half of June was 85, this year it’s 72!  In 2008 we had 4 days that were over 90, and this year we had 4 days UNDER 60!  Does not sound like summer weather to me!  I’m hoping these weathermen are right, I need to get some beach days in!

I hope you are all having a great night!

Here Come the Sun

The sun has returned!  After over a week of rainy weather we have a beautiful cloudless sunny day!  It’s supposed to rain later on but I’m so happy to have at least a few hours of sun.  Unfortunately I have some things I need to do around the house and a few errands to run, and you all know I love using Fridays to get everything out of the way before the weekend! 

I didn’t post last night because we didn’t get home until late.   My friend, Michelle, finished her last class of college on Wednesday and will be graduating in a couple weeks so we went out to celebrate.  We had a really good night and once again I stuck to drinking water all night,  I was planning on have some drinks tonight so I didn’t want to over do it this weekend.   But let’s rewind to yesterday morning.

I didn’t know what I wanted for breakfast yesterday we don’t have any milk and I just didn’t want any yogurt for some reason.  So I decided to keep it simple and have a clif bar.  Are these meal replacement bars?  The calories are pretty high but I know most people eat them as a snack.  I’m not sure I should be eating so little in the morning but it does hold me over.

For lunch I had some left over’s from Wednesday night.  Unfortunately I didn’t have any of that delicious rice left so I just had green beans and chicken.

And on the side I had some Food Should Taste Good tortilla chips I picked up on sale at Whole Foods last week.

This lunch was so delicious, the lean protien, whole grains, and fiber from the green beans did a great job of satisfying me.

I don’t think I give green beans enough credit, just look at the nutritionals.

Once I got home I was in pizza mode.  I think because Thursdays are my Fridays I crave pizza on that day.  Growing up we had pizza on Fridays all the time so I guess it has stuck with me.  I didn’t have any pizza crust so I used a piece of whole wheat Naan,  With a little bit of sauce, 2.5 meatless meatballs crumbled, lots of pineapple chunks, and some 2% mozzarella cheese.

I love pizza on Naan bread!  It’s so delicious!  And pineapple chunks and meatless meatballs is probably my favorite flavor combination right now. 

Well I’m off to get ready for my Friday errands today’s include getting my oil changed, and getting Cocoa (my car) washed.   She definitely needs one!  Plus the usual cleaning up around the apartment and doing some gardening.  Hope you are all having a great Friday so far!

Back To Normal

I didn’t post yesterday because I felt so sick that I didn’t eat much.  It would have been a boring post although what I ate was healthy the amount I ate was not.  I would estimate for the whole day yesterday I ate about 600-800 calories which is obviously not enough for anyone.  Today I woke up feeling so much better and was actually able to eat, and eat well.  Amazing what a couple days of extra rest can do.

This morning I woke up starving, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to wait until I got to work to eat my breakfast so I ate before I left this morning.  I had vanilla yogurt with blackberries, 365 brand fiber cereal, and kashi vanilla island cereal. 

Probably my favorite breakfast combo right now. 

Work was okay today, a little hectic but it made the day go by faster, plus it’s really like my Thursday so there’s always more to do towards the end of the week. 

For lunch I packed a few pieces of chicken over a bed of lettuce with balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

That piece of chicken I used is left overs from the diner we stopped at Saturday night, there wasn’t much chicken but it was a big salad that did a great job of filling me up.

I guess I’m making up for yesterday’s low calorie day because by 3 I was hungry.  Not just hungry for a small snack, but something substantial.  I decided to try a new bar I bought.

This was good, artificial tasting, but good.  I’d definitely buy it again because it’s good in a pinch.

After my taste of chicken for lunch I definitely wanted more so Andrew and I stopped at the store for a rotisserie chicken.   For a side we used a new find we got from Whole Food’s last week.

This box is 3 servings but Andrew and I finished it, it was so good!  He had a little more then me but I know I had a little more then just one serving.

I had a big bowl with rice on the bottom, steamed French cut green beans, and some white meat chicken on top.

And all mixed up:

Wow this was fantastic I would definitely do it again, it was so simple to make obviously since really I only had to cook the rice. 

I’m actually contemplating a dessert.  I’m thinking some fro yo with melted pb, I’ll let you know tomorrow if I wound up having it.

I hope everyone had a great day and is having a good evening.  I’ll see you all tomorrow.  Thanks for all the “get better” wishes those comments definitely made my mood lift a little even if I was still feeling sick!

Lazy Friday Night

Oh my gosh I’m so happy it’s the weekend!  We had another round of layoffs today at work.  I knew who was going to be laid off ahead of time so I knew I was safe but it’s hard to see co-workers go.  I had a meeting with my boss’s boss today, he reassured me that I was not going anywhere and that they are actually spending a ton of money to get me some more training next month.  I was also told I will be getting a nice raise next month because right now I’m doing the work of 4 different people who were previously laid off.  I was also told I have to write my own review next month.  Has anyone ever done this?  I have a feeling it’s going to be pretty hard.

This morning I remembered my breakfast and had my usual 0% Fage the last of my peak protein granola, and some dried cranberries.  I don’t know that I’ll ever tire of this combination.

I had some carrot sticks a little later.

I ate about 1/2 of this baggie.

Lunch today was something I was really excited about.  I had 2 servings of brown rice and 4, 1 ounce meatballs, I made the Monday night.  I was afraid these meatballs weren’t going to taste that good because I had started making them when I realized I didn’t have an egg to mix in.  So I poured a teaspoon of olive oil to bind them and that did the trick.  I baked them in the oven for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees and they came out really moist and delicious,  I definitely didn’t taste a difference without the eggs.

I think I actually liked the meatballs and sauce better over rice then pasta.  Weird.

This held me over until 4 and then I had some grapes.

For dinner tonight we made turkey burgers using the same recipe as last time.

I topped it with a mozzarella string cheese. 

I topped it with some organic ketchup, pickles, and lettuce.

On the side I had some steamed French Cut Green Beans.

I had another serving of the green beans after this.  I love steamed green beans they are so yummy.

I feel like I had a definite lack of veggies today so I’ll be making up for that tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning I plan on making Oatmeal again, do any of you have a favorite combination you think I might like?  I’m going to make myself eat oatmeal until I love it.   I’m kidding of course, but I know how filling, and how good it is for you I definitely think I’m only doing myself a favor by trying it over and over again.

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday night!  Andrew and I were supposed to go out for a friend’s birthday but it was canceled, so we decided to stay in.  I love lazy Friday nights after a long week of work.

See you tomorrow!