Recent Lunches, Dinners, and Desserts

My hamstring feels so much better! I may try running outside today OR I may not. I don’t mind not running, but the weather is so nice for this time of year and I already did barre and pilates so far this week. I’m just so proud of myself for realizing that my hamstring hurt during Saturday’s run and that I was smart enough to back off immediately, rest it for a few days from running/walking, and feel like myself again. I just don’t understand why people push themselves into injuries.

Recent Meals

I eat oatmeal every day for breakfast but never take a picture of it. However, I had the baked oatmeal at the Premier Diner on Monday for lunch and did take a picture because it’s such a big beautiful bowl of goodness.

From what I understand, the diner makes one batch of baked oatmeal every morning. When it runs out, they don’t make more until the next day. I was lucky to get a big bowl served with a side of milk that I pour on top to mush everything up — it’s just so good.

In other lunch news, I had this big chopped salad from Town Bagel. I would be lying if I listed the ingredients – I really don’t remember well enough to do so.

I do remember what was in this salad that I made for lunch:

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Mushrooms
• Onion
• Dr. Praeger’s Veggie Burger
• Chickpeas
• Avocado
• Feta Cheese
• Balsamic Vinaigrette

My new routine after yoga is to come home, shower, and make mashed avocado on Ezekiel toast and/or an egg on toast. There’s mashed avocado under that egg, by the way.

The staff at Mario’s gets really confused if I walk in to order something other than “my usual” which is the whole wheat margarita pizza to go, not heated up.

I decided, on a whim, to order the eggplant pizza for a change. The girl rang it up but the man who usually boxes up my pizza put the whole wheat margarita pizza in the box first. When we told him I did something crazy and got a different slice, he boxed the eggplant pizza but they gave me the margarita pizza to take home (for free) too.

My son ate my free margarita slice so fast as a snack before I could even decide if I wanted a bite or to wrap it up.

I always say how much I enjoy the lentil pasta from Trader Joe’s – I really do! It’s so great to have on hand for a quick and easy, healthy but always tasty dinner.

I cooked mushrooms in a pan with olive oil while cooking the lentil pasta separately. Then I combined everything in the pan with the Trader Joe’s plant-based bolognese sauce. Really is such a good combination!

Apples!

I mentioned last week that I’ve been back to eating an apple almost every night.

This was an organic honey crisp warmed with cinnamon and a little bit of peanut butter.

And this apple was a Granny Smith not warmed, sprinkled with cinnamon, peanut butter, and a few dark chocolate chips.

A little blurry but I’m including it anyway!

And finally, a big box of Godiva.

Recent Eats: Lunches + Dinners (Plus French Fries!)

 

 

Today let’s take a look at my recent lunches and dinners!

I’ve been enjoying English muffins with peanut butter for lunch quite often lately. I don’t always feel like savory foods like salads and power bowls for lunch so this solves the problem when my cravings vary.

Sometimes I make an English muffin with peanut butter and jelly and sometimes I go without jelly.

It’s always nice when I eat an English muffin with peanut butter for lunch because then I don’t miss it at breakfast. On occasion I still have that mixed breakfast feeling of do I want oatmeal or do I want an English muffin? This solves the problem. Oatmeal for breakfast, English muffin with peanut butter for lunch. 🙂

Right now I have two kinds of English muffins in the house. One package of Thomas’ whole wheat English muffins and one package of Trader Joe’s  cinnamon raisin British muffins. The more toasted the muffin, the better.

I made a quick stop at Trader Joe’s the other afternoon even though I really do try (and often make it) a good week before needing to restock the kitchen. There were just a few things I didn’t buy enough of last week, including those colorful carrot coins from the frozen section!

My biggest problem when food shopping is realizing HOW MANY of something to purchase at once, so that I don’t need to come back again to the store within a few days. Certain foods like frozen blueberries (for my oatmeal), frozen broccoli, and now the colorful carrot coins, go really quickly so I definitely need to stock up with more than one bag.

I’ve been adding the colorful carrot coins to everything including this quick power bowl for lunch the other day when I wanted something savory.

This power bowl of sorts included the colorful carrot coins, chick peas, green beans, and leftover roasted potatoes. I also mixed in some leftover vegetarian 5 layer dip! I love a 5 layer dip even though sour cream and cheese aren’t my favorite parts. When it’s all combined though, it makes me happy. I don’t make the 5 layer dip myself but I’m sure that I can.

Yesterday for the first time in a while, I worked from Panera. Working from Panera usually means lunch at Panera! I’m still creating my own salad of seasonal greens with the addition of avocado and hummus.

And then there was the random stop at this new French fries spot called Spuds Pommes Fries. I’m not a big French fries person (I prefer onion rings) but I’ve been meaning to try “Long Island’s first Pommes Frites shop” so yesterday became the day.

Of course now I need to go back because there were so many French fries choices and other menu items! I went with parmesan crusted fries and a few dipping sauces. Initial response: Yum.

As for dinner, I keep loading my cast iron pan with all the veggies and plant-based proteins lately. This particular night was roasted sweet potatoes, peppers, onions, green beans, broccoli, and quinoa in a tomato type of sauce. I really want to create and share a recipe for my favorite diner even though it’s really not much of a recipe. It’s really simple with lots of variety.

Regarding the lentil soup recipe from my friend Lisa, she is totally going to give me the ingredients list and easy instructions this week so I will share that super soon! It was on me to text her to remind her and of course I didn’t but I will today.

[bctt tweet=”Recent Eats: Lunches + Dinners + French Fries! #recenteats #lunch #dinner #traderjoes #spudspommesfries #pommesfrites #panera” username=”cookiechrunicle”]

What have you been alternating for lunch lately?

Which types of English muffins do you like? Are you a peanut butter and jelly fan or do you leave off the jelly?

Are you good about buying enough at a time when you go to the grocery store?

What I Ate Wednesday 3.16.16

 

I woke up in a bit of a mood both Monday and Tuesday morning. Not tired per say, just moody. Now, of course there’s always that chance that my moodiness may just be a product of my ever-charming, often hormonally driven + Gemini + Jewish mother + New Yorker personality but that wasn’t quite it.

It took me until Tuesday morning, as I grumbled my way in the dark over to the treadmill, to realize that I was in fact in a mood because of daylight savings time!

I was really enjoying the early morning light lately for my runs and now it’s gone. Waking up in the dark and having to run indoors on the treadmill again because it’s dark outside even though it’s after 6:00 am is not nice. I am ready for Spring, okay?

I realize that with each passing day comes an earlier sunrise so I am just focusing on trying to remain early morning pleasant as best as I can but I am not doing a very good job of it so my advice is to avoid me until at least 9:00 am.

Or maybe 10:00 am. Or just send me a text that way I don’t have to answer until I feel like it.

Anyway.

Let’s take a look at what I ate on Monday which might as well be What I ate on Tuesday too since I basically ate the same foods both days.

Breakfast:

I refuse to part with my son’s baby bowls and dishes. In fact, I like to use them still for snacks. And on Monday, I used his Gerber Baby Bunch a Bowls as a bowl for my pre-run oatmeal.

Clearly my photos are not staged for these posts. Ha

After my run, I made a protein pancake (similar to this recipe only I added Skoop) which flipped really well, didn’t it? Even with the blueberries in the center!

Lunch:

Since I had frozen yogurt for lunch both Saturday and Sunday, I went back to basics to start the week. Eggs on toasted cinnamon raisin Ezekiel bread with avocado and a side of roasted asparagus which I bought on sale this week.

I haven’t had a Synergy Kombucha in a while so I treated myself to a bottle while I was out after lunch.

Dinner:

I love a good plant based power bowl. Quinoa, roasted broccoli, brussels sprouts and sweet potato wedges. I added avocado and a maple Dijon vinaigrette? Sauce? I don’t know what to call it but whatever it is, I made it myself and it’s real tasty.

Dessert:

Back to my old favorite – a granny smith apple with peanut butter.

Don’t forget to check out what everyone else is eating today 🙂

[bctt tweet=”what I ate Wednesday #WIAW #recenteats #daylightsavings #running #fitfluential “]

Has the time change been bothering you?

What was for dinner last night?

What’s on the workout agenda today?

Recent Eats

 

It’s Wednesday, which in my blog-writing mind translates as the day where I share what I have been eating.

I realized I had a collection of meals worth talking about so instead of sharing a day of food and linking up with the What I Ate Wednesday fun, I put together a little bit more variety.

Breakfasts:

Okay so variety doesn’t exactly apply to my breakfast as I eat the same thing every single morning.

Pre run oatmeal:

Post run favorite:

Saturday’s oats in a jar which I ate with a smile after my long run.

My son is a bit more varied with his morning meal.

The coconut flour waffles from the weekend reheat real nice in the toaster, topped with banana and syrup.

Lately I make him french toast using cinnamon raisin Ezekiel bread and add the bananas to the skillet so that they get warm, sprinkled with cinnamon.

Lunches:

Smoothie bowl from Monday:

In the mix:

• Cooked oatmeal
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen spinach
• Frozen pineapple
• Skoop B-Strong
• PB2
• Ice

I topped it with Love Grown Foods oat clusters and dipped my spoon in peanut butter before digging in 🙂

Yesterday I got a little creative on the savory side and made this awesome salad topped with black beans, corn, diced sweet potatoes and shrimp cooked in a maple Dijon sauce that I made all by myself.

I added avocado and was full for hours. It was so crazy good and satisfying which made me happy because I needed a new salad trend in my life, especially one with lots of protein.

I don’t eat fish often at all but sometimes a good does of protein from wild shrimp is needed and exactly why I will never be strictly vegetarian.

Dinners:

I took a picture of this meal in action while it was cooking in the cast-iron skillet.

Sweet potatoes, vegetables and quinoa cooked in a tomato sauce topped with Nutritional Yeast – a recipe post may be coming soon. So good!

Sweet potatoes, black beans and avocado made for another really simple dinner.

There were roasted Brussels sprouts in there too but I ate most of them, along with some broccoli, while they were cooking in the oven. As usual.

Desserts:

 

A lot of this happens on a daily basis…

Any time of the day, multiple times a day sometimes  — it’s just perfect.

And I made this oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookie cake yesterday as a dessert to bring to a dinner I was attending last night.

It’s my original (and famous because so crazy delicious) oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookie recipe, just sometimes I throw it in a pan and bake it as a cake to save myself some time and to make it more portable.

 I used the jumbo raisins from Trader Joe’s and will never bake this again without them! It was amazing!

Now that I am hungry from putting this post together, it’s time for me to eat. Enjoy your Wednesday 🙂

[bctt tweet=”Recent Eats #oatmeal @healthyskoop #cookies #recenteats”]

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Favorite lunch lately?

Which meal do you vary the most – breakfast, lunch or dinner?

What kind of coffee are you drinking today?

 

 

 

 

What I Ate Yesterday

 

 

A quick look at what I ate yesterday…

I can’t remember the last time I ate just one breakfast and I also can’t remember the last time I was able to sip my first cup of coffee at a leisurely pace rather than gulp it down in two seconds.

Early morning (as in still dark outside) pre-run small bowl of oatmeal with mashed banana, cinnamon and peanut butter. Can you see my mug is basically empty before I even took a bite of the oatmeal? 

After my run (nine miles!), I came home wanting a simple english muffin with peanut butter rather than my usual oats in a jar.

It’s extremely rare for me to switch up my post-run meal but this Rudi’s Organic Spelt English Muffin topped with a mix of Crunch Time Peanut Butter, Trader Joe’s Crunchy Peanut Butter with Flax & Chia Seeds and some cranberry apple jelly hit the spot!

I needed a change of weekday pace for lunch too.

Red Mango is usually a weekend lunch treat but I just needed it yesterday, you hear me? I needed it.

I didn’t want to look at another salad or vegetable or anything savory of that sort. I wanted my parfait layered all nice with berries, pumpkin flax granola and dark chocolate chips.

It’s not like I miss out on my vegetable servings anyway because I always seem to get them in later in the day.

A peak inside a steam fresh bag of mixed vegetables…

I really like steam fresh bags of veggies. I heat them up sometimes while dinner is cooking and pick through the mix.

This mix is my favorite – snap peas, broccoli, water chestnuts and carrots. I could do without the carrots but I guess they make it more interesting and colorful.

Let’s just call this another plant-based power bowl for dinner.

Roasted brussels sprouts with other vegetables, chick peas, brown rice and avocado. Hummus too!

Dessert was a winner. A real winner.

I ended up with a jar of PB2 in my pantry after telling you I stopped buying it because it was on sale so I figured, like, okay why not?!

The one thing I do love about PB2 is how well it combines with bananas, fresh or frozen.

For this dessert, I mashed a fresh banana, added PB2 with water (don’t ask me how much because I don’t know) plus dark chocolate and a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter.

Warmed in the microwave for a minute and you have some sort of gooey snacking cake.

It’s so simple it’s silly. I can’t even call it a recipe.

Wait, I totally had an apple somewhere in the day too.

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

[bctt tweet=”What I Ate Yesterday #wiaw #redmango #peanutbutter #plantbased #powerbowl”]

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Are you a two breakfast eater?

Do you always eat the same thing after your run or do you switch it up?

If you buy steam fresh/frozen vegetables, which mixes are your favorite?

 

 

 

WIAW on Monday

 

I can’t thank you enough for your kind words and support regarding yesterday’s post.

It wasn’t that easy for me to share but I can’t say it was overly difficult either.

It felt great putting that post together and the truth is, I am more than fine.

Really.

Fine.

The older I get, the stronger I am, the wiser I have become and the less often I allow total nonsense to deeply affect me.

No one likes to be lied to. No one wants to be hurt but over time you learn how to wash your hands real quick of the silly situations that, in the big picture, just don’t matter enough.

Life is way too short to dwell on such petty acts, although, you can take your time to find the humor in a puzzling situation and laugh about it with your friends, which is exactly what we have been doing.

You gotta be able to laugh, always.

 

I haven’t done a What I Ate Wednesday post in a while!

I don’t know that I will be doing them every week but I will keep them in the Wednesday rotation from time to time when I feel as though I have a full day of food worth sharing.

Let’s take a look at What I Ate on Monday….

Pre-Run Breakfast:

 

My first bowl of oats is usually the same each morning.

A scoop of cooked oatmeal, cinnamon, a little mashed banana and peanut butter.

 

Post-Run Breakfast:

 

My favorite meal of the day. Seriously.

I look forward to this bowl and the endorphin/happy fatigue feeling I have while eating it each morning following my run.

When I work with frozen berries, this is what it looks like before I heat it up.

I warm it in the microwave (on the defrost setting so the berries don’t mush) and then add some Skoop B-Strong and more peanut butter so it ends up looking all ugly like this:

Don’t let the appearance fool you – it’s delicious! I could eat bowl after bowl…after bowl.

What I haven’t been eating bowl after bowl of lately though is greek yogurt.

I stopped adding it to my post run oatmeal mix and have replaced it with Skoop protein powder instead.

I love the combo right now so I will go with it until the greek yogurt craving strikes up again.

Lunch:

 

I played around with a new seasoning for my brussels sprouts so they became a big part of my salad.

I used the other half of the sweet potato from lunch to make another batch of my flourless fudge brownie bites.

I am just a bit obsessed with these fudgy bites so once I finish one batch, I quickly make another.

Dinner:

 

I was heading into the city for the evening to attend an event at Glasshouses but made sure to eat a small dinner before leaving.

Surprise, surprise, a plant-based power bowl on a plate.

 Roasted sweet potato wedges, quinoa, avocado and some veggies.

I don’t like to be hungry and don’t like to rely on the food served at events just in case it doesn’t appeal to me/satisfy my appetite.

It was a beautiful night for an event at Glasshouses since the view from the space is incredible!

I took a picture of lower Manhattan for you so that you could see the Freedom Tower up close and personal.

The cocktail party-style event was hosted by AllSeated (remember I do a lot of freelance work with AllSeated– in the event planning industry) and the food was both adorable and delicious.

The only food I think I may miss as a vegetarian are those little hot dogs. They used to be my favorite!

Since I am a known foodie and a blogger, I was able to work my way into the kitchen before the desserts came out for a behind the scenes look at the goodies!

The head chef had me try one of the apple “Pop Tarts” first.

May I just say, WOW! They were amazing and definitely tasted exactly like the Pop Tarts of my past (he told me it was all in the crust. The crust gave off the true Pop Tart texture and flavor).

Next I sampled some mini churros and dipped them of course in the chocolate sauce.

And the candy selection! So simple yet fun, I couldn’t get enough!

I had them bring me a baggie (speak up people, how else can you bring the candy home unless you have a bag?!) and I even took some for my son.

I love nonpareils but those giant round jelly beans were my favorite I think, especially combined in each bite with the chocolate from the nonpareils.

I may need to buy a bag of Easter-inspired jelly beans from Target or something and use them in place of the Trader Joe’s jelly beans I eat during my long runs.

I CANNOT stop thinking about these jelly beans!

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

[bctt tweet=”What I ate Wednesday on Monday! #wiaw #oatmeal #glasshouses #allseated #eventplanning #jellybeans”]

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Do you go through food phases? If so, what are you currently loving and/or what did you suddenly stop eating?

Which candies would you have picked from that bin? m&m’s, Smarties, jelly beans, nonpairels, Hershey’s kisses…

Favorite meal of the day?

 

What We Ate Snow Day

 

 

Because you want to know what I look like when I shovel snow…

I originally thought that this weeks What I Ate Wednesday would be about what I ate yesterday while in the city for an event but of course that event was postponed due to the blizzard.

So instead let’s just look at what we have been eating while in the house over the last few days…

Breakfast has officially seen the return of my three-ingredient pancake on an every morning basis.

My flipping skills are slowing improving back to where they used to be.

Topped with peanut butter and a drop of Trader Joe’s Cranberry Apple Jelly.

I like to bake when it snows so early yesterday morning I whipped up these blueberry-loaded blueberry muffins which my son had for breakfast when he finally rolled out of bed.

We ate them warm with peanut butter. Might Maple peanut butter. Delicious. Muffin recipe to come.

I had Red Mango over the weekend which you may have seen on instagram and I am sitting here sorry that I didn’t take home a pint of their original yogurt to have for lunch this week.

Gosh I just love a good Red Mango parfait. Sometimes I make a parfait at home using greek yogurt but it’s just not the same effect as the frozen yogurt kind.

Instead I relied the last few days on my usual power bowl-type lunch with the ingredients I had on hand.

Roasted sweet potatoes wedges, brussels sprouts, spinach and tomatoes with chick pea/avocado mash.

Looks like I am eating special tomatoes this week.

And I keep dipping everything in this hummus.

I tried not to keep refilling my coffee mug with coffee so I alternated with decaf Yoga tea.

Yogi Kava Stress Relief is my favorite flavor.

I bought a spaghetti squash at Whole Foods over the weekend because my son requested it.

He saw some Rachel Ray segment on television and decided he needed what they were eating and whatever it was they were eating, including spaghetti squash.

I don’t know for sure what her recipe was but I roasted the squash and made him baked chicken parmesan.

The green stuff you see on his plate is sugar snap peas. It’s the only green vegetable he will voluntarily eat so I make sure to get them on his plate.

I want to share my breading recipe with you soon since I don’t use traditional bread crumbs.

I figured I would attempt to finally make the black bean brownies  yesterday but my son decided HE wanted to bake something, as in, by himself.

It was not easy to give up control of my kitchen (I handled the oven) but I let him make flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, a recipe I first learned from Jen over at Peanut Butter Runner.

He had picked a different peanut butter cookie recipe which involved flour and butter.

I politely forced this recipe on him instead because these flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are so delicious that I can’t see why one would bother to add the extra ingredients.

Speaking of peanut butter and chocolate, I grabbed this cereal the other day at Whole Foods.

I am not a big cereal eater at all but I felt like we could use it as another snack option.

The fun continues all over again since school is closed another day. We should be able to get out though, it’s not snowing anymore and the roads should be decent a little later this morning.

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

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If it snowed by you, how much snow did you get?

Are you a regular cereal eater?

Favorite green vegetable?

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Do You Mean You Forgot To Eat?

 

I missed a meal once.

It was the summer of 2003, I was probably somewhere around six months pregnant.

I had a Chicken Parmesan Panini for lunch which made me so nauseous that I couldn’t bring myself to eat an afternoon snack or dinner.

Can you believe it? Not even dinner!

Wait – it’s slowly coming back to me…I definitely skipped dinner but around 9:00 pm I needed something so we went to get Ralph’s Ices and I had my favorite flavor- Snicker Fudge.

So technically, aside from a few bouts with random stomach viruses, the last meal I missed was eleven years ago.

Just like I can’t relate to people who want to run in the morning but can’t get themselves out of bed, I cannot relate to the people who forget to eat lunch, aren’t hungry for breakfast or skip dinner because they were too busy running errands late into the evening.

What do you mean it’s 3:00 pm and you haven’t had lunch yet?

What do you mean you had a big lunch so you won’t need dinner?

Not even a small something? A nibble of a sandwich? A salad?

How do you run on an empty stomach? Not even a banana? Okay, so you run better without eating first but what about after your run?

You don’t refuel within the 45 minute crucial window for proper muscle recovery?

Forget muscle recovery, AREN’T YOU HUNGRY?

Eating at regular intervals is kind of a big deal.

If you want a speedy metabolism, if you want to feel good, maintain or even lose some weight, you must eat. And eat often.

I eat when I wake up. I am starving  to the point where I sometimes wake up at 3:00 am looking for a nibble just to get myself to 6:00 am when I typically eat my first breakfast.

I have always been this way, even before I started running lots of miles and well before I was even considered in shape. Which, by the way, Pure Barre challenges any belief of my being in shape. Muscle shaking is an understatement.

Breaking the fast in the morning gets your metabolism going, feeds your brain and your muscles and helps to balance out your sugar levels so that you don’t crash, burn and make poor food choices and/or overeat later in the day.

In fact, they say that people who eat breakfast on a regular basis are thinner than those who skip the meal altogether.

I am half serious here. Some studies show that having cake or a dessert with breakfast may lead to eating fewer calories overall and prevent bingeing later in the day.

If you don’t like traditional breakfast foods (which I can’t relate to) just eat something that sounds appealing to you.

Remember the other day I made my son blueberry waffles using Kodiak Cakes mix? I froze the leftovers and reheated them a few days later.

So I just gave you the green light to eat what it is you like in the morning, including cake, so I don’t even want to hear your excuse of having “no time” for breakfast.

No time to toast an English muffin and spread some peanut butter? No time for a container of yogurt on your way out the door?

No time for dry cereal, a cheese sandwich, cold pizza or a bowl of oatmeal quickly heated in the microwave or even better, reheated from the servings you thought to prep in advance for the week?

My son is so lucky, isn’t he? Not only do I prep oatmeal and share the servings with him, I voluntarily drop Trader Joe’s mini peanut butter cups into his bowl which also contains whipped in banana and raspberry jelly.

Please don’t tell him about the chia seeds, he has yet to notice.

Don’t you value yourself enough to take a few minutes to consider your meals and do a drop of planning the night before if you know you won’t have time to prepare breakfast?

Allowing for hours to pass between meals and not caring enough to put some thought into ensuring you are well fed speaks volumes about a person’s self-esteem.

If you love and value yourself, you would respect your appetite and the food you select to fuel your body and soul. Just a thought here. We may need to expand on this another day.

Exact meal times can be flexible. So long as you remember to eat, you can really go and do anything with proper planning.

If I have to be somewhere for an extended period of time which may interfere with lunch, I make sure to either eat my lunch in advance (and bring a snack) or, bring my lunch with me.

I don’t know what it is but there is something about a “Power Bowl” that always makes me feel good.

Perhaps a Power Bowl of some sort is what you need in the middle of your day to boost your mood, self-esteem and metabolism all while satisfying your appetite.

Sweet potato wedges with roasted brussels sprouts, plum tomatoes, roasted eggplant and chick pea/avocado mash with some extra avocado because it’s too good to stop at a little bit.

A lunch like this can come together real quick, can be prepared in advance, is totally portable and can be served hot or cold with no mess.

Am I the only one who has a stomach that can’t lose track of time?

I don’t even need a clock. We can figure out what time it is just based upon my appetite.

You don’t want to skip meals. Not only will it leave you ravenous before long, being ravenous can often times increase the chance that you will overeat or make less-than-ideal (fast food) meal choices.

If you haven’t eaten in eight hours, you are more likely to come home and polish off the entire container of mini peanut butter cups while figuring out what you will have to eat.

Try them with banana. Just do it.

Going too many hours without food will make you mean and can affect your metabolism by slowing it down.

When the body doesn’t receive food for extended periods of time and then suddenly receives some, it is more likely to hold on to every morsel you give it rather than burn it off as energy.

And we certainly don’t need our bodies holding on to every peanut butter cup.

I have been meaning to get to the post about how I don’t meal plan but do plan for having a variety of staples in my house in order to throw meals together quick.

Any day of the week you can come to my house looking for a balanced meal and I will have one for you in a matter of minutes.

I mentioned my son’s weeknight meal plan request for after camp but for the most part, that meal plan has been consisting of tacos or big sandwiches.

I have been rotating those until this week when I kindly offered to make him meatballs.

“Real meatballs” as he said which translates as, not meatless.

I definitely want to share the recipe for these turkey meatballs with you because even though I couldn’t taste them (vegetarian, remember?) he devoured them, asked for seconds and had them two nights in a row. I just need to make them one more time so I can pay attention to measurements a bit better.

Making meatballs from scratch is really easy, doesn’t take long and should leave you with some leftovers.

You can freeze your meatballs and easily heat them up for another meal which will help to keep you from skipping dinner or spending money on take-out.

I may have skipped dinner eleven years ago but I am pretty sure I have never missed dessert.

I am going through berries like crazy over here but I decided it’s okay because the season for delicious fruit will end before we know it.

By the way, I feel like it is my duty to inform you of the fruit recall at Trader Joe’s, Costco, Walmart and Kroger.

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

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Last time you skipped a meal?

Do you eat nontraditional breakfast foods?

Favorite lunch lately?

 

 

 

 

 

 

WIAW – National Strawberry Parfait Day

I still haven’t had a chance to replace my son’s cell phone. I realize that if it were my cell phone that somehow landed in a pool, I would have found the seconds to sit at Verizon but it wasn’t mine, he is only ten and being unfaceplanted from FaceTime for 48 hours isn’t the end of the world.

And, you should know that once again my suggestion to use a regular landline phone was shot down because, “those phones aren’t normal”.

If a regular phone is considered not normal, I have lost all perspective on what normal is. It’s not like I said use a phone with an actual cord or even a payphone. Do they still have payphones? I haven’t noticed one recently.

I know I eat a lot of the same things (and I know you do too, just admit it already) but sometimes there is reasoning behind why I choose the foods that I do.

Pre-Run Breakfast:

Last week I was all excited about my switch to the Ezekiel raisin toast topped with peanut butter/banana mash and blueberries.

After a couple of mornings, as much as I love that combination, I found it not to work for me before I run.

When I say it didn’t work, it left me hungrier than my routine bowl of oatmeal.

They always said that oatmeal sticks to your ribs.

Perhaps the water content in a bowl of oatmeal makes a difference or maybe it’s the rate at which we digest the oats versus the bread? Whatever the reason, I find I run happier without a grumble in my stomach when I choose a small bowl of oatmeal with some fruit and a little PB2 or peanut butter (or both).

I would probably need two slices of the toast in order to feel “right” but while that may satiate me for a longer period of time, I know that it would also overfill my stomach before running.

It’s a tricky thing when you need to eat before a run. You don’t want to be hungry but you certainly don’t want to be too full.

Determining what too full means to you is all by trial and error and cannot be based on what may work for someone else.

Post-run breakfast:

My blender made a short appearance last week after my runs but it has since been placed back where it belongs in the cabinet.

Cold oats with fruit, plain greek yogurt and peanut butter always leaves me satisfied.

Lunch:

I have added a terrific summer salad to go alongside my usual chick pea/avocado mash on toast.

Roasted asparagus and kale combined with chopped cucumbers, plum tomatoes and avocado.

I refer to this salad as a summer salad because it contains a good mix of vegetables that won’t poof and bloat my stomach.

Not to mention, the healthy fats and potassium in avocados (more than in a banana!) helps to reduce water retention as well.

I have no patience for that overly full feeling, especially during the summer.

Mentally I like to feel full but not actually look full if you know what I mean.

Water of the week:

To my surprise, I received a special package from Fitness Magazine which contained a new Camelbak Water Filtration Pitcher, a few hair ties and a notice about the upcoming Meet and Tweet scheduled for October.

I am absolutely in love with this Camelbak pitcher! It blows away the Brita pitcher in terms of size and the speed at which you can fill it up and the water is filtered – WOW.  It is so fast!

I use the Camelback filtered water to pour into the Fruit Infusion pitcher which this week is flavored with strawberries and lemons. So far this combination is our favorite.

Dinner:

I take saving money seriously. I try not to eat out during the week and do my best to throw together easy dinners when I need to, even if it means making them portable in order to avoid stopping for take-out more often than I should.

The other night when I needed to set up and attend my son’s class graduation party, I knew I would be hungry. Before I left for the party, I quickly put together a Pyrex container of Trader Joe’s brown rice medley, chick peas, a steam bag of vegetables and avocado flavored with sweet chili sauce.

Find me something easier, cheaper, more balanced and portable.

Dessert:

This never disappoints.

Fruit bowls such as this have been making appearances throughout my day, not just at night for dessert.

Blueberries, strawberries and bananas in a bowl with peanut butter and chocolate chips.

Mix it all up and then wonder why you ever crave anything else.

Oh wait, before I go, I just found out that today is National Strawberry Parfait day!

I think that means I deserve a Red Mango parfait, don’t you think?

I am really proud of my parfait-making ability. We all need to be good at something and this might be my something.

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

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Do you use a filtered water pitcher? Which one?

Which foods work for you before you run? Does one extra bite affect you if you eat too much?

Do you still have a landline phone in your house?

 

 

 

 

 

 

WIAW and National Running Day

 

It’s National Running Day!

National Running Day occurs the first Wednesday in June (last year on my birthday!) and is a coast-to-coast celebration of running.

It’s a day to reflect on your love of running or make the decision to lace up and give running a try for the first time!

In honor of today’s “holiday”, I took a complete rest day yesterday just to have fresh legs for a good run this morning.

I haven’t determined how many miles I will run but I did register for the Rock N Roll Marathon Series Fun Virtual Run where if you run more than a 5k today, you will receive a virtual medal.

I encourage you to sign up and run too! Click here for more info.

 I have been working on putting together some running posts for beginners since I have received a few emails and comments with questions asking for advice and tips. If you have anything specific you would like to see me cover in these posts, please let me know!

Not only is it National Running Day, it is also What I Ate Wednesday.

Since I eat to run and I run to eat, the two go very well together….

 

Breakfast:

So I have this little issue.

I like to add a handful of fresh blueberries to the pot of oatmeal while it cooks but then I slowly pick them all out and eat them before they actually make it into the bowl (or jar) for the actual meal.

So why do I bother to add them? I know I can easily just eat the blueberries out of the container but that’s not as fun.

It’s just like how I enjoy picking raisins out of the raisin bread, picking raisins or granola clusters out of a box of cereal or seeking out all of the cookie dough in a container of ice cream.

No big deal, really. I just add more blueberries on top. Okay, so the big deal is that I have no portion control on blueberries in my house which wouldn’t be a problem if they weren’t so pricey. And while I am complaining, even when blueberries aren’t pricey, when you have no control and go through containers every other day, you are constantly in the grocery store for more.

Lunch:

Proof that my favorite chick pea and avocado salad really is a portable lunch that you can make in advance.

Normally when we go to the beach we walk up to the one of the restaurants for lunch (Gino’s) but on Sunday we opted to bring our lunch.

I just packed it up in the cooler and it stayed perfect without even getting all messy inside the container. It was a perfect beach meal since it doesn’t leave you overly stuffed which is the worst feeling to have when sitting outside in a bathing suit.

I usually pack fruit for the beach as well but when my son comes with me, it’s all about extra packaged snacks that are portable and not messy.

Dinner:

I told you the other day that my plan was to make the barbeque ranch salad from The Cheesecake Factory myself this week for dinner.

I have eaten this salad two nights in a row. I am obsessed. I know I have already done a post on how simple this salad is to copycat but I will tell you again.

Black beans, corn, chopped up tomato, cucumber, lettuce, avocado topped off with Trader Joe’s onion rings. If you eat chicken, just chop some grilled chicken up and throw it on in.

I honestly don’t think it needs much in the way of dressing. The flavors all combined, especially with the onion rings, is really enough. I use a drop of barbeque sauce if anything.

You need to make it. Like tonight.

Dessert:

A true friend gives you all of her overripe bananas even when you tell her she should keep them and make her own peanut butter banana ice cream.

I diced them all up, froze them in a Ziploc bag and then blended them with PB2. The ice cream is sitting nicely in my freezer where it will remain until after my birthday.

I have yet to finalize my birthday cake/dessert for tomorrow night but I think I have decided what’s taking place this evening:

I think. Don’t hold me to it just yet. I take dessert selection rather seriously especially when it involves my birthday.

I scoped out The Bakery (yes, the bakery is actually called The Bakery) and I am pretty sure those seriously chocolate fudge frosted cupcakes are calling my name.

I will let you know tomorrow!

Be sure to check out what everyone else is eating today and if you haven’t already entered my Goodie Bag Giveaway, make sure you do. Winner to be announced tomorrow!

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Finish the sentence: I run for_________________

Are you known for picking the good stuff out of ice cream containers?

What do you pack to eat when at the beach?

Cupcakes: Vanilla or chocolate frosted? Chocolate all the way but part of me wouldn’t mind a bite of the vanilla. Just a bite is enough.