In A Food Mood (WIAW)

 

I didn’t mean to miss a post yesterday but it just sort of happened. The weekend was crazy which made Monday even crazier for me in terms of catching up that I just didn’t have time to finish up the running post I was working on for yesterday.

Here I am now though! And it’s already Wednesday!

But I am in a mood. A food mood.

Lately I am just so tired of my usual meals. I don’t know for sure what it is that I want to eat, I just know that what I am cooking and eating, most of the time, just isn’t IT.

Maybe it’s the season. I don’t want to cook. I don’t want to plan, prepare or prep. I don’t even want to food shop. I don’t want to think about my next meal or what I am going to cook for my son (there’s nothing I can make right now that meets his expectations anyway, except the chicken parm I told you about recently).

I can’t even look at apples with peanut butter right now. I tried the other night, really I did, but it wasn’t what I wanted!

I have decided to go with the flow of my food mood feelings right now, even if it means eating out a bit more during the week, giving up peanut butter or stopping to pick up random bags of M&M’s three days in a row. If I don’t try to remedy my food mood, I know I will be unhappy and unsatisfied which is just not a nice combination, especially as I am entering my PMS days.

Steer clear. Just saying.

Breakfast:

The usual pre-run oatmeal with coffee.

After my run, I worked on finishing the fruit that was left from my Edible Arrangement along with some more oatmeal because oatmeal is one of the few foods not annoying me at the moment.

The birthday card from my parents came with lots of gift cards including one for Dunkin Donuts which is perfect because I am liking iced coffee at the moment.

Lunch:

I thought about going to Red Mango but had too much work to do so I settled for making some sort of stir fry which involved a steam bag of frozen vegetables.

Are you familiar with my favorite steam bag frozen vegetable mix – the one with the broccoli, carrots, snap peas and water chestnuts? I cooked it in my cast iron skillet instead of the microwave and cracked some eggs and egg whites into the pan too thinking the protein would maybe help my cranky food mood.

On top of brown rice (one of those Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice pouches) with spinach and avocado plus Island Soyaki for flavor.

Dinner:

I thought my son had a little league game but then the email reminder arrived saying in big bold letters, “WEDNESDAY’S GAME” so there went my theory.

I am not complaining though because no game meant time to go out for dinner courtesy of another gift card.

I was so happy not to cook!

Thankfully my favorite salad from The Cheesecake Factory is still my favorite salad. It’s been 16 years since I have ordered something different at The Cheesecake Factory!

Dessert:

We didn’t have dessert at The Cheesecake Factory because I still had some leftovers of the chocolate covered fruits from my birthday Edible Arrangement.

Here we have a chocolate covered apple slice, chocolate covered strawberries and the chocolate covered pineapple disguised as a cupcake.

I plated it up but obviously I had WAY more than this. Who would stop at only these three pieces when you have a container filled with chocolate covered fruit goodies? My only issue, the pineapple burns the roof of my mouth.

Be sure to check out what everyone else is eating today!

Do you ever get in a food mood?

Which foods are always your favorites?

What do you order at The Cheesecake Factory?

Three Tip Tuesday – Being A Friend

 

One of these days I am really going to talk about Apple Cider Vinegar and the health benefits associated with adding it to your morning glass of water.

Today is not the day. It was going to be the day until I decided we needed to talk about something else entirely, something that is weighing on my mind and part of my daily life at the moment.

Over the weekend, one of my closest friends began the journey of divorce. We know that I am no stranger to the topic and watching someone close to you go through the process can be very emotional and challenging not just for your friend, but for yourself.

Even if you haven’t been through a divorce or you don’t know anyone going through the process, we all experience ups and downs in life and have times when we need to be there for our friends and loved ones.

Love this. Just love this.

But what do you do to help someone? What do you do if you can’t relate to what they are going through, or even worse, you relate all too much that it starts to hurt you or you fear projecting your situation into theirs? What do you do when you know you can’t solve their problems and really don’t know what to say in order to make them feel better?

I gave this all some thought over the last few days and came up with some of the ways I go about being a good friend:

1. SAY NOTHING:

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is listen. Sometimes, you can’t solve problems and most of the time, your friend isn’t looking for you to be the savior.

Being there for someone, just as a person who will listen and chime in with an “uh huh” to signal you are still on the line is often all you need to do.

While I went through my own divorce, my closest friends were always there for me just so I could vent. Not only could they not solve my problems, half the time they couldn’t even relate to what I was going through and you know what? Neither could I.

It was all so foreign to me that I didn’t understand anything that was happening and probably didn’t make much sense when I was speaking yet just talking through my confusion and sadness was enough to make me feel that much better.

My friends didn’t need to fix things. They didn’t need to relate or say anything. They just needed to be there for me.

2. ENCOURAGE EXERCISE:

Of course I would figure out a way to plug  the value of exercise.

As we often talk about, not only will exercise help produce endorphins, help clear the mind and put you in a “happier” place, it also helps relieve stress, keep structure and routine to your life as well as put focus somewhere other than on the negative.

A daily exercise routine is something you do for yourself. When you focus on yourself, even if only for 30 minutes a day, you are building up your strength and confidence as well as doing something for YOU.

The strength and confidence you gain fitness-wise will absolutely carry over into the other areas of you life.

BONUS TIP: I advised my friend to price around for a gym that offers babysitting. This provides her with built-in childcare, the opportunity to exercise and her kids the opportunity to play. Getting a break from the kids is good for everyone involved, especially when you are dealing with rough emotional situations.

3. YOU NEED TO EAT:

Appetites are an interesting thing – some people overeat when struggling while some tend to lose their appetite during stressful times.

As shocking as it may sound, I used to be one of those people who lost their appetite and couldn’t eat.

Keywords: USED TO BE

I promised myself years ago that nothing and no one will ever upset me ever again to the point where my meals can’t be consumed.

We must eat. For several reasons.

We need to keep eating to function. To take care of our children. To keep with our routine. To be able to exercise in order to produce those endorphins to make us feel happy.

And, if you want to know the truth, my love for running helps me to keep this strong stance on food. Running is very important to me that no matter what goes on in my life, I will never let my emotions take over and upset me to the point where I can’t eat.

If I can’t eat, I can’t run. And that would be a sad day.

When my friend told me she couldn’t stomach food, I offered up a few suggestions that are easy to choke down, require little to no preparation and just enough calories for energy until an appetite returns:

• Orange Juice
• Pretzel rods
• Chocolate milk
• Peanut Butter and Jelly
• Soup – did you know I don’t like soup?
• Fudge brownies – Listen, the fudge brownie thing once worked for me so maybe it can work for someone else

I know I am a healthy living blogger but I would be lying to you if I pretended like I didn’t go to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert after several court dates or treat myself to my favorite Red Mango parfait at various emotional times during the process over the years.

This very picture is from one of those post-court dessert days.

There are times in life that call for a favorite treat to momentarily make you feel better.

Speaking of chocolate, Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and so is The Healthy Maven’s Great Valentine Day Bake-Off.

Chocolate + Fruit = Delicious Antioxidant-Packed Happiness.

As much as I love my cake and ice cream sundaes, I really do have a thing for chocolate covered fruit.

Indulging with fruit that is dipped in chocolate satisfies both your cravings (emotional ones too) and daily fruit requirement.

Who needs to pay for an Edible Arrangement when you can easily make it yourself at home? Recipe to come tomorrow, I promise.

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I do a lot of writing (and have an ebook soon to be released) on the topic of divorce, co-parenting and dealing with your emotions in a healthy way. Some links to additional posts and articles related to this topic can be found in the If You Missed It section at the top of the page.

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Favorite comfort food? Dessert.

Favorite way to treat yourself without food? A Pedicure. Definitely a pedicure.

What’s your workout looking like today?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Would Your Friends Say?

If your friends were to describe you in a few words, do you know which words they would choose?

I think my friends would choose the following words to describe me:

• funny
• trustworthy
• wonderful mother
• honest
• easy going
• loyal
• intelligent
• creative
• patient

WAIT…PATIENT?

Yes, I suppose one can say I have patience. BUT… Not when it comes to certain things. Things such as computers and technology.

As you can see, The Cookie ChRUNicles has been undergoing some fun changes and I appreciate all of the kind words and feedback.

But I can’t stand technology, my brain doesn’t speak computer lingo and I have no patience for glitches since I can barely figure out what the heck is wrong let alone fix it by myself.

So, please be patient as I am still working out a few of the kinks  (well, really, since I am an honest person, I am having someone else work out the kinks).

Now, if you asked my friends what my hobbies were, they would tell you running, baking and shopping. And while they would be correct, they would only receive partial credit.

Most people don’t realize that I am a huge sports fan, hockey in particular. I don’t devote the same amount of attention to hockey and baseball as I once did, so maybe that’s why people forget about my sports side, or, they forget because it doesn’t seem all that believable.

Earlier this week, the hockey side of me was featured in a post over at Shawn Gate’s blog on Hockeybuzz.com.  Click here for the link to the post.

Kinda cool, yes?

You know what else is cool? Cutting up your very own pineapple.

I don’t know about you, but I was always afraid to attempt cutting a pineapple. The little boy requested fresh pineapple the other day and since I really didn’t want to pay top dollar for a small container of already cut slices, I decided it was time for me to face my fears and conquer the pineapple.

It was actually super easy! All you do is cut off the top, cut off the bottom and then the sides. Slice into rings and then cut around the middles if they are hard (the middles of this pineapple really weren’t hard at all).

In a matter of minutes you have fresh pineapple slices.

And, if you are a fun mom like me, in a few more minutes you have chocolate covered pineapple.

Melt yourself some dark (or semi-sweet) chocolate in the microwave for a minute or two and coat the pineapple. If you have patience, place the chocolate covered slices in the fridge or even the freezer to make the chocolate harden quick.

No need to get fancy. Sometimes flavor and the speed at which you deliver the treat triumphs the aesthetics.

Yes, those are apple slices in the background that were also dipped in chocolate. I ate them too fast to get you a photo.

If you know me, you know that I can’t control myself too well around sliced apples that are situated near chocolate.

There are probably worse things to have no will power around, yes?

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I NEED TO KNOW:

Are you tech savvy?

Do you have any hidden hobbies or traits that you know people will forget about?

Have you ever cut up a pineapple?

What is your favorite fruit to dip in chocolate?