Yesterday started off on a good note with [...]]]> Hey there! How was your Tuesday? Mine began in a hurry and ended with ice cream, and now I’m in bed watching Michael Clayton.   Ari’s leaving tomorrow to go Vigilante and we’ve all got things to do, so this is going to be a quickie!

Yesterday started off on a good note with a generous portion of Oats In A Jar.

In the mix:

• PB jar w/ about 1 T PB
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2 dried apricots
• 1 dried fig
• dried cherries

Mighty fine, I tell ya.  I should finish jars of nut butter every day!

After breakfast, I hustled over to Starbucsk to get some work done.  I sipped on a Grande Skim Misto with a shot of espresso for a few hours…

… and spaced my lunch out over about four hours to maximize my efficiency.  Every 100 pages, for example, I could eat another part of my meal.  It’s a pretty good trick! I had honeydew…

… samples of marble cake and hazelnut-espresso truffle drink (too sweet for me)…

…mixed greens with fake chicken nuggets…

TJ’s plain nonfat Greek yogurt with YouBars‘ Chocolate Peanut trail mix…

… rebel carrots…

… and a grapefruit.   When I was really young I used to snack throughout the day rather than have square meals, and there’s something to be said for this! It works nicely when I’m trying to be productive, but I think I prefer eating three times a day, plus snacks.  Do you eat three meals or snack throughout the day?

Dinner was a really, really big salad.  I love these! I eat almost an entire head of romaine or bag of spinach at a time.

In the mix:

• 1 handful spinach
• 4 romaine leaves
• 1 sweet potato
• 1 Gala apple
• 1 TJ’s frozen salmon patty
• dulse flakes
• cilantro-chili vinaigrette

I overdid it on dessert a little bit… I just kept going back for more Edgies!  My tum was a little unhappy with me when I went to bed, but I’m pretty sure the brownies were worth it

I thought I was going to wait until tomorrow to share this with you, but today my physical therapist gave me the okay to run.  With the exception of the two minutes I ran on the treadmill during my first therapy session, I haven’t really run since I hurt my knee during my 10K race.  My therapist only let me run for 15 minutes, but it felt great! I didn’t feel any pain in my knee, and felt proud that I had followed the doctor’s and therapist’s orders to stay off my legs until the time was right.  But baby, I’m back!

What made you proud today?

The rolled oats stash still hasn’t been replenished, and I haven’t gotten a new batch of steel-cut [...]]]> Good morning and happy Thursday! It’s going to be a good day, I can just tell   How has your week been going? What was the most surprising or thing that brought you the most happiness?

The rolled oats stash still hasn’t been replenished, and I haven’t gotten a new batch of steel-cut whipped up yet, so I had to think a little about what I wanted for breakfast yesterday.  I opened the fridge, pulled out the almond butter, and…

Oh no! Take me to a Trader Joe’s and make no stops on the way!  Well, I don’t know when I’m actually going to get to TJ’s, so I tried to leave a little nut butter on the sides to make oats-in-a-jar when the time is right.  That wasn’t enough for breakfast, though, so I pulled out a sample of Sunbutter that I’ve had lying around for a few months.

When squeezed out, it looks likes this:

One Ezekiel English muffin half had almond butter and TJ’s pumpkin butter, the other Sunbutter and raspberry jam.

The Sunbutter definitely tastes like sunflower seeds.  I think I still prefer almond and peanut butters, but this was a nice change.  I don’t know if I would buy a whole jar of this, but if I had more travel packets I would use them for on-the-go snacking.

I took all of my new vitamins with breakfast (except the melatonin, which is only for when I really can’t sleep at night).

Unfortunately I didn’t read the label carefully when I was at the store and bought the powdered Ester-C (which aids iron absorption) instead of the capsule, which means I have to drink it.  And let me tell you, this is one of the worst tastes I’ve ever known.

I worked and researched most of the morning, and broke for lunch around noon before I had to leave for physical therapy.  I made a big salad through my session:

In the mix:

• 1/2 head of romaine
• grape tomatoes
• 1 orange
• leftover roasted Brussels sprouts
• julienned carrots
• Trader Joe’s Vegetable Masala Burger
• Trader Joe’s Three Layer Hummus
• Cayenne pepper-spiked agave- cinnamon dressing

It was a big salad! I almost couldn’t finish it, but I’m not usually one to leave greens on my plate.  I went into the city to get my H1N1 flu shot (seasonal flu shot has already sold out almost everywhere), then went across town to my physical therapy appointment.  I was early, so I popped into Tasti to get a treat and read a little.  I got a small cup of chocolate raspberry mousse:

My appointment went really well.  I really like my therapist; she’s a former marathoner and current Half-Iron Man-er, and just seems to know what she’s doing (a welcome change).  She  worked with me for over an hour, and came to the same conclusion as the first PT:  my muscles aren’t strong enough to support the kind of running I’m doing. If I want to be an endurance athlete and compete in races, my quads, glutes, calves, etc. have to be really strong.  I need to work on strength moves, increasing my flexibility (stretching, rolling out with the foam roller) and core moves every day. My knees do point in (the first PT diagnosed me with “squinting patellae”) but strengthening my quadraceps will force them back into place.  And the even better news? I can start back up again (slowly) in the next few days, and can run the 15K in December!!!

She asked if I’d be okay with running on the treadmill for a few minutes to analyze my gait, and you should have seen the way my eyes lit up.  Running? Now? Even though I hate the treadmill, I felt like I was flying.  I do pronate, and my hips do come out and come forward when they shouldn’t (which has caused tightness in my IT band that I didn’t even know about until she worked it through with her fingers), but it can all be corrected.  Woohoo!!!! I’m going back today; she wants to see me twice a week for a month or so.  Thank the lordy. If I had a job right now, I wouldn’t have this kind of flexibility!

On the ride home, I was hungry again so I snacked on a Trek Mix bar.

When I got home, I did some more searching and researching, and started to think about dinner.  It was going to take a couple hours to make, so when Ari ordered sushi for himself and Josh I politely requested my very own sweet potato roll.

Seriously, I don’t know how I didn’t know about these until now.  What would I do without Ilana and Ari? Amazing!

My own dinner was based on this recipe.   When I went to the produce store, I found a squash I’d never seen before.  It started with a G… Galaban? Galabaga? When I looked it up on this handy squash glossary, however, I discovered that it was one of the most popular squashes with bloggers: the kobucha!

These were sold already halved; each half was about 70 cents.

I changed the recipe a little bit; I halved the “pudding” recipe, only used egg whites (I don’t have whole eggs), didn’t use anise, and used red onions instead of scallions.

It took a long time to cook (about an hour and a half), but the results were worth it.

I ate one half of the squash and saved the rest for another day.  It was really satisfying, and so good that I ended up eating the skin, too! Oops.

For dessert, I smeared a pumpkin bar with peanut butter.  It wasn’t worth it: still tasted bad.  Into the trash they go!

Ari and I took Carlye‘s suggestion and watched the pilot of Psych.  We thought there would be a few more episodes on the first disc, but it was just the one! So off I go to the mailbox… must make sure there’s a Halloween movie here for Saturday!

Have a great day

P.S. Averie is giving away ProBar Fruitition bars!

Hmm, so… Thursday’s breakfast was based around YouBar‘s The Best Trail Mix.

I plopped half the bag on top [...]]]> Bonne samedi, mes amis! How are you all? Is your weekend off to a nice start? I know I make it a terrible habit of disappearing on the first day Ari’s back, but I’m here now.

Hmm, so… Thursday’s breakfast was based around YouBar‘s The Best Trail Mix.

I plopped half the bag on top of a big mound of pumpkin and an even bigger mound of steel-cut oats, and covered it all with cinnamon and agave nectar.

It felt quite festive.

This was the morning that I had my bone density test (the results of which were called in to my orthopedist… who did not return my call and share the findings with me before the weekend but that’s okay).  I had an apple when I got out of the hospital…

… came home, read InStyle took care of some chores, and went back to sleep for a few hours.  When I woke up, so did a hungry beast. I was inspired by the previous day’s salad dressing adventures, so I played around in the kitchen a little bit.

Behold: Pumpkin- Miso Vinaigrette!

Pumpkin- Miso Vinaigrette

Serves 1

• 2 tablespoons pumpkin purée
• 1 teaspoon white miso paste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• sprinkle of nutmeg
• squirt of fresh lemon juice

This was delicious. I vow to never have a boring salad again!

Into the salad itself went:

• 1/3 block tempeh
• 1 apple
• red onion
• carrots
• red chard
• pumpkin-miso dressing

I followed it up with a cup of Trader Joe’s Organic Greek Nonfat Vanilla Yogurt.

After a few hours of job searching, I snacked on a piece of Pumpkin-Banana-Date Tea Loaf with peanut butter and raspberry jam.

Other than walking and cleaning, I have done almost nothing physical in almost two weeks.  It’s slowly driving me crazy.  Emily alerted me to these workout videos you can watch instantly on Netflix (if you have an account), which is great. Unfortunately, my will power is not.  I did about 10 minutes of this yoga class, then made dinner and went to the airport to pick Ari up.  Blegh.

I’m going to wager that my dinner is not going to ignite any food jealousy.   I had no idea what I wanted for dinner except that I had to have an Ezekiel English muffin.  On one half I had a TJ’s Masala Burger with mustard, on the other egg whites with salt, pepper & ketchup. Boring, but got the job done.

We found the band at the airport, piled all the gear in the car and squeezed in like sardines.  Everyone was a little jet-lagged, so we just watched a short movie and In Treatment.  While doing so, I had another piece of Pumpkin-Banana-Date Tea Loaf with almond butter and jam and a small glass of Merlot.

We slept in a bit yesterday, although I woke up a good hour before the boy.  This is usually the case even when he hasn’t just come back from a tour in Europe.  No matter! I made myself a bowl of brown oatmeal: steel-cut oats with 1/2 banana, cinnamon, brown sugar and peanut butter.

By the time Ari woke up and decided he wanted chicken parm for breakfast, I was ready for lunch.  I made a salad that was almost a repeat of the day before’s, but why mess with a good thing?

In the mix:

• red chard
• carrots
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/3 brick tempeh
• 1 pear
• red onions
• pumpkin-miso dressing

I also had a cup of Trader Joe’s Organic Nonfat Honey Greek Yogurt.

We went into the city and took care of a bunch of errands, including chopping what Erin refers to as Ari’s “alterna-hair.” We stopped by my old restaurant for a glass of wine before going to dinner at Friend House, one of Ari’s favorite sushi restaurants.  Something happened to my camera and it would only take really blurry (and incredibly frustrating) photos.

I ordered the sashimi entrée… I promise that’s what’s in the picture!

It came with miso soup.

We went down to the Lower East Side for some Upwelling work, got caught in the rain, and practically ran all the way home.  After showering away the acid rain, we settled in for the night with our cartons of Ben & Jerry.

I went for Light Phish Food (but demanded asked nicely for the peanut butter cups in Ari’s Everything But The…), and did my best to put it down after I plowed through 1/4 of the carton.  I guess I have a little bit of will-power.

What are your plans for the weekend?

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Good morning! How are you today? It’s a blustery day so far here in the city, and I’m happy to say that the air conditioner is no longer running on its automatic circuit.  It seems like most of us have mixed feelings about birthdays, but… I think I’ve decided to be less of [...]]]>

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Good morning! How are you today? It’s a blustery day so far here in the city, and I’m happy to say that the air conditioner is no longer running on its automatic circuit.  It seems like most of us have mixed feelings about birthdays, but… I think I’ve decided to be less of a grinch and just enjoy seeing my friends and family, as usual.  Why not celebrate when you can?

Yesterday was another Fall-inspired breakfast: oats cooked with water and almond milk, topped with a small apple, pumpkin pie mix, and a scoop of peanut butter.

At work, fearing a grumbly tummy (I work in the same room as my boss) I took a water break and ate a Trek Mix bar in the reception area.

My mom and I were able to meet for lunch today, and dined at Baoguette, a chain of Vietnamese sandwich and noodle shops.

I ordered the Bu’n Fish, which was baked in spices and plopped on top a HUGE portion of noodles and pickled vegetables.  I ate so much, but still had at least a pound of leftovers to take home!

I went home, made some tea (which I promptly spilled all over myself and the floor), snacked on some chunks, and fell asleep.

I woke up just in time to shower before having to leave to meet my parents.  We were going to a play with at 7:00 curtain and weren’t going to eat dinner until it was over, so I made myself a Greek yogurt/ warmed Mangolicious blend/applesauce snack.

The play, called Is Life Worth Living?, was a revival of an Irish play from the 1930s.  We all really enjoyed it! The perfect way to kick of birthday season.  Ahem.

After the play, we went to John’s Pizzeria for a late dinner.  This was a hotspot when I was in elementary and middle school… almost everyone had birthday parties here.  I don’t think I’d been for 10 years!

We ordered a spinach salad with apples, blue cheese, walnuts, onions and olives to share:

We also split a large Margherita pizza with basil and onion.

I had two slices.

I haven’t ordered pizza in so long, and it felt so good. It was a really, really nice evening.  When I got home, I finished off the last of the coconut milk ice cream and topped it with frozen cherries and homemade almond milk. I love eating straight from the carton… it feels so naughty!

I also dug into some snail mail from a certain buddy who must know I’m obsessed with pugs…

… a special note from Miss Gliding Calm!

This girl sure knows how to brighten a day

Well, I’m off to go get my license renewed.  Don’t you just love the DMV?  A certain someone might be coming home today, too… I’ll give you one good guess.

Have a great day!

The AC was on [...]]]> Good afternoon and happy Friday! I hope you had a great Thursday night (Em, this means you!) and are gearing up for a fabulous weekend.  The rain let up yesterday and it was absolutely beautiful… unfortunately, it’s sprinkling outside again now.  It seems to be raining all over the world!

The AC was on full blast when I woke up yesterday, so I wanted a hot breakfast and made a big bowl of oatmeal.

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/2 banana
• 1 each: date, fig, apricot
• 1 tsp PB
• cinnamon

I stopped at the Starbucks near the office and used my gift card (which I bought for myself… we all need presents) and got a grande skim latte with a generous sprinkle of cinnamon.

I’d planned to save my snack for work, but I got hungry and dug into it while doing some data entry (remember the Rolodex?). My trail mix baggie had stale Puffins (going with GoLean next time to avoid that problem), dates, figs, apricots, almonds, and raisins.

I used my lunch hour to take advantage of the gym next door.  Unfortunately, I only had about 20 minutes of active time, so I just did 10 minutes on the stairs and ran a mile.  I have to take showering, dressing and prettifying into consideration, so time is really limited.  I would have preferred to do some strength training as well, but it didn’t work out today. For the working women of the world: what do your lunchtime workouts look like?

I waited until I left my internship at 3:30 to have lunch, thinking it would hold me over better before my 11:00 dinner during my wait shift. I had my leftover salmon salad and topped it with Gena‘s guacamole.  It ended up exploding in the bag I carried it in, making a huge greasy mess, so I decided to keep the cover on the take-out container and not gross you out.

I also slammed an orange in hyper-speed on the way to work:

Work last night was fine.  My parents and some friends came by to have dinner, which was nice.  I made decent $ so I got to leave at 11:30 and still have enjoy part of an evening, which is the best of both worlds.  Even better, though, was that Ari, with instructions to be ready starting at 7:50, got me a ticket to the Healthy Living Summit! Did any of you get tickets? I’m so excited to meet you guys!

For dinner, I had another salad surprise! The chef listened to my pleas and grilled the shrimp this time… so delicious.

I also had two slices of this pizza.  I tried to get a photo that shows the size of it, but it didn’t come out.  Each slice is about half the length of a knife.

I didn’t want to eat the second piece, but the chef who makes the pizza thought I should taste one pice with mozzarella, and one with bufala cheese.  Excuses, excuses.

I went out last night and got a little too party hardy (and played a game I never thought I would), and I am more than feeling it this morning.  We went to the diner to do some damage control, but I ended up eating way too much for the way I was feeling and it made it worse.  Oh well! You live, you learn (or so you’d think…).

I got an egg white omelet with tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms and feta (my standard)… the ketchup got a little out of control, but it kind of resembles the way my eyes feel right now!

I had 1-1/2 pieces of dry toast (3 triangles).  We ended up sitting and talking for a while with Ari’s sister and friend Charles, who is visiting from the West Coast for a couple weeks.

I’m starting to feel a little more like a human now, but I’m going to be taking it easy tonight.  I have a fabulously exciting dinner tonight, and then I’m going to a Swine Flu-themed party, but I hope I can hit the hay at a decent hour!

And now, let’s have a moment of silence for Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett and Ed McMann. Funny how bad things always happen in 3s, isn’t it?

On a happier note, head over to Rosey Rebecca’s blog for an Oikos giveaway!

Have a lovely Friday

Hey hey hey and happy Fri-dizzle!  Hope your weekend is shaping up nicely.  I’m headed to Maryland for the weekend… not sure what the blogging/internet situation will be, but as always, you will never be far from my mind.

Last night I stayed up [...]]]> *For some reason this didn’t post last night… sorry about that!

Hey hey hey and happy Fri-dizzle!  Hope your weekend is shaping up nicely.  I’m headed to Maryland for the weekend… not sure what the blogging/internet situation will be, but as always, you will never be far from my mind.

Last night I stayed up pretty late reading, so I got a little hungry and ate an apple.

Jim made a reappearance this morning at breakfast… I think he was channeling Jack the Pumpkin King.

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/2 banana
• 2 tsp skim milk
• 1 tsp PB
• 1 tsp black raspberry jelly
• 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
• face: orange smile, dried apricot eyes, pecan nose

I had a doctor’s appointment and they kept me waiting for a while, so I whipped out some trail mix and ate it in the waiting room.  A good girl is always prepared!

I got hit with a horrible wave of exhaustion after my appointment; I picked up a hazelnut iced coffee with skim and sugar and it helped a little.

The internet was a little ornery this morning so I couldn’t check to see what Day 3 of Gina‘s Summer Shape-Up was, but I remembered that it was some kind of cardio interval training so I hopped on the elliptical and alternated between levels 10 and 15, in 1-minute intervals, for 30 minutes with a 5 minute cooldown.  I also did one ab machine. Thankfully, my heart rate monitor decided to work today:

Total time: 39:22 minutes

Maximum heart rate: 176 (88%)

Average heart rate: 151 (76%)

Calories burned: 357

I snacked on an apple on the way out of the gym:

It was already 3:30 by the time I got home. While I was pounding away on the elliptical (and trying not to fall asleep on the subway), I came up with a serious crack wrap remix:

I smeared some Hummus Palace hummus on a one half of a whole wheat HP pita, and topped it with some extra sharp NY cheddar.

I smooshed the top of the pita on and heated both sides until they started to brown.

Then I pried open the sandwich, and plopped a pre-toasted Amy’s California Veggie Burger between the layers.

Holy Yum. Look at that ooze!  I enjoyed it with some leftover spicy mint pesto and hot sauce.

For dessert, I had two Fig Newtons and a three-hour nap.

My mom treated me to a nice Thai dinner at Sura.  The price is unbelievable and the food is delicious! For $12, we shared an appetizer trio: coconut shrimp, “Virgin” Thai summer roll, and seaweed-crusted tofu.

We also split the Almond-Crusted Trout with Rice-Noodle and Papaya salad.

All that was only $24! New York is expensive, but it’s definitely possible to find delicious and beautifully-prepared food that won’t break the bank.

When I got home, I had a mango with Fage 0%.  When I was younger I used to get a rash all over my face every time I ate mango! (I always did it anyway ).

I also wanted some chocolate, so I broke out the bar my friend Carlye brought me back from Russia, oh, six months ago! (Remember the FOR MEN chocolate?!)

It got a little melty on the drive home from Minnesota, but it still tasted like pure Ruskie heaven.

Well, almost time to go and I have to make sure I didn’t forget anything.  I always forget something big, like my glasses, and end up sleeping in my contacts for days on end!

Have a great weekend