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.

Highlights From My Few Days in Florida

I’m back from Florida with a recap highlighting some of the things I did and ate.

I was in Florida for basically five days, which felt like a day and a half. Wow, how time flies!

Love the baby palm trees!

I think that because I’ve been going down to South Florida so often again, it doesn’t even feel like a vacation, more like I’m just going down to see Heather and we have things to do in an area I know pretty well.

Love and Hip Hop Baby Shower Set Up

So remember that Heather and I both work in the events industry? While I’m still sorting out my next steps after leaving my company, Heather is busy with rental decor 24/7, designing the most beautiful tables all over South Florida.

I chose this past weekend to go down to Florida so that I could help her set up a baby shower for reality stars on Love and Hip Hop Miami.

set up crew

Heather has such an eye for tabletop design. The layout was beautiful. The mix of liquid velvet and sequin linens were to die for and totally what I would choose for my own event!

Once set up was done, we had some fun posing with the balloon decor. The shower will be in an episode on VH1 this summer! I can’t wait to see it.

What I Ate (Highlights)

I never capture everything I eat but here are some highlights!

Pizza and salad are always a favorite combo for me — Sicilian Oven is a really good restaurant, even if it’s not New York pizza.

We had a delicious lunch at Prime Catch in Boynton Beach. This eggplant dip and pita bread were really good for sharing.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’m trying to eat more wild salmon for the health benefits which is why I had it added to my salad for lunch. Normally I would order without the added protein but I went for the salmon and I think it was the best salmon I’ve ever had.

Crumbl is right near Prime Catch so we preplanned a stop for cookies after lunch.

I went with the classic chocolate chip cookie and it did not disappoint. I did take bites from a few of the other cookies but come on, chocolate chip is the best. We all know that.

This greek salad with a side of hummus was very satisfying after we spent hours setting up the baby shower layout.

If you saw my instagram stories earlier this week, you saw that I went to Lifetime one day. I took a heated Warrior Sculpt class and was so super excited about it! I will talk about it more in Monday’s workout recap but from the Lifetime Cafe, I had a PB&B Smoothie and a Southwest Bowl (I think that’s what it was called) which I ate a few hours later for lunch.

I loaded a box from the Whole Foods food bar one day too. Don’t ask me what was in it! I don’t really know but I chose a lot of roasted vegetables and a few different grain salads I think.

One night we had dinner at Lulu’s in Delray.

We shared a hummus appetizer and then I had some sort of bowl. I wanted the Buddha Bowl but they were out of it.

Candy! I need a candy bag after dinner.

I always pack a peanut butter sandwich for the airport and as an emergency snack!

And finally, I can’t close out a trip to Florida post without mentioning Stoney Clover. While I didn’t take pictures of all of the pouches I used, here’s a picture of the pouches in my tote on the plane. That’s one clear travel pouch and a mini pouch.

And that’s about it! See you Monday to discuss my workouts from this week.

Different Meals + Wild Salmon + Latkes

I have so many meals to share that I’ve enjoyed recently and some of them are even different from what I usually eat!

It’s been quite a while since I made a copycat version of the barbeque ranch salad from The Cheesecake Factory.

The other day it just dawned on me that I had all of the ingredients in the house because my son bought a can of Whole Foods 365 fried onions. While they aren’t the same as the freshly fried onion strings at The Cheesecake Factory, they worked really well.

In the salad:

• Black Beans
• Corn
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Avocado
• Romaine
• Whole Foods 365 Organic Light Ranch Dressing
• Onion Strings

I didn’t think I would come back to the English muffin-avocado-egg combination so quickly but I did! This time, I had it with a salad too.

My plate X 2 of salad with Sicilian pizza from La Piazza. Usually, I go the grandma pizza route but the Sicilian looked so good that I couldn’t pass it up.

I had a bowl from Cava recently — it was just fine. I say that every time about Cava.

Look who made salmon!

I decided I should eat salmon more often (let’s see if it happens – I’m really not a fish eater but wild salmon is so HEALTHY) so I bought wild-caught sockeye salmon from Whole Foods.

Wild salmon is packed with:

• Omega 3 Fatty Acids
• Protein
• Vitamin D
• B Vitamins
• Potassium
• Selenium
• Astaxanthin

For this vegetarian eater who rarely eats fish, this salmon was actually pretty delicious.

With a potato latke topped with applesauce because….it’s Hanukkah time.

I can’t take credit for making the latkes this year. Why should I bother to make them myself when the latkes at Shoprite are so good? They have small and large, and both regular potato and sweet potato latkes.

I had a larger latke with applesauce on the side of roasted cauliflower mixed with quinoa for dinner — what a great combination.

And finally, tis the season for hot chocolate!

I’ve had a few cups of hot chocolate from Dunkin Donuts at night recently and have enjoyed every sip.

Figuring Things Out + Sweet Green + Recent Meals

So while I’m trying to figure out my next career move, I do have extra time for my blog.

It’s been so long since I’ve been able to post six days a week. But blogging has changed so much over the years and even during that time, so have my original posting interests.

Like, I don’t even remember to take pictures of everything I eat nor do I want to!

But what I eat is still a top view and interest for the blog so maybe I’ll get back to talking more about it or remember to focus on what I bought at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods again.

I don’t know. These days I have enough trouble getting what I need at Trader Joe’s (and even Whole Foods) all in one shop. Every time I go to the stores, something is not in stock.

I’m really in the figure out what’s next phase of things.

I have a few ideas for my blog at the moment, including some interesting fitness-related posts with insight from experts — but please give me a minute to figure things like that out. As I keep saying, I need a minute to breathe.

Recent Meals

Let’s discuss that I found whole wheat grandma pizza at La Focaccia. And it’s delicious.

Every time I bring this pizza home, my son appears and takes a corner of my crust. I can’t stand it when he does that. If he wanted a bite, he should have said to bring him home a slice!

I tried the new Sweet Green location that opened in my area. Even though I’ve had Sweet Green in the city (and in Florida too) I figured I should try this one too even though I don’t think it’s anything special.

I had the green goddess salad (no almonds) and the buffalo cauliflower.

The Sweet Green salad was just fine, not special.

The cauliflower was mixed with crispy rice but was mostly rice. I liked it but would have liked it to involve more cauliflower. I much prefer the buffalo cauliflower that I get at Farmers Table when I’m down in Boca!

I still like Chopt. I’m sure I will go to Sweet Green randomly but I like Chopt because the salads are actually chopped up into small pieces. I’m used to that and I’m a creature of habit.

Lately though, I haven’t been able to finish my Chopt salads in one sitting. Sometimes I have half of the salad for lunch and then add something to it to finish the salad at dinner.

My bagel and vegetable cream cheese phase is still a phase. Not as strong as it was in the summer, but I do buy bagels and cream cheese each week to have in the house.

I had extra bialys in the house so I made my classic toasted bialy with tomato and mozzarella cheese one night for dinner.

So basic, not pretty, but so good.

Last but not least for today, I made a simple grilled mozzeralla cheese sandwich on Ezekiel bread to dip into a bowl of Trader Joe’s Roasted Red Pepper Tomato soup. I buy the low sodium variety of this tomato soup and most times I go to Trader Joe’s this time of year, it’s out stock.

Red Lentil Pasta + Dinner at Toku + Other Recent Meals

It’s Wednesday already! I was off on Monday which always makes the week go so fast.

I have some recent meals worth sharing so let’s take a look.

I had a bialy with vegetable cream cheese at Bagel Boss the other day for lunch. So simple and always perfect!

I picked up Chopt again for myself and my friend. We both order from the Chopt app and then I bring both salads to her store to eat lunch.

Sweet Green is opening in the area really soon but I prefer Chopt. It’s not that I don’t like Sweet Green and I am sure I will sometimes go too, but I still really like my Chopt salad even though it’s pretty basic.

My son’s birthday was last week! We went to Toku for his birthday dinner. I snuck a picture of the crispy rice tuna appetizer, my absolute favorite.

I think it was in last week’s post that I mentioned how much I enjoy Trader Joe’s organic red lentil pasta. If you haven’t tried it yet, you just must.

I made the red lentil pasta for dinner the other night with a salad. It was so good! I cooked the pasta (it takes like three minutes!), drained it, and then added sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Also, this is the first picture I took using my new iPhone 14!

Trust me, I’m still eating a lot of pizza.

I always get a whole wheat margarita slice from Mario’s at least once a week and then I also go to La Piazza to bring home the grandma pizza.

Of course, the corner slice got cut off in the below picture. I didn’t realize when I quickly took the picture that I missed the best part of the pizza! I love a corner slice.

Recent Meals + Breakfast Change?

Halfway through the week!

Let’s start today’s post with my post-run beach lunch of a bialy with vegetable cream cheese and tomato.

It had been a good two weeks since I last had a salad from Chopt. No spicy-sweet peppers this time! I swapped those out for sweet potatoes. Everything is chopped so small that you can’t even see them in there.

Speaking of sweet potatoes, I’ve been eating the below “power bowl” on repeat lately for dinner.

I roast sweet potatoes with a little bit of olive oil and Trader Joe’s Citrusy Garlic seasoning and then add them to a bowl (well, plate), with rainbow cauliflower, chickpeas, and avocado.

This dinner is so basic yet so good. Not to mention, colorful and nutrient-dense.

Have you tried the Citrusy Garlic seasoning yet? I really like it.

I don’t think I’ve shared my usual whole wheat margarita pizza and salad combo in a while but don’t worry, I’m still eating it at least once a week for dinner.

Can we discuss breakfast for a minute?

I rarely talk about breakfast because I eat the same oatmeal combination for so many years that discussing it seems so pointless. However, lately, I have had moments when I don’t want oatmeal for breakfast every day. I don’t like to feel this way! I’m so used to oatmeal that I don’t want to NOT want it but I can’t help that sometimes I feel as though I want something else. I’ve switched to whole wheat English muffins with peanut butter but then go right back to oatmeal (with different fruit mixed in) and while the feeling has slightly gone away and I’m fine with oatmeal again, I’m still thinking that I may be due for a major breakfast change.

What that change will be, I do not know and I do not like that this is a topic at all! Breakfast is the one meal I don’t think about!

Anyway, I had this bowl from Cava for dinner and it was good. I get all of the toppings except for olives.

I will be in the city today and hoping to have Beatnic for lunch! I miss the delicious vegan options.

Plant Wise + Cream Cheese Cravings + Eggs

 

So many great meals to share today!

I had such a delicious plant-based dinner from Plant Wise the other night.

While I usually gravitate towards the same foods when I go places, the nice girl at Plant Wise suggested the Southern Charm salad and I’m so glad that I listened.

In the Southern Charm Salad (according to Plant Wise menu):

Kale, Cilantro, Brown Rice, Tomato, Red Onion, Carrots, Topped with Bean Chili, Special Sauce (Mix of BBQ/Cashew/Dijon/Sriracha). *Contains Tree Nuts (Cashews)

The picture below is what my lunch salad looks like before I chopped it all up:

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Onion
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• Chickpeas
• Avocado
• Vegan Dill Dressing

I made this salad for dinner when I was really hungry and not in the mood to wait for anything to be prepared.

• Romaine
• Roasted Cauliflower
• Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Chickpeas
• Leftover Brown Rice
• Dr. Praeger’s Veggie Burger
• Vegan Dill Dressing

I went to Stew Leonard’s for watermelon and left with watermelon and a slice of margarita pizza.

Stew Leonard’s has great pizza!

My warm-weather running craving tends to be vegetable cream cheese.

After my boardwalk run in Long Beach on Sunday, I stopped at Town Bagel for a salad (which comes with a bagel) and a side of vegetable cream cheese.

Runners understand what I mean when I say that this half bagel with vegetable cream cheese was the greatest tasting food I’ve had in a while. Food just hits different after a good, sweaty run.

I don’t eat eggs often. At all. In fact, I avoid eggs and egg whites because I’ve found a correlation between eating eggs and the severity of my menstrual cramps.

But. I felt like an egg last week and then the other night, I wanted to make an omelet so I could have toast with vegetable cream cheese on the side for dinner. I’m hopeful that eggs once or twice in a month won’t affect me. Fingers crossed.

This was actually more of a scramble than an omelet, actually. I cooked mushrooms, onion, and cauliflower in a pan and then added an egg plus some whites. Avocado on top.

That’s about it for my today! I did an update to my blog and the editor looks totally different. I don’t like change, especially within where I type this blog, so I need to go figure out how to revert back to original WordPress editing!

Healthy Chinese Food + Other Recent Meals

Before we talk about food today, I should mention to you my running shoe situation which is still a situation.

While I will give the Hokas one more chance, something is telling me that they aren’t going to work out for me.

I’m not sure at this point what will work out for me. A part of me is just waiting for the next Brooks Ghost launch in July but the other part of me really needs a pair of running shoes now. July is a few months from now! What’s even funnier is that a few weeks ago, I briefly considered running this weekend’s Long Island Marathon weekend 10K but thankfully I dropped that idea — I don’t even have running shoes I trust right now!

Anyway, I will keep you posted about which shoes are next, should it come to that.

Recent Meals

I have two lunches and four dinners to share today!

I’ve been making a salad for lunch literally every day during the week while I’m working and haven’t deviated from this plan in months.

The ingredients in my salad lately are basically the same:

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Chickpeas
• Onion
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• Avocado
• Vegan Dill Dressing

My lunch weekend salad is made by Chopt.

It had been a long time since I last had Mogu for dinner. Mogu is known for their “healthy Chinese food” and it’s really very good!

I had a vegetable egg roll (which is air fried) and instead of my usual vegetable dumplings, I tried their relatively new Impossible dumplings which are made with Impossible plant-based “beef”.

I also tried Mogu’s brussels sprouts for the first time too. With brown rice, this was a really delicious dinner.

I had some leftovers of the brussels sprouts and brown rice plus two of the mildly spicy dumplings so I reheated it all in a pan the next night for dinner with the addition of cauliflower and a fried egg on top.

It’s really not like me to eat eggs but I had a new carton of organic eggs in the house for my son so I figured why not. Seemed like a good dinner idea.

I had to go to the post office Monday late in the day which naturally meant I would walk into Villa Monte for a slice of whole wheat vegetable pizza to bring home for dinner.

It’s always funny how I go to Trader Joe’s every week and still wonder what I should eat for dinner. I’m so basic that I never buy anything all that different or even desire anything too different.

Sometimes I do vary my beans like in this salad, for example. I used white cannellini beans instead of chickpeas and also varied my potato choice by going with roasted white potatoes instead of sweet potatoes or a traditional baked potato.

White potatoes roast really well when diced up and put in the oven!

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In case you missed the latest Stoney Clover launch, there are some really nice items available in the Pastel Collection.

Let me know what you select!

 

Stoney Clover Cup + Recent Meals From This Week

Here’s a little glimpse at what I’ve been eating since last week’s foodie post!

First, I’m very busy switching between my two new Stoney Clover cups and four different heart straws with various adorable straw toppers.

I’m drinking a ton of lemon water these days!

Do I need to tell you again that the whole wheat margarita pizza from Mario’s with a salad is the best dinner ever?

This dinner bowl below is filled with ingredients from Trader Joe’s:

• Cauliflower gnocchi
• Broccoli
• Asparagus
• Trader Joe’s Vegan Bolognese Sauce
• Parmesan Cheese

I quickly cooked it all in a pan with olive oil for dinner and ate it while still kinda working.

During the week, I make a salad for lunch while working every day. Like literally, every day.

When I make a dinner salad with roasted potato wedges, I usually put the roasted potatoes on the side of a salad. This time around, the potatoes ended up mixed into the salad.

Also in the salad was:

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Chickpea
• Feta Cheese
• Balsamic Dressing
• Trader Joe’s Three-Layer Hummus

More pizza! This time, grandma slices.

Recent Meals + Pizza + Garden Vegetable Hash from Trader Joe’s

Wednesday posts always seem to sneak up on me.

It’s been a few years since I used to take pictures of (almost) everything I eat. This means that I have to remember to take some photos in order to share what I’ve been eating. I’ll go a few days just eating and living without thinking about Wednesday posts and then suddenly it’s an – oh right, I need to take a few pictures – situation.

So here’s a look at a few meals from the last few days. We are going in no particular order here and I think I have less to share because instead of remembering a few more meals to capture, I’ve been busy with pictures of my Stoney Clover x Target purchases!

Just had to sneak a Stoney Clover picture in this post!

Recent Meals

I saw the Trader Joe’s Garden Vegetable Hash on the shelf while shopping so I decided to buy it as something different to eat.

I cooked it in a pan with olive oil and chickpeas, added extra diced onion, and also added roasted potatoes. This was really good! I read somewhere that people are really liking this garden vegetable hash in omelets. That sounds like a good idea if you eat eggs, which I really do not on a regular basis.

A stop for my weekly salad from Chopt in between going to Target stores on Saturday was very necessary.

After my run and after shopping the Stoney Clover x Target launch earlier in the day, I still needed to check out the other Target locations in my area to see what was left.

What was left were empty shelves! I was not surprised.

No words are needed for my favorite whole wheat margarita pizza and salad combination.

Yesterday I had to go to the post office. I hate going to the post office because the line is always so long. And so slow.

The post office is in the same shopping center as Monte so I figured I would reward my post office wait with a slice of the whole wheat vegetable pizza to bring home for dinner.

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With all of the Stoney Clover excitement, let’s not forget it’s Sephora Spring Savings time too! Here are my Sephora picks if you missed the post last week!