89 Degrees

Not outside, the outside temperature at 3PM today was 97 degrees.  The 89 degrees refers to the temperature it was in my apartment when I got home.  Luckily it’s a small apartment and cools down really quickly.  But it’s definitely not fun to come home to.  This humidity is making me feel sluggish and making my sinuses hurt horribly.  I’m waiting to take some medicine until just before bed time because it’s a night time/sleep aide/decongestant, and I want to make sure I’m able to take it and sleep through the night.  Otherwise the second it wears off I’m wide awake.

The weather seemed perfect when I left for work this morning, no humidity, a nice breeze, probably only 78 or 80, it was a pleasent ride in to work with the windows down.  I can’t tell you how excited I was for today’s breakfast.  Look what I was finally able to fine in a local store!

Pomegranate Chobani! I knew I was a dork when I was food shopping yesterday and announced to Andrew it was the best day in my life while loading up the cart with the new flavored Chobani. 

You can’t see any in this shot but there were quite a few pom seeds floating around in that yogurt.

I mixed it with some Kashi Island Vanilla.

.

I have to say this might be my new favorite flavor!

Lunch today was a delicious pb & j on a whole wheat wrap.

Love!

On the side I had a new kind of organic applesauce I found at the store yesterday.

Can you see the ingredients?

Just organic apples and I guess some added vitamin C.  Unsweetened applesauce is so delicious!  Definitely a delicious side.

I also brought a plum but wound up not eating that until around 3:30 when I got snacky.

Beautiful and juicy.

So once I got home I let the house cool down while I made a refreshing salad.  With only the BIGGEST cucumber I’ve ever seen!

Bigger then my cutting board!

When standing on the counter it rested a good 4 inches above the bottom of my cabinets.  I got this cuc from a co-worker, fresh from her garden.  Expect to see a lot of cucumber in the coming days!

I barely made a dent in it and had some over romaine lettuce.

Perfect for a hot muggy day.

While perusing blogs today I saw some cheesy garlic bread (I forget on which blog) but it looked amazing and I decided to recreate some at home.

I used a hot dog roll, a small amount of (REAL) butter, garlic powder, and a 2% milk string cheese, with some cheddar also sprinkled on.  It was absolutely perfect, and tasted a lot like cheesey bread you’d get at a restaurant, and it was definitely healthier because it wasn’t greasy at all.

I’m really bad at blogging over the weekends, but I can’t wait to share some pictures with you all of a baseball game I went to on Friday, unfortunately I forgot my camera so I have to get them from my friend Jess tomorrow or hopefully soon.

Well I don’t have the A/C on in the office so I’m getting really hot sitting here, hope you all have a great night and stay cool!

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By The Sea

This feels so comfortable, sitting at my desk, blogging about my day’s food.  I didn’t realize how much I missed this! 

I have to say today was an excellent day, work just flew right by with no stress or anything.  After I got out Andrew and I went out to dinner, and then we spent some time with his family.  Can’t get a much better Thursday then that!

Since I wasn’t able to blog last week, I didn’t get to tell you I’m back to working Fridays now.  Last week was my first full week back since March! The weeks definitely feel a whole lot longer, but I’m happy my paychecks are back to normal. 

Breakfast today was a blueberry Chobani.  I meant to bring some things to mix-in but forgot.  I decided to check out the vending machines for some options.  I found a granola bar I used to eat when I was younger and decided to crush that up and mix it in.

And a much needed close up.

This was such a fun combination, it really reminded me of when I was younger.

Lunch was simple.  I was going to have a pb & j sandwich but decided to just have pb open faced on a sandwich thin.

So yummy!

Surprisingly I didn’t even have to dip into any snacks later on.  I had a nice normal appetite today, not a bottomless pit, or a lack of appetite.  Just Right.

For dinner Andrew and I had plans to cook but we had some errands to run, and want to spend some time with his family before they leave for vacation this weekend so we decided to just hit up the small restaurant on the bay by our apartment.  The weather was absolutely perfect for eating out on the patio.  It’s been so humid here, but the rain this morning balanced everything out.

You can’t beat a view like this while eating dinner.

 

Here are a couple of the fishing boats that run each day.

Such a fun night out!

I got a water to drink.

And for dinner I can’t stay away from breakfast at this place.  They do such a great job!  I got a  pepper, onion, and egg sandwich on whole wheat toast.

With a small side of home fries.

I wasn’t planning on eating all the home fries, but they are so darn good I definitely did.

Now I’m off to play some Wii Sports Resort with Andrew,  has anyone else played this new game yet?  It’s so much fun!

Oh before I go, did anyone else see Nigella Lawson’s new fridge?  I usually don’t swoon after an appliance but it’s actually really beautiful.  I found this on This Kitchn.

And here’s a shot of it open.

This fridge looks bigger then my entire kitchen, but I would love to have something like this one day.  I can dream can’t I?

 

Well I better go before Andrew beats all my high scores!

A Rushed Post

Good Morning!  Sorry I didn’t post last night I had a terrible sinus head ache and went right to sleep as soon as I got home from work!  I have to run out so this post is going to be a quick one.

For breakfast yesterday I had another Peach Chobani but remembered some Kashi Island Vanilla cereal to mix in.

I love the vanilla cereal in the peach yogurt, so good!

Between breakfast and lunch I snacked on some Cherry Semolina Dr. Krackers.  10 of them to be exact.

Lunch was Harborside leftovers.

And I even snuck a roll out from the restaurant in my to go bag.

So like I said I came home yesterday with a horrible sinus headache, it’s been so long since I’ve had one it hit me out of nowhere!  I came home got right into bed, and slept until 8, when I woke up my headache was still there so I jumped in a hot shower hoping the steam would help.  No such luck.  Finally I took some nighttime cold and cough medicine and that knocked the headache out and I was finally feeling well enough to eat at around 10.  I just had a sandwich thin with pb.

Well I have to run now, I’ll be back tonight!

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? 

Stress Non-Eater

<rant>I know there are people out there who eat when they are stressed.  I am the exact opposite.  When something is really bothering me I let it manifest itself in ways that prevent me from wanting to eat.  It’s probably just as unhealthy as someone who binges on a stressful occasion.  I will admit that sometimes when I’m just a little bit stressed and eat I make poor choices, I don’t overeat though.  I might just say screw it I’m eating that cookie(s).  But when I let myself get so worked up eating is the last thing I want to do.  Today was one of those days.  For the past year Andrew’s twin brother’s girlfriend and I haven’t gotten along.  Today I finally let everything build up and when I got angry with something she did today,  I let it eat me from the inside out.  We sent some not-so-nice emails back and forth, and finally spoke on the phone a little while ago.  I’m a people pleaser, I get upset when people don’t like me, it bothers me so much, that this really stung.  I should have just went about my day but unfortunately I wound up leaving work early, and stewing in my anger.  Nothing has been completely resolved she apologized for somethings and I accepted her apology and for Andrew and his brother’s sake we have decided to start over.  Is it the best option?  Probably not.  Will it make Andrew happy?  Absolutely.  Besides that his brother is now going to be my brother-in-law in a couple years, and who knows one day she might be my sister-in-law so I have to bite the bullet and work on this relationship no matter how badly I just want to hide my head in the sand.  I’m more of an “ignore it and it will go away” type of person, not a strong characteristic.  Maybe it’s time I grew up and just worked on things. </rant>

Wow okay sorry for all that, it feels good to vent though.  And I’m sure at least one of you will have a similar story, or be able to share advice.

Enough about that, this is a food blog after all.  For breakfast I once again had a sandwich thin with pb.  I actually have pictures though!  And Homegirl, the key to the perfect pb spreading is to spread it on thick in the middle and then work it towards the outside.  No I’m kidding, there is no secret,.  I do admit I have a little more then a serving perhaps 2.5-3 tablespoons I’m willing to get the extra calories though.  I’m still losing weight so perhaps I’m doing something right. 

Then the trouble began.  Andrew came to take me out to lunch since I was so upset.  We wound up going to my favorite salad bar.

I ate some but not all of this salad.  If i had to guess I would say between 1/3 and a 1/2. It was:

• mixed greens
• carrots
• onions
• chicken
• cucumbers
• and light balsamic vinaigrette.

And this is where my pictures from the day end.  I came home early and began screaming about the whole thing to poor Andrew.  I was so worked up!  I give myself this nauseous feeling when I get upset, and eating seems impossible.  I feel better now but not well enough to eat something, I did stop by my mom’s house though and picked up her left over chicken parm, so get ready to see it for lunch tomorrow!

I’m off to watch the New Jersey Housewives reunion, and then get some much needed rest. 

Italian Food Overload

Monday is over! Thank goodness!  I have a lot to look forward to so it’s making this week drag.  I’m just ready for it to be over already!  Starting Thursday at 5 I’m on vacation for 10 days!  Unfortunately it’s a mandatory furlough where I won’t be getting paid for the 4 working days but hopefully I’ll be able to claim unemployment.  As luck would have it Andrew has all those days off except 2 with me.  He’s on vacation from school for 2 weeks and the summer program starts next Wednesday so he’ll work Wednesday and Thursday and then have off for one of my favorite holidays, the 4th of July.  Let’s just hope it feels like summer!  This weekend I also have a very exciting camping trip planned with my 2 girlfriends and their boyfriends.  It should be a great time!

This weekend flew by, and I had a lot of family things to do for Father’s Day, plus looking at more wedding locations.  I think we found one that we both absolutely love and we’re taking our moms there on Friday for their opinion.  I have a feeling they are going to love it, once we make our final decision I’ll be sure to share it with you.

So if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know I’m not a fan of sweets, you’ll hardly see chocolate or cake, but I’m a big fan of Italian food.  It’s my weakness, a nice big dish of pasta, or a slice of pizza are my weaknesses.  And in today’s post your going to see a lot of Italian food.

First off let me start with last night’s fabulous Father’s Day dinner that my dad selected and my mother cooked.  She was a little upset I hadn’t posted it last night so here you go Mom.  Happy now?

My mother makes THE best chicken parm.  It was so tender you didn’t even need a knife and it was overall perfect. 

With Andrew’s favorite pasta on the side.

Wagon Wheels!

This was absolutely perfect, thank God it’s not Father’s Day everyday though because I would seriously gain all the weight I’ve lost this year plus some, if this was an everyday option.

Now on to today.  My breakfast of choice lately has been pb on a sandwich thin.  I have no idea why, I’ve just been craving that peanut butter a lot lately.  It seems to be the only thing I want in the morning.  Unfortunately I didn’t take have my camera today, but here’s the same picture from last week. 

For lunch today I leftovers from the weekend.  I had gotten an eggplant, fresh mozzarella, and roasted red pepper sandwich.  I had a 1/4 left and brought that in for lunch today.  These pictures are from the first time I ate it over the weekend.

So delicious.  A perfect combination of flavors.

Later on I snacked on an orange.

So juicy!

Dinner tonight carried on my theme of Italian food.  I had made a very lean meat sauce over the weekend and had some leftovers for dinner.  I’ll be posting the recipe for the sauce this weekend, so stay tuned, it’s really very good and actually super simple.

I actually had dessert tonight as well.  I had a container of Fro Yo in the freezer that was about to expire.  Never one to waste food I happily ate  a small serving with some chocolate syrup.

It’s hard to tell the size but that’s just a small ramekin. 

Well I’m off to get ready for bed.  Good night everyone, hope you are having a great night!

Uh Oh…

This is my first experience with drogging, is that what we’re calling it? Caitlin? Maybe you can answer, because my hiccups might be preventing me from looking up the proper verbage. That’s not a word? Oh well.

For breakfast today in order to keep myself on schedule I had 2 waffles.  They were good but the syrup was better.  I had whatever I had left of the sugar free syrup on my whole grain Van’s waffles.

Yum yum yum, sideways and all it was fantastic.

For lunch I had a pb and raspberry jam sandwich.  I apparently did not take a picture, although I swore I did.  Here’s what Google Image Search turned up.  Enjoy!

Hiccup Hiccup.  For some reason this picture cracks me up . 

Dinner was a salad from SaladWorks.

It was some kind of Fiesta,   Of that I’m sure, but I’m not sure the name of it.

I ate half of that salad without any of the dressing, I”m saving the rest for tomorrow.  I totally ate the rest of that roll though.

 

And that’s about it, I didn’t eat anything else.  But I did enjoy a finely aged box of wine from my dad.  Yikes.

Andrew totally edited this post, he said it didn’t even make sense to him, at first.  Whoops.

Good Night Everybody, hope you have a great Saturday!

Positive Spin

I decided to take a couple more days to regroup and think about everything.  After reading Tina’s post this morning about having a positive attitude, and “fake it until you make it”  I realized that it’s something I need to give a try.  My life is fabulous, I have an amazing family, and a fantastic fiancé (that feels so weird to type, and even weirder to say, after 4 and ½ years of calling him my boyfriend it feels weird calling Andrew anything else), and such a great group of friends.   So what if I skipped some meals last week, like so many of you said in the comments, it’s okay to mess up, as long as you realize it and move on.  I beat myself up and you guys helped me move past it.
Yesterday  Rose left a comment and invited me to email her to chat more about everything.  After just a couple emails back and forth I felt better.  She gave me such obvious advice I felt stupid for not thinking of it on my own.  It’s still amazes me that the blogging community is so supportive, I get comments that make me smile, and make me think.  Rose did not have to offer to talk to me through email but she did, and put a lot of things into perspective for me.  So thank you Rose for all your help yesterday and this morning!
I finally restocked my fridge and pantry, also thanks to Rose.  I won her contest a little over a month ago and she sent me $50 dollars in gift cards to Shop Rite.  I bought so much fresh produce and other essentials and wound up only spending $17 of my own money!!

For breakfast today I had a vanilla Chobani with a crushed up Luna bar.  I am going to try to refrain from eating to many bars for now, because I’m eating them way to much.  But I have to say this combo was fantastic, like a cookies and cream Ice cream cup.  Yum.

Here’s the bar all crumbled in:
 

And all Mixed up:
 

For lunch I had an easy but favorite meal.  I was looking for my Arnold’s sandwich thins last night at the store, but they didn’t have any instead I found Pepperidge Farms “Deli Flats”  pretty much the same thing, and dare I say I liked them a little better?  I’ll need to do a side by side comparison in the future.  I had an open faced pb sandwich with apple slices on top.  This might taste better to me then a banana and pb sandwich. 

Around 3 my tummy started to growl so I had a peach.  My first one of the season!  It wasn’t quite ripe enough yet but it definitely was delicious!

I came home from work and got changed to go out to dinner with my family and Andrew.  My sister graduated yesterday!!!!  I’m so happy and excited for her, and I definitely shed a few tears at the graduation yesterday, I’m so proud of my little sister!  Before I left I just had to break out the pickles I bought yesterday.  They’re Baaaack!

My mom wanted us all to go out to dinner and I offered to pay since my parents have taken us out so much lately.  We decided to hit up Applebees.  I got the Fiesta Lime Chicken but apparently I had a little trouble reading the menu.  It said:

Grilled chicken drizzled with zesty lime sauce, topped with Mexi-ranch and Jack-cheddar, and served with crisp tortilla strips, seasoned rice, and pico de gallo.

For some reason I completely didn’t see the Mexi-Ranch in the description and thought it was just going to have fresh squeezed lime juice on it.  It tasted pretty good, although I am not at all a fan of ranch dressing of any kind.  This totally skewed what I would have estimated the calorie count at.  I ate just a few of the tortilla strips, ate about 1/2 the chicken and 1/2 the rice.  It was tasty but definitely something I would completely modify if I got again, sub in some steamed broccoli for the rice, and tell them to leave off the mexi-ranch and cheese.

Thanks again for all the support these past few weeks!  I hope you all have a fabulous night!

I’m Back!

Thanks for all the comments about my mom.  She came home Sunday and is healing and recovering perfectly.  Her appendix hadn’t ruptured so the surgery was pretty simple and not really invasive, here’s a little blurb I found online about the type of surgery she got:

The laparoscopic (minimally invasive) surgical technique involves making several tiny cuts in the abdomen and inserting a miniature camera and surgical instruments. As many as three or four incisions are made. The surgeon then removes the appendix with the instruments, so there is usually no need to make a large incision in the abdomen. The camera projects a magnified image of the area onto a television monitor which helps guide the surgeons as they remove the appendix.

They actually sent her home with pictures of her appendix before they removed it.  It’s so weird.  She’s happy to be home and was touched by your comments, thoughts, and prayers.  

I really missed blogging but to be honest my meals were far from “blog worthy”, too much convenience food for sure.  I stepped on the scale positive I gained a pound but luckily I stayed the same.  Time to kick my butt into gear.  I feel like I’m stuck in a rut, and plan to correct that soon.  I am pulling out some cookbooks and looking for some fun new recipes to try out because I feel like every week I’m eating the same thing and I’m getting bored with it.  I really need to refocus on eating better and exercising more often, the weather has been nice in the mornings when I’m leaving for work and I think I need to get out of bed early and get a run or walk in bright and early so I don’t have any excuses, I just need to make myself a morning person.

For breakfast this morning I had the usual Chobani and a Heart Thrive Energy Bar. 

I picked that package up (the flavor was Raisin Spice) when I was at the hospital Sunday afternoon and absolutely loved it, unfortunately that’s the only place I’ve ever seen them so I might be sneaking into the hospital coffee shop to pick them up every so often.  The flavor was perfect and they are very dense.

The nutrition facts are pretty great!

 

INGREDIENTS

OATS, BROWN RICE SYRUP, RAISINS, BROWN RICE FLOUR, SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SOY FLOUR, RICE BRAN, INULIN (CHICORY ROOT EXTRACT), NATURAL FRUIT JUICE, DRIED PLUMS, DRIED APPLES, DRIED PEARS, CALCIUM CITRATE, CINNAMON, NUTMEG.

Lunch today was pretty boring I had a sandwich Thin, this is a recycled picture, I forgot to take a picture of my lunch, I did not have an orange but a Mcintosh apple that a co-worker gave to me.  He brought a whole bag in and put it in our fridge and told us to help ourselves, so I of course did, I wound up cutting a few slices of apple and placing it one of the halves.  I wish I had some granola to sprinkle on, but I’m all out.

This did not stick with me long by 2 I was hungry luckily I started to put bars in my purse for those more snacky days.  Something I should have been doing all along but oh well.

Favorite bar ever!  I need to restock because I’m pretty sure that was my last one.

Dinner tonight was an easy one, I had plans to go on a walk with my friend Jessica, so I wanted something fast.  I used my last piece of ww naan and made a pineapple, meatless meatball pizza.  A flavor combo I’ll never get sick of.

 

Naan bread is the perfect size for a personal pizza.

In fun news I just bought a new phone Sunday night.  I’m officially addicted to my blackberry.

I couldn’t get a good picture of it, but this is the exact one I got.  Look familiar?  Rose just got the same one as well. I don’t know how I ever functioned without it. 

Well I’m off to snuggle and watch tv, see you tomorrow! 

Soft and Squishy

Those are pretty much the only things I can eat, anything that gives any resistance when chewing makes my jaw scream in pain from the ear infection.  Although almost everything I had tasted better it seems fruit and veggies are the major offenders in the taste category.  Wonderful I’m craving a salad but the crunch factor and the taste factor have kept me away.

For breakfast today I stuck with another soft bar.

So good, and I could actually taste it, of course the flavor was not as strong as it normally would be but it was still better then no taste at all.

For lunch I had some pb on an Arnold Sandwich Thin and an orange.  The orange tasted gross and I could barely taste the pb, I hope this infection clears up soon.

For dinner I didn’t know I wanted, I really need to go food shopping but don’t want to waste money on fresh produce when I know I’m going to be reluctant to eat it.  I’m planning on going Friday no matter what because I can’t go this long with out a nice big summer salad.  We decided to go to a local restaurant where they served breakfast so I could enjoy the french toast.

Nice and soft, it didn’t hurt at all to eat and I swear I could taste some cinnamon.  I also got 3 pieces of bacon on the side and since bacon is such a strong flavor I could totally taste it, again not as strong as if I was completely healthy but better then most things.  The bacon did hurt to chew a little,  because of my ears but it wasn’t too bad. 

After that we went to Andrew’s parents house to visit, and the to Petsmart to pick up some things for Geoffrey.  I’ll take some pictures tomorrow of his new home because we just finished setting it up.

Well tomorrow is my Friday already!  I love 3 day weeks!  Have a great night everyone!