Well, this is embarrassing…

After all of your great advice about fitting exercise into a busy schedule and even sleeping in my gym clothes, I slept through the alarm and didn’t make it to the gym before work!  (I did get there after 5, though, so all was not lost).

Yesterday I was in a rush to get out the door; luckily breakfast was a no-brainer.  I took Ari’s rejected breakfast cookie…

… and turned it into a Breakfast Cookie Parfait! I just cut it up and layered it with nonfat plain yogurt and a little cinnamon.  It was yummy and filling; I think I may eat it this way more often!

At work, I snacked on a Fuji apple (cut into slices to minimize loud crunching).

For lunch, I had leftover tofu, cheezy “pasta” and an orange.

I made the “pasta” by tossing a package of angel hair Shirataki noodles with Elise’s cheeze sauce and cherry tomatoes.  I was a little skeptical about the “cheeze” at first, but I really liked the taste!  And I love having Shirataki noodles for lunch… I tend to prefer to eat heavy pastas for dinner instead of early in the day, and this was nice and light.

Anticipating my post-work sweat sesh, I snacked on a Green Superfood Chocolate Whole Food Energy Bar around 3.  The last time I ate this bar I wasn’t crazy about it, but I really like it now.  The first bite is a little odd, but then it’s smooth, rich and fruity.

At the gym I did 13 minutes on the bike, 20 minutes on the stairs, arms + abs.  Not bad for a total body workout in under an hour!

I met my parents for dinner at Regional, an Italian restaurant on the upper west side.   We started with rustic bread and garlicky bean dip…  (Still learning this camera… sorry again about the lighting!)

We shared a mixed green salad with beets and gorgonzola cheese three ways.

We also split a side of sautéed broccoli rabe.

For my entrée, I ordered spaghettini with frutti di mare.  The pasta was cooked perfectly, but the seafood was tough and overcooked.  The restaurant was pretty crowded and we’ve never had this problem before; I’ve worked in restaurants before and I understand that this happens sometimes.  I still ate almost all of it.

After dinner we walked to Tasti D Lite for frozen yogurt.  It was way too cold to eat on the walk home, but I ate my cup of peanut butter and coffee and cream with chocolate chips as soon as I warmed up.

I slept for a glorious 8 hours and woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day.  My mom and I made steel-cut oatmeal and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast.

My bowl had:

• steel-cut oats cooked in skim milk + water
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• 1/3 banana
• warmed frozen strawberries
• walnuts
• cinnamon
• brown sugar

We also sampled my dad’s Turkish flagel (flat bagel) with sour cherry jam.

I went to the soup kitchen, then headed to Brooklyn to have lunch with my little red-headed friend at Kiku, the Japanese restaurant we discovered (and loved!) but couldn’t recall the name of.   We figured out that when it comes to Japanese food, you can get a FABULOUS lunch for under $10!  The same meal, while still a great deal, is at least $5 more expensive at dinner-time.

My meal came with salad + miso soup…

My Lunch Box came with California rolls, salmon teriyaki + vegetables, edamame, shumai and rice.  I took the rice home but ate everything else.

Even though we were pretty full, our playdates are never finished without a treat.  We popped in to Marquet Patisserie, an adorable bakery that transported me right back to the streets of Paris (where I studied abroad).

I had a chocolate brownie with crushed peanuts.

The late lunch + snack held me over so well that I wasn’t ready to eat dinner until after 9 o’clock.  And then I had what I can assure you, nine days yet, was The Most Random Meal of 2010:

Egg whites scrambled with a Dr. Praeger’s Tex-Mex Burger with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese…

… and shredded broccoli stalks with miso-tahini dressing (tahini, apple cider vinegar, ginger, miso paste, agave nectar, salt).  It’s better than it looks!

Inspired by all of Erin‘s pudding creations, I whipped up one of my new favorite desserts using two of my (formerly) not-so favorite products.

Tofu “pudding”

• 1/3 block silken tofu
• 1 T Chocolate PB2
• 1/3 packet stevia

Mix to combine.  Enjoy!

This was the first time I’ve actually enjoyed stevia! I don’t really like powdered sweeteners (I don’t normally take sugar in my coffee or tea, and often find sugar substitutes to be too sweet).  However, blended with the tofu and PB2.  As long as I don’t think of PB2 as a peanut butter substitute, I can enjoy it mixed in to other things.  Peanut butter is what it is, and shouldn’t be messed around with.  Just sayin’!

I also ate about 15 of these throughout the day.  It will be a sad day in the LVP household when  go out of season.

I’m watching Jackie Brown in bed and getting ready to go to sleep.  I think I’m going to pull out my mat and do a quick YogaDownload Lunar Flow.. tomorrow will be a busy day, and it always helps me relax!

Hope you had a great night