Mar 27, 2012

Shopping in the “Special” Section

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So I recently have made my way over to the “special” section of the grocery store. Acme has a special little section of their “Organic and Natural” items that I have been browsing recently and I have tried a few new delicious items I thought I would share with you!

#1: All Natural “Good Greens”

These things apparently account for 100% of your daily fruits and vegetables and they were on sale for 3/$5 so I thought what the hey give it a try and I am pretty glad I did.

I grabbed a chocolate raspberry one that didn’t even make it out of the parking lot because I was starving.

I got a chocolate peanut butter one

and I got a wildberry one

If you are having some trouble reading that packing it says that it has….

  • Omego 3
  • 12g Protein
  • 3 Probiotics
  • 40 Antioxidants
  • Low Glycemic

All of those things sounded relatively healthy to me so I was game to give them a try.

My review: pretty good. I typically enjoy a good protein/bar type snack and fell in love with Luna bars for a short time a while back. The chocolate raspberry one to me tasted a little chalky compared to the others but I found the chocolate peanut butter one just delightful. If that claim is true (and I guess it should be close to true to be on the packaging) than it was worth every bite to consume all of my daily fruits and vegetables I need.

It was also pretty filling which is good for me since I typically like to enjoy these types of snacks mid-afternoon when my belly starts growling at me.

#2 Kashi Blueberry Waffles

First off, I love Kashi commercials. I am assuming that is a legit consumer test where they walk around and make people try their cereal. That one where they open up the egg shaped bowl and BAM there is a box of cereal… pure genius I tell you.

So when Casey suggested I try to the Kashi waffles I excitedly and ridiculously exclaimed YES! Then when I realized they had blueberry I yelled to Tim from across the store quietly mentioned to Tim “look blueberry!”

Here are a few things I love about waffles in general…

  • They are easy to travel to work with
  • They make you feel like a kid again
  • I love 1000 toppings for waffles and can mix it up all of the time

So at work I enjoyed them with some peanut butter on one of them and some syrup on the other (I often can make up my mind).

And then at home I enjoyed them in a much fancier version with blueberry syrup on top with strawberries and blueberries on the side. Truly they were delicious.

My one and only complaint.. they are a little pricer compared to the not good for you at all kind which I guess is to be expected. They were around $4 for 8 waffles so I guess I’ll have to keep my eye out for some coupons on these things so I can afford them!

My overall review: Delicious. Cannot wait to buy more. I loved loved that the waffles actually had a blue tint.. looked so authentic compared to those waffles that are white as a ghost with weird sugary blue specs.

#3 Van’s French Toast Sticks

Another recommendation from Casey… Van’s French Toast sticks.

If you have a market day near you by one of your schools then you may know how delicious market day French toast sticks are. But you have your full week of sugar intake in one simple little stick which gets your belly no where… try like 10 sticks to satisfy this belly!

But these are just wonderful. You can pop them right in the toaster and they look like a piece of break except that they rip apart and turn into little French toast sticks with a hint of cinnamon that is just enough but not overwhelming.

Drawback is again the price. You only get 6 of these puppies for close to $4 so I guess it’s another opportunity for me to start finding some valuable coupons!

Since I ate these at home and I knew I was going to have a very active day I loaded up on breakfast and had one piece (or 3 sticks) of the French Toast with 2 over-medium eggs (which Tim cooked up for me- so sweet) and fruit on the side! Raspberries and blueberries.. yummy!

My overall review: Great! I will buy these again… tasted great and I know they are better for you than what I would buy otherwise. Plus, they are super easy to transport and something that Tim likes as well!

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Sep 8, 2011

Weekly Goal 2: Accomplished!

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Wednesday is a happy day. It’s a day when I don’t have grad school, it is a day that tells me I am half way through my work week, and it is a day that took me forever to learn how to spell but I finally did it! YAY for Wednesday.

This morning I woke up at the early 5:30 mark just to see that it was raining outside. I was pretty grateful for the rain because we had been up later than usual and there was a car alarm and some heavy rain that woke me up a few times throughout the night. I was tired and Mother Nature must have known it so she gave me a break at 5:30am. Thank you mam.

So after getting ready for work I made myself a Tim approved breakfast! I cooked up 2 whole eggs and an egg white and threw in some sliced chicken that Tim had made the night before. He grilled a few pieces of chicken thinking it could be a nice snack when one of us got hungry. He put some spicy seasoning on the chicken so it was delicious with my eggs. I put some spinach in the eggs too as a extra special touch so that made me very happy. I scrambled them so that they were portable enough to take to work with me. Works out well to just pop them in the microwave for about a minute when I get here. By the time lunch rolled around I was VERY hungry because I forgot to bring snacks with me today! Luckily I have some dried apricots at my desk (which are not Tim diet approved- no fruit it but I refuse to follow that) so I ate a few of those and then headed to lunch with my new mentor.

Portable breakfast!

If you remember reading before my old mentor, Kristin, was amazing! I assured her that she is not getting rid of me that easily and will still have to have lunch with me sometimes! She was so easy to talk to and so interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed having her in my life so I’m looking forward to continuing on with that relationship. My new mentor, Megan, is great too! Megan and I met in our cafeteria where I had a piece of grilled chicken with buffalo sauce and ate it with a “lettuce bun”, pickles, tomatoes, and onions. When the chef behind the grill handed me my chicken with buffalo sauce on it he said “that’s it, no fries? Nothing to do with that? No cheese?” and I politely said No thanks, this is all I need. His response was simple but very clear “that sucks”. Ha shows what he knows about “lettuce buns” and pickles! Megan and I spent lunch getting to know each other and talking about potential career paths and all of those things you do when you have a mentor lunch! She is a very impressive young professional and I am looking forward to learning more from her over the course of the next year or so.

After lunch I went back to work and got hungry faster than I would have liked. At the risk of giving away my healthy eating habits I decided to have 2 small flavored Tootsie Rolls (don’t worry, I already came clean to Tim) and decided on the cherry and the orange ones. I don’t know what it is about these little guys but I just love them! That sort of made me less hungry and I finally headed home with Casey and Brody around 5.

When I got home there was a PRESENT waiting! Well I bought it for myself but NEW SHOES!

Ooooo a box for me?! yes please!

Thank you DSW for making my day a little brighter with 2 new pairs of sandals!!

When Tim got home, him and I ran errands because I needed new notebooks for school! I seriously felt like a kid again shopping for school supplies except it was freaking hard trying to find college ruled notebooks. I thought as a kid you wrote in wide ruled.. what the heck? Why do they even make wide ruled if no one buys them?

Does anyone use wide ruled paper? Please tell me so I am not angry at stores for carrying HUNDREDS of them!

We also ran to Sam’s Club because I needed fruit. Tim did the last grocery-shopping trip alone and since he is not allowed to eat fruit he got none. I don’t care about that rule, I love fruit and I am going to eat it. So I got blueberries, raspberries, grapes, and Clementine’s. Then I headed home to RUN!

Goal #2 this week accomplished! If you remember I wanted to do 2 long runs and 2 short runs this week to prepare for Susan G. Komen this weekend. I only ran for about 2 miles and honestly, I think 2 miles are harder than 4 miles! After 2 maybe even 2.5 you start to just let go and enjoy the run so when you only run 2 I feel like I spend those 2 miles waiting to get to that point. It just felt really great for 2 miles to be a short run ya know? I remember 2 months ago when I couldn’t even run 2 miles straight so I am feeling really good about this entire journey I am taking.

I did have to run this alone. Poor Tim has a hurt ankle (we have no idea why!) and wasn’t feeling up for a run. It is a good thing I have been running at night because I think it is too dark in the mornings to run by myself now and poor Tim is on the injured list now.

While I was running Tim made dinner! He made some turkey sausage on the grill and put a side of edamame and broccoli. LOTS OF VEGGIES to go on top as well! I LOVE turkey sausage and chicken sausage and it is one of Tim’s favorite things to make so it works out really well. I even topped mine with some guacamole to make it extra special! I feel very blessed to have such a great man in my life to support me while I run and study!

Oh and I did my first homework assignment for my MIS class. So weird to be doing homework again… stay tuned to see if I go crazy.

Filed Under: Good Eats and Treats, Primary Menu · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,
Sep 6, 2011

September Wedding 1: Congrats Jess!!

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Saturday was fun because Tim and I got to see a friend from college get married that we haven’t seen in forever! Jess got married to a wonderful man on Saturday and we were so lucky to be part of it!

Now, before we went to the wedding I did enjoy a delicious breakfast! I made 2 eggs on the stove and cut up the left over pieces of chicken sausage from dinner last night! I also had a handful of grapes on the side. It was seriously probably the best breakfast I have made in a really long time.

Eggies!

Try not to be too jealous!

See?? soo good!

But after bfast was done and some chores around the house were done we headed out to the wedding! Jess looked BEAUTIFUL and her ceremony was in a beautiful church in Ashland. I especially loved her programs. I’m not sure if I need programs at a destination wedding but if I do I will model mine after hers! Then her reception was at the Ashland Convention Center at the University which was right across from Kara’s old dorm… so that was just fun!

Before the wedding party showed up we enjoyed some appetizers! We had veggies with dip, meatballs, and my favorite was the hot spinach dip! OH MY GOSH I loved having it with veggies! SOOO TASTY!

Then the bridal party showed up and we got to see how pretty they all looked together!

Jess's Beautiful Bridal Party

Myself and a fellow Miami girl Monica were able to catch Jess when she was making rounds!

Miami Girls!!

She looked just gorgeous!

For dinner Tim and I both had the chicken! It was chicken parm and I thought it was pretty tasty! I took off most of the breading because I was enjoying a few glasses of wine but enjoyed a few bites of the mashed potatoes and the chicken. Tim shared 2 bites of his rolls with me too! Pretty tasty meal =)

Then we saw the cake

One layer was chocolate with like raspberry filling in the center and the side I enjoyed was white cake with a blueberry type filling. I was smart enough to only enjoy a few bites but it was a great cake!

Thank you to Jess for having us!! It is soooo great to catch up with old friends =) CONGRATS!

Filed Under: Good Eats and Treats, Random Crap · Tagged: , , , ,
Aug 21, 2011

Playing a little catch-up

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It has been a very fun weekend with lots of great thing to talk about so I’m going to share some quick highlights from a busy week and then get on to the fun stuff!

So Wednesday morning Tim and I popped out of bed to enjoy a 2.3 mile run! Before we left I enjoyed a small bowl of Fiber One cereal and Tim had his usual. So on top of the 2.3miles of running we, of course, did about a 5 min warm up and a cool down after so that put us over our 2.5 mile mark which I was very happy with. I don’t know what it is about this week but it has been harder on my legs than usual. I find that it is usually my breathing or my legs that get to me… never both thank goodness. Or one is probably just worse than the other so you don’t notice both! This week it has been my legs… I can’t figure out if they are telling me that they need a break or if I am pushing myself to a healthy limit and really taking them past their comfort zone they have been in. In any case I told myself to keep on trucking, stretch, and don’t push them beyond their abilities.

Fiber One Cereal

So yea Wednesday was a great run. I still am not fond of the path we are taking so I knew I was goning to want to change that part of it up the next day but the weather was nice and cool which helped to make it a pretty great morning. After running and getting ready for work I left after making an egg sandwich with egg whites, muenster cheese (melted of course!), basil, and an everything bagel thin.  It was easy to transport and off I went to work to enjoy another full day of training.

Egg Sandwich- delicious!

These trainings have a pretty set lunch menu and I was not fond of today’s choices. There was pasta (penne noodles) with either white or chunky red sauce, veggies, salad, rolls, and fruit on the side. I got the veggies, salad, and fruit because the thought of eating pasta in the middle of the day made me uneasy and would have really made me feel like a fat kid! I was really glad I didn’t eat it because everyone looked SOOO tired about an hour and a half after lunch. I just felt hungry haha.

For dinner Tim and I went our separate ways… which rarely happens! Turns out there was only one piece of tilapia and at the time Tim was wanting to eat I wasn’t quite hungry enough because I had some left overs when I got home from work since my lunch stunk. So when I was finally hungry I decided to make a grilled cheese sandwich with the works! I put some bacon, tomato, and pickle on that sandwich and also made a side of tomato soup. Tomato soup is a MUST for me when I have grilled cheese. I started with just a can of Campbell’s soup and then added in basil that Karla had given me from her garden, just for the taste!  I also make my soup with milk, not water, because I like the creamy soup compared to the thin soup… either way I have Campbell’s tomato soup. It makes me feel like a kid again and is just so tasty!

Looks at that steam... something tasty is inside!

Yepp- there is something tasty

And a little soup to go with it

Tell me! What food makes you feel like you are a kid again?

Thursday

Thursday Tim and I slowly rolled out of bed, not like the jump we did the day prior, and managed to drag ourselves downstairs for a little warm up food. Today I opted for a serious competitor in my favorite morning meals. Fiber One cereal w/ a bottle of water. Now if this doesn’t look like a good way to start your day I don’t know what is?

What a team!

We ran for about 2.3 miles again and had a MUCH Better route. We didn’t really do much back tracking but rather stayed on a more circular route, which I prefer. The less back tracking we do the easier I think it is because you are more or less seeing new things (even though we have taken this route before haha). Today was once again my legs I kept thinking about and not so much my breathing but it was better today. It never ceases to amaze me how differently you feel day to day during your runs. One day you are quick and feeling great and the next you can be slow and sluggish. I guess it really goes to show that what you put into your mouth and what you do throughout your day really does make a difference in how your body feels. I think we all know this, it sounds logical, but when you are running every day so it is easy to think about how you felt the morning before, it makes even more of an impact!

Before I left for work today I stirred up a smoothie and put it in my to-go cup. Turns out the breakfast for my training had a much better option for breakfast this morning than it had the rest of the week- Egg Sandwiches! I, of course, was in heaven when I noticed this but they are less concerned about healthiness so the bread was really big bagels and other not so great options.  So I grabbed a sandwich, took my seat, and then went to work on it. I took it off the bread and then added a small scoop of hash browns on top. It was egg and bacon so I added just a dollop of ketchup and just made it with a fork.  It was delicious and I was glad to have something that tasty to start off my day with!

Lunch was a little better today and a little less heavy than the day before. It was marinated chicken with mashed potatoes, salad, more fruit, veggies, and more bread. I got a piece of chicken, one small scoop of mashed potatoes that tasted soooo good, and a heaping serving of the cookies veggies. I didn’t get the salad today but I was pretty much sick and tired of that mixed salad…. They always put more shredded carrots in there than anything else and it is a little bit of an overload I think.

After the training was over, Casey and I got into my car and headed home. I was going to my parent’s house to work out but there was no actual class tonight and Tim wanted to go with so I came home first so we could drive together. Since there was no scheduled class my mom had us do our own little thing. We did about 15-20 min of  kettle bell video my mom wanted to watch and then about 15 min of a Zumba video. Ummm… I am AWFUL at Zumba although I bet it is an amazing workout and a ton of fun. I definitely would like to get better, for exercise reasons, but also because I think it would be great to learn to move your body like they do in those videos. I mean oh my gosh they are amazing. It is so sexy to be able to dance like that and well I just don’t have that sex appeal I suppose. Oh well- I think Tim was entertained watching my mom and I laugh as we tried to even come close to moving our hips in the right way.

We stayed with the rents for dinner and my mom made a delicious meal. She also takes the same approach to lettuce that I do. You can put just about anything on lettuce and make it a meal. So she cooked up come bison meat and added spices galore that made it so tasty. She also cooked up some squash and zucchini on the side, which I ended up just putting on top of my salad. I added some salsa to mine as a little dressing. On top of those items my mom also added some “good for you stuff”. She had a little shopping spree on a website called Nuts Online where you can go to purchase organic nuts, dried fruit, and other tasty treats. In tonight’s dinner my mom added Organic Red Quinoa and Organic Goji Berries. The berries added some additional texture, which I really liked. The Quinoa I couldn’t see but I think he added some delicious flavoring.

Bison w/ the Goji Berries

Veggies on the side!

So that wraps up my Wednesday and Thursday! Still going strong- and learning to love to run. I think after these first few weeks I am finally starting to feel more like a runner! Susan G. Komen- BRING IT ON!

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