Prep Kitchen

Good evening! How was your day? Mine was okay, but it feels like SO long since I got up this morning! I think I need to oil the bedroom door because it is so squeaky and I don’t need to wake up the whole house at 7 (although I’d like to! Muahahaha).

After much consideration, I made a tutti-frutti bowl of oats.  I made the portion a little bigger because I had five hours between breakfast and lunch…

• 2/3 cup oats cooked in water
• 1 blueberry-flavored nonfat Axelrod yogurt
• 1 plum

It was a tasty combo, but really filling! I almost couldn’t finish it.

On the subway ride to work, I started feeling pretty gross.  My throat is pretty scratchy and my voice is on the way out, and my left ear is still plugged up from the plane! GRR. I’m also so used to going up to my parents’ house (which I can still call “mine,” thanks) that I got on the wrong train and went uptown instead of downtown, and was almost late to work. AND I snagged my new pair of stockings. GRR GRR.

Breakfast ended up holding me over pretty well, but I was ready for lunch when 1:00 rolled around.  I’ve been eying Energy Kitchen as I pass it on the way to the office, and was looking forward to having it for lunch today.  They have burgers, wraps, salads, soups, fries, chili, smoothies, etc., and everything on their menu is under 500 calories.

I ordered the seared Ahi tuna salad:

It wasn’t huge, but it was hugely expensive… $10.99 for a salad to-go! Granted, it was good quality tuna and the mandarin oranges and toasted almonds were a nice touch, but still.

It was too cold to sit outside, so I went to Starbucks to get a hot drink and eat my lunch.  I also took Ellie and Sarah‘s advice and bought a Starbucks card… no more $8 WiFi sessions!

I got a Grande Skim Chai… and I know this is going to sound so silly, and so much like a commercial, but I have so many good memories of coming in from the cold to meet a friend and ordering this and it really made me feel a lot better.  I didn’t feel as sick, or irritated about the weather being bad (which you’d think I’d have gotten over after having lived in minnesota for 4 years) or ripping my stockings.

I went back to work and spent the rest of the afternoon doing some reading…

I dug into my snack bag aroune 3.  I picked up these “Energy Balls” in Berlin:

They’re sort of like little round Larabars, but in addition to nuts and dried fruits like dates, apricots and raisins, they’re also stuffed with seeds and topped with coconut. Yum!

I didn’t end up eating the orange, but the Energy Ball was really good!

Around 5:30, I left the office and went literally right next door to my gym.  It couldn’t be more convenient! It was a little disorienting at first… the StairMaster seemed to be twice as tall (and I almost fell off it a few times) and I didn’t know where all the weight machines were, but it was nice to get back into it again.  Cardio, how I missed you!

I didn’t bring my heart rate monitor, but I did 20 minutes on the stairs, 1.10 miles on the treadmill and two arm machines before I met up with my mama for dinner.  Another perk of this internship is I’m close enough to her office that we can have lovely and spontaneous get-togethers!

We wandered around for a little before finding a trendy Italian place.  It was really loud and the tables were pretty squished together… I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if I was feeling better.  The company was great, though!

I had a piece of bread with olive oil:

For my dinner, I ordered a grilled calamari salad with peppers, capers and olives.  This was technically an appetizer size, but there was a lot of squid! It was really good, but drowning in a ridiculous amount of garlic and oil

My mom and I shared a side of spinach… I’d thought this would be steamed, but it was in a butter bath.  It was good, obviously, but so rich that although I ate a lot of it I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have had it been a little milder.

After we parted ways, I came home and made a cup of Gypsy Cold Care tea to try to stave off this stupid cold.

I also did a little cooking for tomorrow’s lunch.  Since I got home from college, I really haven’t been cooking as much as I’d like and as a result, I’m  spending an exorbitant amount of money on things I don’t always enjoy. So… back to the kitchen!  I made Lindsay‘s Spicy Thai Coconut Corn Soup, which I’ve been wanting to make for months.

If you haven’t checked out Happy Herbivore before, get your tuchus over there! Lindsay and her husband Scott specialize in low-fat and fat-free vegan recipes that are so creative and flavorful that it doesn’t feel like you’re depriving yourself at all.  From what I (and a taste-tester) sampled, this soup did not disappoint. It was light but complex; with lime, cilantro, coconut and curry how can you go wrong?

I got pretty hungry from all those cooking smells, so I made a yogurt mess:

• 1 vanilla-flavored Nonfat Axelrod yogurt
• 1/2 banana
• cinnamon
• PB

It’s going to be an early night over at the LVP headquarters… I have to work tomorrow night and I want to squish out this cold!

I’ll leave you with some things to warm your heart: Anna is giving away some fabulous home-baked goodies to celebrate her 100th post.  I can vouch that her treats are mighty fine, so don’t miss out!  An Apple A Day is also giving away customizable Element Bars!

Have a nice night