Oscar's Time to Shine (2.03.2009)

Monday

Last night, I had planned to do one of the "Six Pack Abs" workouts at home and then head to spin class at 7pm. As I drove home from work, I knew none of that was going to happen. I needed a day of rest. The 10 miler really took it out of me and my legs were just plain tired.

I did manage to take Oscar for his regular evening walk in the park. Mainly because he starts jumping for joy as soon as I get changed into comfy clothes. If I take too long getting ready, he starts doing this sad cry. He really knows how to "work" me.

Dinner was simple, but extremely tasty. I had picked up some Black Refried Beans at trader joes after seeing them on Itzy's Kitchen and wanted to make Grilled Quesadillas, inspired by some of Erica's creations.

I used whole wheat tortillas, courtesy of Trader Joes also.

Toppings included Black Refried Beans w/ jalapeno peppers, green chiles, sauteed red peppers and red onions, and grilled chicken.

Missing something? uh...yeah. CHEESE and lots of it. Mild 2% Cheddar to be exact.

Grilled in a little smart balance and then served with 0% Fage (to act as sour cream) for dipping.

Tuesday

I whipped up a Breakfast Smoothie using my Vita-Mix 5200.

• 1 banana
• 1/4 c blueberries
• 1 clementine
• 2 spoonfuls of 0% greek yogurt
• splash of skim milk
• 1 cup ice

The greek yogurt really added to the creaminess factor.

Pets on Wheels

"Pets on Wheels is a not for profit volunteer organization which provides friendly visits from volunteers and their pets to those requiring the support of an institutional setting. "

A friend of mine recently told me about the Pets on Wheels organization and I immediately said, "Where do I sign up?". I have been wanting to do something like this with Oscar for a long time.

I was just contacted this morning to schedule a screening for Oscar to ensure that he isn't an attack dog and obeys simple commands. I am so excited for the screening because Oscar and I will get to show off all the things he learned in his Puppy Kindergarten and Basic Obedience Class!

The screening will happen a month from today, so we have lots of time to practice. Oscar is pumped.

I love when his lips get stuck on his teeth.:)

Read more...

Smoothie King's Daughter (12.30.2008)

Monday Night

Last night, after taking Oscar for a quick romp in the park, Kevin and I headed to the gym for spin class. I ran into my old roommate over the weekend and while I was telling her how hard the 7pm class was, she politely informed me that the 6pm class was the hardest they had and people fight to get into there.

That settled it - I had to try it.

Good thing I got there 10 mins before class because there were probably only 5 bikes left in a room full of at least 40. The spin instructor made me work so hard. My legs ached and I couldn't catch my breath. I was loving it. It might have been the first time that there was sweat on the floor around me. Gross, I know. I am one of those sweaty girls at the gym.

Someone once told me it is healthy to sweat a lot - so that is what I tell myself when I walk by girls that look perfectly primped after their workout. I am always a mess, but at least I am healthy. ;)

After devouring sliced raw zucchini dipped in TJ's edamame hummus, I decided to try making Meghann's award-winning Pumpkin Pecan Encrusted Chicken.

I had leftover pumpkin I needed to use up and it seemed like a simple, delicious, and healthy way to prepare the chicken. All true. It was fantastic. Great recipe!

I also made some cauliflower mash and pine nut couscous to go along with the chicken. Is it me or does my plate of food look like a face with a knife sticking out of the eye?

After dinner, I tried the Mango & Cream bars from Trader Joes. They were very refreshing, but may be better in the summer months. I was bundled up under a blanket eating it.

I spent the remaining hours of the night reading through my Vita-mix Recipe cookbook, watching The City premiere, and cleaning out my new blender to get it prepped for a morning smoothie.

The directions suggest you clean out the blender before using, which I did and was amazed at the suds it created. Is that weird to be excited about? It's the small things in life.

I put 5 cups warm water with one tiny drop of dish soap and blended on high for like 5 secs.

This blender is no joke. I had to spend 5 minutes rinsing all the suds out.

Tuesday Morning

(anyone else have this store near them? love it)

I really wanted to see if this blender could blend ice and not leave chunks. My old blender would never fully blend the ice or frozen fruit and it was annoying. I decided to come up with my own concoction and do a simple Banana/Almond Butter Smoothie.

Ingredients

• 1 cup light vanilla soy milk
• 1/2 large banana
• spoonful almond butter
• 2 large ice cubes

All the ingredients are ready to go.

I followed the directions for another smoothie in the cookbook that had ice and set the speed to Variable, and then quickly turned the level from 1-10. It blended for about 20 seconds.

Um...WOW. There was not a trace of ice in this thing. Perfectly blended and pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.

I want to be fair and give the negatives about this blender as well, so if I had to come up with one gripe about the thing - it would be the noise. It terrified my dog so much that I had to coax him back downstairs with a treat. Maybe add a noise muffler on there?

As I sipped on my morning smoothie, I kept thinking that I could totally open my own smoothie shop with this thing. Or better yet, come up with some new, healthy smoothie recipes that my corner coffee shop could start selling. Then, I could be a guest smoothie maker on the weekends...using my new blender. I could also set-up stands at different post-race celebrations to get the word out. Fun!

I wonder if Smoothie King would want be cool if I opened up a spin-off called, Smoothie King's Daughter. I think it's catchy. Dibs on this idea. ;)

Read more...

Some Eats and My Next Marathon!

Thank you so much for all of your well wishes for my mom. She is doing better than we expected only 2 days after the accident, which is a great thing!

I wanted to share some of my eats from yesterday that were delicious. I was craving healthy stuff since Sunday consisted of a chicken cheese steak (grilled chicken, but still) and pizza. Ordered out from the ER and needed the comfort. For Monday's breakfast, I whipped up a fruity protein shake with the following:

• appx 1.5 cups frozen mixed berries
• 2 scoops of vanilla protein powder
• appx. 1 cup of skim milk
• 1 banana

I didnt measure the ingredients (besides the protein powder), but it filled two coffee cups perfectly which was great for Kevin and I. When I arrived to work, I ate a AB and fig jam sandwich to round out my breakfast. This filled me up until I snacked on some edamame around 11am - i love these. Could eat them every day. Also brought a honey crisp apple and carrots, which I ate later in the afternoon.

I met my friends Camey and Ashley, Camey's mom and Camey's daughter Mya for lunch at Don Pablos. I ate too many chips and salsa and then had 1 chicken taco with some beans and rice. I was stuffed. But had to share this cute picture of Mya, who is 10 months old. Such a sweetie!

Ok, maybe 2 pictures! Check out those bottom teeth and that cute smile!

I headed over to my parents house later to check on my mom - she was up and moving around, which was a great thing! Dinner was made by my father: Panko crusted chicken tenders with a apricot marmalade on top, sweet potato fries, and steamed broccoli. YUM.

This morning, I signed up for the HARRISBURG MARATHON on November 9th, so I have 4 weeks to maintain and be ready for this race. It is supposedly a pretty flat and fast course, so my goal is going to be to break my PR of 4:27. lets hope I can do it!!! :)

Read more...

Smoothie Start

This morning, I started off with a peach/strawberry/banana smoothie and a slice of ww toast with almond butter and grandmom's homemade fig jam.

For the smoothie, I threw the following into my blender:

• 1 frozen strawberry chobani yogurt (i have had this in there forever - finally used it!)
• 1/2 large banana
• 1 very ripe peach
• splash of skim milk

It turned out great! But, for some reason, I was hungry when I got to work and found a sugar free rice pudding in the fridge that I had brought a few days ago and never ate. I really cant taste much difference between the sugar free and regular rice pudding.

Later this morning - I also scarfed down a coconut creme pie larabar.

I brought some leftover channa masala with naan bread and peanut tofu for lunch and I cant wait because i am already hungry again! Back to work!

Read more...

Produce Share!

Before I get to all the cool stuff I got from the produce share - here is a run down of today's eats!

Breakfast:

I was motivated and had some fruit about to go bad, so I whipped up a smoothie using 1 banana, 1/2 blueberries, a few spoonfuls of TJ blueberry greek yogurt, and a splash of unsweetened green/white tea from TJs. I know the tea sounds weird, but I was out of milk and juice, and needed something to make it more smoothie-like. It didnt really hurt or help the taste - i couldnt even tell.
I also packed a PB(reduced-fat) and fig jam sandwich on whole wheat soft bread for the road since I was late for another early meeting!My meeting went for over 2 hours, so by the time I was headed back to my building - i decided to stop and grab lunch sicne I hadnt brought anything. I grabbed a chicken caesar wrap from Buon Giorno - these things are awesome and I realized today that you can get it on a whole wheat wrap! They grill their wraps, which is why it is so good. I hate cold tortillas that break - ughh - that is the worse thing. (sorry - no picture)

After eating the wrap - I was still hungry, so decided to have my PB cookie larabar for dessert!Later that afternoon, I ate my carrots with almond butter. I also realized that i had some form of PB 3 times already today - umm - that probably isnt good. need to watch that!After work, I stopped by my sister's house to pick up the produce (plus a few other things) and was excited to find all these stuff!!
The items included:

kale
lettuce
corn
peaches
pears
apples
tomatoes
onions
red pepper
1/2 dozen eggs
1/2 blueberry/peach bread

I cant wait to use/eat some of this stuff! I definitely want to make KathEats kale chips!

While I was hanging out at their house, my mom brought some of her homemade salsa with chips over and I had to have a few chips and salsa. This stuff is spicy and fresh - made with veggies from her garden! Dinner tonight was outstanding. Not sure if everyone out there knows about Let's Dish? I feel like I am doing a cool science experiment when I go. They have all the ingredients prepped for you so all you have to do is put the meals together and then package them to be frozen. I went about a month or two ago and split a few dishes with my mom. I pulled out the thai-marinated flank steak that I had put together during our session to thaw this morning.

I wanted to do steak fajitas, so I sauteed up some red and yellow peppers and onion to go with everything. Meanwhile, the flank steak was broiling in the oven. I was also heating up some corn tortillas in a pan. we had put together a yogurt chili lime sauce to put on the steak and this was perfect to spread on the corn tortilla before layering up the steak, peppers and onions, cheese, and some hot sauce. Here is my dinner plate before digging in. Had to have a corona to go with this one! :) (yes, that is my camera strap - i was so hungry - had to take a very quick picture)Tomorrow is friday - yay! I have lunch plans with an old co-worker/friend of mine and we are meeting at this awesome Indian place, so I cant wait for that!!

Read more...