Ladies (And a Gent) Who Lunch

Thankfully, I woke up feeling much better yesterday than the day before. No headache and no stomach bugs, I guess my body just needed some extra rest. I think our bodies have a way of forcing us to rest when we don’t listen to the small signs. But onto the food! I started out with a bowl of oats, 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, half a banana and a pinch of salt. Once it was done, I stirred in a heaping spoon of flax seed and topped the whole thing off with almond butter.

At work, things started slow and easy, just the way a Friday should be. I was hungry around 10 so I had a pita with PB & Co. white chocolate dreams with grapes on the side.

Then around 11:30, The Pro stopped in my office and invited me to lunch with him, his college daughter and T. We had lunch on the porch overlooking the 19th hole and the back nine. And yes, our club has a real 19th hole not just a bar named that 🙂 For lunch, I had a half BLT and a small cup of tomato and fennel soup. It was a nice lunch and we had a great time chatting away and living vicariously through The Pro’s daughter.

After lunch, all hell broke loose and I was up to my eyeballs in work. Everyone seemed to need me in some fashion or another. By the time it all calmed down, my stomach was growling as if it hadn’t eaten in days. Since it was only a couple minutes until go time, I had a honest foods bar instead of making my usual yogurt. I started with the cran lemon one, took one bite and gave it to K. Oh, I did not like how “zingy” it was. I told K that it wouldn’t hurt my feelings a bit if she didn’t like it either.

My second attempt was a honest food trail mix bar. I liked this one better but the peanut butter chocolate one is still the all time best.

After work, I was really craving Italian food so the dear husband and I went to the place about a mile from home. It is family owned and operated and has awesome food. I started with a salad topped with house dressing.

Then for my entree, I ordered the special, baked ziti. It was chessy and carborific just like I wanted.  I only ate about 1/4 of the dish but the leftovers will suit the dear husband just fine after his long run.

After dinner, we ran a couple of errands around town and finally made it home. I made a batch of vitamuffins to cure my chocolate craving. I had been wanting chocolate cake since lunch and this was the perfect solution. I love them because they are easy to make and relatively healthy since they are made with whole grains and are low in sugar.

After dessert, I read for a bit and then called it a day. Hooray, the three day weekend is here!

QOTD: How do you relax after a long week at work? I love coming home of Friday nights and snuggling on the couch with a movie. To me, it is the perfect way to wind down.

I Can’t Get No…Satisfaction

I started the day yesterday with another bowl of Tj’s Honey Nut O’s topped with walnuts, banana and this time I chose plain hemp milk. I really do enjoy the plain hemp milk in my cereal, it has a nice creamy flavor without being too sweet and it is super good for you. One thing that I have noticed with this breakfast is that I get hungrier faster, probably the lack of fiber in the cereal.

Speaking of getting hungry, things didn’t go very well for me regarding lunch. I was hungry really early and went down and asked for a grilled cheese and tomato on wheat with a fruit cup. About an hour later, I hadn’t heard from or seen anyone from the kitchen. I decided that they must be busy and went to scope out the staff lunch. There was a delightful looking salad with fennel, grapes, blackberries and iceberg lettuce and though I am over salad, I was really hungry at this point. I topped it off with the house made balsamic vinaigrette and headed back up stairs.

I figured my lunch would come any minute but alas, it did not. I went down to the kitchen to find it deserted. I did find the assistant F & B manager and told him to tell chef that I would just eat some PB from my stash. And that is what I did. I had a few crackers and white chocolate dreams PB. There are no photos because my blood sugar was in the basement and I needed food ASAP.

After lunch, I still didn’t feel right, my head was swimming and I could tell that my blood sugar was not recovered. A couple of hours past before I felt OK again and then I felt ravished with hunger again. I had a fage with honey to get me through until dinner time. By the time I left work, I was in a rotten awful mood and for some reason, I just wanted to get on my treadmill. I can’t say for sure what is going on with me but I have really been finding some major stress relief in my treadmill and yoga.

So, when I got home, I hit treadmill with a sex and the city episode for right at 30 minutes. After the treadmill, I heated up a bowl of roasted veggie soup to start dinner and cooked a frozen pizza for the main dish. The pizza was an off the wall random brand that we found in Ukrop’s one day. It boasted all sorts of great things and come to find out, it tasted awful. I only ate a few bites before giving up on dinner.

After dinner, we went upstairs for some computer time and a little yoga. We did a 25 minute shoulder opening flow. This really helps with my shoulder pain and is great for building strength in the arms and shoulders.

Since I hadn’t really eaten much all day and I felt hungry, I had a bowl of Tj’s whole grain chocolate filled squares topped with hemp milk. Bleh. I did not like it but the dear husband was happy to finish it off! I ended up making an egg sandwich. After that, my stomach and mouth wre both happy!

QOTD: Do you ever have days were it seems that food just is not working out for you?

Grocery Day

We had a big day planned yesterday so I started us off with a bowl of oats. I cooked them in half soymilk, half water, mashed banana and a dash of salt. Once they were cooked, I topped my portion with homemade trail mix and almond butter. I’m not sure why but they were very filling and I was only able to eat about 2/3 of my small portion.

After breakfast, we met our friends Sarah and Francis at Starbucks. I chose a pumpkin spice latte made with soymilk. I’m not sure what everyone else got but I thought this shot would be fun.

With out Starbucks in hand, we piled into my car and headed to Trader Joe’s. It had just opened Friday and I had been so excited to go! While there, I loaded up on all sorts of goodies. I was amazed at some of the prices, goat cheese in particular stands out because it was $2.00 less per roll than our regular grocery store. I also stocked up on the TJ’s brand of greek yogurt, look for a review on that later in the week.

After TJ’s, we went to Whole Foods and once again loaded up on all sorts of good thing. While shopping, the dear husband and I tried a piece of apple cake. It was very tasty, it tasted like fall.

After our grocery store adventures, we went to Bertucci for lunch. We started off with the bread and olive oil. To. Die. For. I really paid attention to my hunger and stopped at one though because I wanted to enjoy lunch as well.

For lunch, the dear husband and I shared the portifino pizza. It had goat cheese, spinach and tomatoes. The crust was absolutely without a doubt the best thin crust I have ever had. This will be on our list of places to go again!

After lunch, we all browsed around the shops and then headed to Maggie Moo’s for a little ice cream. After my ice cream debacle on Friday night, I made a vow to only eat good quality ice cream and this fit the bill. I got a Better Batter with sprinkles, brownies and fudge. It had a witty little name but I can’t for the life of me remember it now. Maybe Sarah will chime in on the comments and remind me. This was a delightful little cup of ice cream.

After ice cream, we headed back to our side of the world, dropped them off and headed home. Once home, it took up forever to unload all of our loot. Once it was all put away, I started on dinner. I made a roasted vegetable soup with all of the veggie goodness I got from Whole Foods. I started by roasting peppers, onions, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots and butter nut squash in olive oil, garlic, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper. Once the veggies were roasted, I combined them with veggie broth, oregano, a large can of fire roasted tomatoes and a little more mashed garlic.

Once it was dinner time, I made a small bowl of soup topped with paremsan cheese.

And the dear husband and I shared this little bowl of toasted mini whole wheat pitas (my new favorite food).

For some reason, while eating, I felt really turned off by food and didn’t finish my bowl. I’m not real sure what was going on with me but eating just didn’t feel right. I ate maybe half of my soup and two of the mini pitas.

To relax a little, I downloaded the Sex and the City movie onto my iPod and watched it on the tv in the living room. I am sure the dear husband was a little reluctant but I think he was more interested in playing with Caddie anyway, who by the way is doing very well and becoming a best friend to my Georgy kitty. Anyway, I love this movie, Sarah and I had gone to see it the day it was released in the theater with T and her best friend. It was just as good this time, I cried at all the crying parts and laughed at all the laughing parts.

By the time the movie was over, my stomach was feeling ready to eat and it really wanted PB. I had a few unphotographed mini pitas with white chocolate dreams PB along with some red grapes. I only ate a couple because once again, I felt turned off by food. It was like this weird feeling in my stomach that I have just never felt before. So, I went to bed.

QOTD: What is your favortie movie? Will your significant other watch chick flicks with you?

Not my day for snacking

I woke up yesterday really wishing it was Friday, or better yet, Saturday! I started the day with a bowl of rolled oats, I had been craving them for a couple of days. I cooked them in soy milk and stirred in some white chocolate dreams PB while it was cooking. After it cooked, I stirred in some ground flax seed and topped it with a banana. It was really good and was exactly what I was craving.

just what I wanted

My work day started out hectic, I was busy with lots of IT problems immediately and had a number of unresolved issued still lingering. After lots of emails and contact with the IT dude, I got started on my “normal” work. I’m not sure why I call it that still since this new IT thing is my normal work now but it still feels really new to me. I actually kind of enjoy it, most days, anyway.

Around 11, I headed downstairs and checked out staff lunch. It was pork tenderloin stir fry with rice. I loaded my plate with lots of veggies, some of the pork and a little of the rice. One day, I WILL remember to bring in my brown rice cups. I ate most of the lunch but left some of it behind because it was kind of salty and it really got to me by the end.

staff lunch

A few hours after lunch, I was ready for a snack. I decided to give the soy yogurt a try, I was skeptical as I had heard some pretty bad things about it. After one bite, I knew why. It was awful, I might even venture to say that it was the worst food I had ever tasted. It was grey and tasted like fat free mayonnaise. I didn’t even go for a second bite. I took it downstairs to the trash and the chef wanted to taste it “just to see”. He agreed but even went so far as to spit his bite into the trash. Needless to day, the other two containers I have of this stuff will not be making it into my belly.

yuck

Of course, I was still hungry so I dug around in my cabinet and purse to see what I had that was dairy free. I came up with a roasted almond crunch kashi bar. I bit into it and knew right away that it was rancid. Yikes, I pulled the wrapper out of the trash only to discover that it had expired more than a year ago. I guess I need to clean out my secret food loot a little more often.

bad bar!

I dug further into the depths of my stash and found a cherry chocolate kashi bar. To my delight, the chocolate was dark and didn’t have any milk in it.Yay! I checked the expiration date and I was golden. Double Yay!

good bar!

I ended up staying at work really late and was starving by the time I got into my car. Once again, my dear husband came to the rescue. While I drove the 40 minutes home, he made a green salad with spinach, cukes and green grapes. He also popped in an Amy’s Organic No Cheese Roasted Veggie pizza. By the time I walked in the door, all I had to do was dress the salads with a little oil and vinegar and then sit down to eat. The pizza was out of this world good, it had mushrooms, onions and peppers on it with a sweet balsamic glaze. So tasty, this will definitely make it back into the rotation even if I do eat dairy again.

cheeseless pizza

After dinner, I caught up on blog land and then settled in for more of my book. This week, I am supposed to take 3 walks, at my own pace, stock my pantry with healthy food (check) and practice focusing on my breath for five minutes each day.  Since I am starting this thing mid week, I am going to stretch out my first week by a few days so I can start each week on Mondays. So, check back to see how I am doing!

After some reading and some TV, I was off to bed. Finally Friday!!

QOTD: Do you meditate? Maybe not in the traditional sense but is there something that you do that totally gets your find focused on th present moment each day?

Goodbye Dairy?

Yesterday started out pretty rough. I had tossed and turned all night accompanied by bad dreams. The combo made getting out of bed really hard. But, I did eventually rise and make my way through the day. I started with a bowl of hot cereal made up of wheatberries, oats, bulgur and ground flax seed. I topped it with a banana and some white chocolate dreams. I think this is one of my favorite combos. I passed on the glass of milk this morning because I think it makes me too full but come to find out, maybe I was having a premonition.

hot grain cereal

I had asked my dear friend Monica for suggestions about alleviate allergy symptoms naturally and she suggested nettle leaf tea and eliminating dairy. I was resistant to the idea of eliminating dairy at first but after some more research and asking around, I decided that I would bid farewell to my friend dairy for at least a couple weeks. I am going to start by working to eliminate milk, cheese and yogurt and will work my way into things that require more intense label reading. So, this is going to be a process and I hope I can keep at it.

Work was pretty good, the weather was nice and cool and every one was gearing up for what was expected to be a busy day. Around 11, I was hungry and didn’t want to miss my chance for a free lunch so I headed downstairs to have some staff lunch. It was soup and salad day again, which made my day. I made a salad with lettuce, tomato, cukes, carrots, chicken and balsamic dressing along with a small cup of sesame noodle soup. I also had a slice of toasted whole wheat bread.

soup and salad

After lunch, I decided to have a little goodbye celebration with the rest of the milk chocolate bar from Monday.  I think I need to really dig deep and figure out what these chocolate cravings are about. I have a feeling that I am feeling rebellious because I have been having alot of diet thoughts again. A battle that I hope I don’t have to face forever.

In the late afternoon, I had a meeting that lasted the rest of the day. I had no idea it was going to take that long or I would have had a snack. The dear husband and I had a meeting with our insurance rep after work and dinner was a ways away. Needless to say, by the time it was dinner time, I was starving. To make things fast and easy, we went to Panera. My first dairy free dining out experience. I ordered the honey dijon chicken sandwich with no cheese and a half a strawberry poppy seed salad. For the salad, I asked for balsamic vinaigrette on the side because the dressing that comes with it has splenda in it. I ate the half sandwich and a couple bites of the salad and I was finished. I really liked the honey dijon dressing on the sandwich, it was tangy and sharp.

salad and sandwich

After dinner, we headed to the grocery store to pick up some non dairy items for me to use the rest of the week. I got all sorts of things that I am excited to try, you all will see more on that in the days to come. Once we settled in at home, I had a small bowl of turtle twirl soy ice cream. It was actually rally good! The chocolate crunch bites were extra tasty! After the bowl of ice cream, it was time to hit the hay.

soy ice cream

QOTD: How do you deal with dietary restrictions when dining out?

Two Lattes, Two Cookies

Wouldn’t it be ironic if I woke up at 5:15 naturally on a Saturday when I struggle to do it during the work week? Well, that is what happened yesterday. At 5:15, my eyes flew open and I was ready for the day.  I had a pre-workout snack, which is a new thing for me (the working out and the pre workout snack). I had a small glass of low fat chocolate milk before I hopped on the treadmill. I think it really helped me stay more alert during the workout and I felt great afterwards. So, thanks to Jenna for inspiring me to have one. I did a 32 minute (one sex and the city episode) walk/run on the treadmill. I keep toying with the idea of running again and so I gave it a go. I am very much out of shape so I walked 3 minutes and ran 2 for most of the workout. I did just walk for the last 8 minutes or so. The workout was great and it felt good knowing that it was over and done with for the day.

pre workout snack

After a quick shower and some blogging, I made breakfast. I reheated some of my wheatberry, oat and bulgur concoction and topped it with a very ripe peach and some PB & Co. white chocolate wonderful. I guess the workout decreased my appetite because I wasn’t able to even come close to finishing my already small portion.  

breakfast

Once breakfast was finished and the dear husband was back from his marathon training, we hit the road. The siding guys are still working on our house and the banging is unbearable so we didn’t want to stick around. Our first stop was Target for a Starbucks. From the moment we gave our order we knew this was going to be an interesting experience. There were gobs of people standing around waiting for their drinks and the line was out of control. After settling into a chair to wait, we saw why. The girl making the drinks was WAY overwhelmed and the dude taking the orders was new and had to keep interrupting her.  After about 15 minutes, we got our drinks. Mine was wrong. I was delivered a tall vanilla latte with an extra shot. Since I didn’t want to cause further chaos, I took the drink thinking that the extra shot wouldn’t make that much of a difference. I was wrong, it tasted like mud so I sat it in the cup holder and pouted.

latte # 1

We were headed to the area of town that I lived when dear husband and I met one another. It is about 45 minutes away from home so when we passed a little coffee shop on the way I was delighted. We pulled in and I was sure that this would make up for the bad Starbucks. I am not usually this high maintenance but it really was a bad drink. I ordered a small vanilla latte with skim milk. I got the latte to the car and it was way too sweet for me. This was turning out to be a bad latte day. Since I still had the mud sitting in the console, I decided to mix the two lattes together and it actually turned out really good. Too bad it cost me two stops and $10.

latte # 2

Once we got to my old stomping grounds, we did a little shopping and reminiscing. For lunch, we went to one our favorite places from when we were dating. Ginger Red which is an Asian Fusion place that has awesome food, a cool atmosphere and brown rice. 🙂 I started out with some hot jasmine tea and Thai lettuce wraps. The lettuce wraps were fantastic, they had a nice curry flavor that wasn’t too strong.

jasmine tea

lettuce wraps

For lunch I ordered a Vietnamese summer roll and hunan shrimp with brown rice. The hunan shrimp came with a soup so I asked for hot and sour. The summer roll was excellent, the peanut sauce they serve it with is the best combo of sweet and sour.

summer roll

The soup was pretty typical hot and sour soup and since I hadn’t really planned to eat soup, I only had a bite or two.

hot and sour soup

After soup, our entrees came. My Hunan Shrimp was perfectly cooked but the sauce was a bit milder than I had expected.  It was a lunch size portion and I still only finished about 1/3 of it.  I also had a bite or two of the dear husbands fried rice. For dessert, we split a fortunes cookie. Overall, our lunch was fantastic and brought back great memories from days gone by.

hunan shrimp with brown rice

fortune cookie

Lunch was followed by a trip to the local health food store. I really only needed some oats and some oat flour but we came across some local tofu (!!) that I had to have as well. We also bought some Ezekiel sprouted burger buns and a preserve toothbrush. While there, we had a sample of a vegan chocolate chip cookie made with tofu. It was pretty tasty, the texture was kinda of dry but they have been because they were siting out in the sample tray. It was my first time with a vegan baked good and overall, I wouldn’t have know it was vegan if the sign hadn’t said so.

vegan cookie

After the health food store, we headed home to see if we had a message about my car. We had been waiting all day for a call and thought maybe they called our house instead of our cell. When we got home, there was no message so we gave them a call and they said that it still wasn’t ready. Finally, around 4:30 they called to say it was done. We headed out to pick it up and then we went to Lowe’s for new porch lights.

Once we got back home, we made a light dinner. Spinach and spring mix salad with cukes, dried cranberries, goat cheese and almond slices. I topped mine with a little garlic seasoned rice vinegar and had a whole wheat yeast roll on the side. It was a nice dinner and not too heavy after a long day of running around.

a light summer dinner

After dinner, I read a little of “When Food is Love” by Geneen Roth and finally headed off to bed. It had been a nice Saturday but I was really tired!

QOTD: Do you prefer to get your work out done in the morning or in the evening? Why?

Busy Busy Bees

Yesterday, I woke up kinda late, around 7:15, and spent way too much time online. I had planned to make pancakes and by the time I got to it, it was 9:00 and I was starving. I had already planned to make a multi grain pancake recipe from this book  , so once I got going, it didn’t take long. I’m not sure if I measured something wrong or what but the batter was like soup. I let it sit for about 10 minutes and it was still really thin. I added a bit more whole wheat flour and went with it. While cooking the pancakes, I started to make some scrambled eggs/egg white and proceded to dump the entire salt shaker into the eggs. Yikes!

This wasn’t going very well. Dear husband pulled some canadian bacon from the freezer at the last minute so we ended up with paper thin pancakes and canadian bacon. I put some real maple syrup on all of it, made a glass of milk and called it breakfast.  Despite being so thin, the pancakes tasted awesome. I’m going to give them another try and will post the recipe if they work out.

milk

multi grain pancakes

 

After breakfast we headed out for some errand running. We stopped by Starbucks and I got another tall vanilla latte. Boy, it made running around the entire earth much easier!

latte

In the midst of shopping and getting things done, we decided to try a Mexican place we had never been to before. I knew this was going to be a challenge in the eating slower and stopping at “not hungry”. We don’t go to Mexican very often because I always overeat. I start with the chips and don’t stop until I need a wheel barrow to get me out. But, my friends, yesterday was different. I had about 8 or 10 chips with salsa and then I stopped and waited for my food to come.

chips and salsa

I ordered the lunch portion of shrimp fajitas. Though it was a lunch portion it was still too much. I ate one fajita, ate two bites of the beans and then made another fajita. I took two bites of the second one and I was full. Now, I was trying to eat until not hungry instead but eating to just full at mexican is a major accomplishment for me. I was able to walk out not feeling miserable. It felt good!

fajitas!

After lunch, we finished up our shopping and errands and headed home to our massive laundry pile. We did some laundry and by 5:30, I felt wiped out. I decided instead of making a big ellaborate dinner that I wanted to make some morning star farms “chicken” sandwiches. I made them with a slice of provolone, a big slice of tomato and some pesto mayo. We had a small spinach and tomato salad with oil and vinegar on the side. I really liked the combo, I normally do lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mayo and cheese but this was really nice. I think we will make them again this way for sure.

mmmm..."chicken"

After dinner, I wanted a little ice cream so I made a small portion of low fat vanilla ice cream with some chocolate chips and white chocolate PB. It was exactly what I wanted and made my food day complete.

ice cream

Just Two Years Ago

Oh, what a relief yesterday was. I woke up feeling much better than I had in days and I was determined to keep it that way. I started out with some wheatberries, oats and bulgur mixed with flax seed and then topped with a banana and some PB & Co. white chocolate dreams PB. The PB was good but it didn’t really taste like white chocolate, it kinda tasted like Jiff. It has been years since I had eaten PB that wasn’t all natural so maybe that influenced what I thought. It was really really sweet but it went nicely with my hot cereal and banana. I also had a glass of milk to wash it all down.

kinda like jiff

When I got to work, things were in full swing. I had a huge day ahead of me, I had been feeling very behind as a number of special projects were bogging down my daily work. I knew that I could get myself caught up if I really stayed off of the internetfocused. While being knee deep in work, I received a lovely bouquet of flowers for the dear husband. We had met each other just two years ago, the happiest years of my life.

happy anniversary

Shortly after I got the flowers, it was lunch time. I ordered the lunch special. It was a lovely seared pepper ahi tuna salad with ponzu dressing. I also had a slice of whole wheat bread on the side. The combo was very filling, I was actually only able to finish about half of the salad. It was a shame to see that second piece tuna go to waste but better for it to go to waste than to my waist.

peppered ahi tuna salad

good carbs

 

Shortly after lunch, I had one of my homemade cinnamon lattes, it really it the spot and got me through a long afternoon. I ended up staying late again but the result of all my hard work was being able to leave without a long to do list on my brain. To celebrate our “dating two years married 4 months” anniversary, we met for sushi. We started with edamame and then some calamari.

edamame

calamari

 

After the appetizers, we ordered three rolls for the two of us. We got a volcano roll, a lobster roll and a calamari with spicy tuna roll. All of it was awesome. We haven’t really had the time lately to get out to sushi as much as we like, the chef even asked where we had been. So, this was nice treat and a great way to celebrate.

volcano roll

calamari with spicy tuna roll

lobster roll

spicy mayo for the side

 

Once we were home from dinner, I had a madjool date to cure my sweet tooth. I had never had a date before so this was a new experience. I’m not sure if I liked it or not, on some bites I thought I did and others I wasn’t sure. I need to figure out a good use for them other than eating them straight. Ideas are welcome, of course.

a date, the food kind

Around 9ish, I felt was seemed like stomach growling. I didn’t think it could be hunger but it was persistent. Finally, I decided that it must be hunger so I made dear husband and I a treat. A grilled chocolate dreams PB and cherry jam sandwich of 100% whole wheat bread. I had my half along with a glass of milk. It was fantastic!! The PB was warm and melty and the jam was still jam like but started to blend with the PB. Oh, it was a good little bedtime treat.

how good does that look?

Shortly after our snack, we headed off to bed. I went to sleep very thankful for a peaceful, productive and happy day.

A Chocolate Bar Will Not Fix It

Boy, what a hard few days. Yesterday, I woke up with puffy swollen eyes from all the tears, a massive headache and the general desire to sleep all day. But, I knew that wouldn’t really help anything so I got up and proceeded with my day. For breakfast I had wheatberries, oat and bulgur mixed with flax seed and topped with a banana and some PB & Co chocolate dreams. That stuff should be illegal, really. I also had a glass of milk to wash it all down.

should be illegal oatmeal

Once I got to work, I got the advice from the blogospehere and a message board that I frequent to contact the animal control about Callie. I called and left a message and as of yet, I still have not heard back. Once I had the Callie news off my chest, I got to work on a busy busy day. Golf World is a madhouse these days and my desk is loaded with work. That is good though, plenty to keep my mind off of all the negative things going on.

Around 11, I had to run out and do some errands for work and I planned to pick up lunch. My stomach had been growling for a while, I decided to go ahead and have a snack. I had a Kashi Crunch bar, the chocolate and caramel one. While I was eating it, I was thinking that it was actually a form of emotional eating. Sure I was hungry, but hunger is tolerable and lunch was right around the corner. And with all the bad stuff going on, the hunger just didn’t feel tolerable. I was tired of being uncomfortable. I did enjoy the Kashi bar, in fact, I bought more while I was out. This makes up for the Kashi roll experience, for sure.

now that is good

While out, I picked up lunch for T and I. I got brown rice tuna dynamite roll and a fresh veggie spring roll. Because I had eaten the Kashi bar, I wasn’t really that hungry and for the first time in history, I didn’t finish it all. I gave the rest the the chef intern in the kitchen, he seemed very happy to receive my gift of sushi.

brown rice tuna dynomite roll

fresh veggie spring roll

 

After lunch, the afternoon sped by, so much so that I knew I would have to stay late. I started to get hungry again and knew that I wouldn’t be home until really late so I decided to have some greek yogurt with blackberries. I had really intended to have that as my morning snack but that never really happened. I was pretty tasty though I thought the berries could have been a smidge sweeter.

greek yogurt and blackberries

Once I finally left work, I arranged for dear husband to prepare dinner. I had planned to make stuffed shells but my hunger wasn’t waiting that long. So, we had an archers farms BBQ chicken extra thin crust pizza. It has chicken, BBQ sauce, onions and cheese, a really tasty combo. Along side we had spinach and baby romaine salads with rice vinegar. It all really did the trick, it was indulgent but not too over the top.

BBQ chicken pizza

After dinner, I was exhausted, I had been running on four hours of sleep and it was really catching up to me. And along with that, I am getting over a sinus infections so my body really just wanted to rest. We watched a little tv and I think I was out by 8. A long hard day had finally come to an end.

I love PB & CO

Yeseterday, I got through the morning without rushing…again! I might be setting some sort of record with this. For breakfast, I had a bowl of rolled oats made with milk and while it was cooking, I stirred in some of the PB & CO chocolate dreams peanut butter. I topped it with a banana and it was so good, it made me think of Elvis. It was really filling as well, I was only able to eat about 2/3s of it before calling it quits.

elvis oatmeal

Once I made it to work, I knew I was in for a stressfull day. My desk looked like a tornado hit it but at least the internet was working! The morning went by so fast that before I knew it my stomach was growling and it was lunch time. I went downstairs to find out what the staff lunch was and I was once again delighted. And serioulsy, that never happens twice in one week. It was salad bar! I loaded my plate with lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, carrots, a little egg salad, a little tuna salad and some grilled chicken. I asked the chef for a slice of that yummy bread and back upstairs I went. I put some oil and vinegar from my secret stash on it and it was really good and really filling as well. I think it must have been a nice combo of fat, protein and carbs.

another healthy staff lunch

After lunch, I had another meeting about the website. Once that was over, I had to ride out to the Training Center and the Maintenance department to work on some email issues. It was a lovely day outside, 85* and no humidity. Not your typical July day in Virginia, that is for sure. After all that, it was time to head home. Once home, I made tacos and refried beans. For the tacos, I used morning star farms soy crumbles, salt free taco seasoning and corn shells. I topped them with goat’s milk gouda, salsa and fat free sour cream. The refried beans were so easy, just a can of fat free refried beans topped with more of the gouda and some salsa. It was such a good dinner. I wasn’t able to finish all of it, those beans are filling.

tacos and refried beans

I was so tired after dinner that all I did was watch a little tv and then hit the hay. I wonder if my balance of rest, work and exercise is out of whack.

And beacuse I found this little shot to be irresistable, here is a nice shot of Callie.

callie