Dishing

First of all, thank you to everyone who has commented on my Hunger Takes No Holiday post - and for everyone who has helped me spread the word! Please keep it up and comment if you haven't already. :)

Workouts

Last night, I intended to take the 6pm spin class, but when I arrived at 5:55pm - all 40 of the bikes were taken!

I was lucky enough to score an Arc Trainer, which I did for 45 mins. Then I did 2000m on the rowing machine which was probably around 10 mins. I figure that I have to start doing some rowing to prepare for the Adventure Race in April. Rowing is tough and makes my back ache.

Food

I mentioned in a previous post that my mom, sister and I went to Let's Dish last Friday. I am not sure if everyone has a Let's Dish around them, so to give you a little background...

• There are different stations set up with the ingredients you need to prep meals on the monthly menu.
• Everything you need is set out for you with directions on how to do each step and what equipment to use.
• The menu changes each month and it is such a fun thing to do with others.
• You take home your meals and freeze them to cook at a later time. (bring a cooler with you)
• The meals are portioned for a family of 6, but you can split the meals if there are only two of you.
• They bake fresh scones and encourage you to bring your own wine to have during breaks.

I use these meals as a supplement to the things I cook myself. I haven't been in awhile - not sure if I have been since I've had this blog actually. They work well for nights when I have no desire to cook or don't have much time.

Funny Story - the first time we ever did it - I thought they were providing FREE wine for everyone and just went up to help myself. This one lady started asking me about my "multiples" and I had no idea what she was talking about. I think I just "smiled and laughed" - the normal response when you have no clue what someone is talking about. I guess a group, "Mothers of Multiples", was there "dishing" and had brought wine for their group. oopsie. ;)

Last night, I made one of the Let's Dish meals - Mandarin Breeze Shrimp with Jasmine Rice.

Tender shrimp marinate with huge chunks of green pepper, onion, whole button mushrooms and mandarin oranges in a delectable sauce that includes a touch of sesame, garlic and hoisin. Sautéed until sizzling, then served on fragrant Jasmine rice.

It was delicious because the mandarin oranges broke apart and became part of the sauce. It was even better leftover today for lunch when all the flavors had more time to hang out.

Nutrition Facts, Servings: 6

*They said sugar content wasn't available, so that makes me think it might be bad. call me a pessimist.

A picture of what is becoming my standard dinner drink. Equal parts of Mango Nectar and Sparkling Water. More mango than sparkle going on last night though.
The following is becoming Kevin's standard drink - Skim Milk and Peanut Butter Puffins. ;)

Breakfast this morning (Tuesday) was a throwback to an old favorite before I got hooked on oatmeal. I am all out of oatmeal. (gasp)

Grilled corn tortillas topped w/ 2% shredded cheddar, scrambled eggs (liquid egg whites and 1 egg), and chipotle hot sauce. A tiny bit of turkey bacon in the background that needed to be used up.

Question for Ya

What is your go-to simple and easy dinner?

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Post-Race Monday

It was so hard to get out of bed this morning – I was really sore from yesterday’s race. Even with all the marathon training – my muscles were in shock from all those hills!

I think the picture below, which was taken from the Will Ramos photography site is really funny. He takes awesome shots, by the way!! Kevin jumped over the log in the middle of the trail and I am in the background laughing at him as he almost falls on his face.

But, since karma is such a “you-know-what” – while I am going under the log, I almost completely bite it. Thanks karma.

It was such a cool race though – and we made sure all those blurs in the background didn’t catch us!

Breakfast this morning was scrambled egg whites with yellow squash, broccoli, gorgonzola, and some chalula hot sauce. I also made a new variation of my mango spritzer with this Peach/Apple juice I picked up at Trader Joes and I had a piece of whole wheat potato bread toast with barney butter and honey.

Mid-morning snack was peanut butter filled pretzels w/ dark chocolate edamame. (I know – bad – it was supposed to be my dessert for lunch.) I also had a apple pie larabar. Man, it was a big snack, but I just felt hungry. Lunch was leftover pizza from last night – just as good heated up!Afternoon snack was Fat-Free Stonyfield French Vanilla yogurt, which I have decided is my favorite of all time. It is so sweet and creamy – love the texture. Of course, it is higher in sugar and lower in protein than greek yogurts, but I figure I will use it as a treat to mix it up a bit. I added some GoLean Kashi crunch and unsalted dry-roasted sliced almonds for a crunch!

Today after work - running was the LAST thing I wanted to do. But, Mr. Motivation (aka. Kevin) wanted to do a run and then push-ups/sit-ups. whew - i was tired just typing all that. It was a tough run because i really didnt want to do it. But we ended up running for 48 mins and then I only did 2 sets of 15 push-ups/20 sit-ups. I am glad I did it, but plan to take tomorrow off. My legs need a rest.

For dinner tonight, I made a variation of the Pioneer Woman's Penne A La Betsy! I have made the original, which is one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted - but tonight was about using up some of the things I had on hand to make a version of it!

I used the jumbo, frozen, deveined shrimp from trader joes and sauteed them in a mixture of light whipped butter and EVOO until they had just turned pink. Then I pulled them out and set aside. I then added in a few cloves of minced garlic and chopped onion to the pan. Once these were starting to soften, I added a little white wine to deglaze. Then I added my secret ingredient - the most expensive jar of pasta sauce i have ever bought. I had a gift card to williams-sonoma and so I decided to pay over $10 for this stuff. It was pretty amazing, but I'm not sure any tomato sauce should cost that much.To make the sauce creamier - I added two spoonfuls of part-skim ricotta. During all this time - i had the whole wheat rotini pasta boiling. I just noticed that this "whole grain" pasta is made with only "51%" whole wheat. I need to pay closer attention to that!I also pulled the tails off the shrimp and cut them in half to make bite-size pieces. The shrimp went back in the pan to mix in with the sauce. Then I added the pasta and mixed it all together.
Here is my serving - delish! oh yeah - i added a little Asiago cheese on top! :)Dessert was another mango mochi ice cream! i love these things. I just had one!

Hope everyone has a great night! The HILLS are on and Kevin and I cant wait to watch it! ha. well, more me. But the other day Kevin compared something to the way Lo was acting on the show and I was laughing so hard. He is INTO it, but just wont admit it. :)

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Healthy to Horrible

On Thursday, Sept 4th, I started out on the right foot with breakfast. Had a mixture of egg whites, broccoli, onion, and gorgonzola cheese. a piece of whole wheat potato bread with barney butter and a drizzle of honey. And a mango sparkler drink. Oh I also put a little chalula on my eggs for an extra kick! It was a healthy, filling breakfast!
Mid-morning snack was a peanut butter cookie larabar and it really does taste like pb cookie dough - yum!
For lunch, I made up a pita sandwich of the following:

whole wheat pita
garlic and herb laughing cow cheese
grilled chicken
tomatoes
spinach
pickles

Here are the ingredients being packed for lunch.
For my PM snack, I had a blueberry TJ greek yogurt with oatmeal squares and almonds mixed in. I am loving the 1/2 cup size Tupperware things - they really help with portion sizes and are better than using a million plastic baggies.
So after work is where it went downhill. Right after work, Kevin and I took oscar for a walk and then decided to go watch the redskins game at Portside Tavern in Canton square. They were having a deal on 50 cent wings, so we decided to get a few. I got 6 old bay wings that were amazing. I ate those with bleu cheese and all the fresh celery that came along with it. I also had 2.5 grapefruit crushes. Basically - they squeeze fresh grapefruit juice and then add in ice, ruby red vodka, and some soda water? They are delicious. Sorry - no pictures!

**Almost forgot - so we were sitting at the bar and who walks in - WEEMAN from JackA$$!!! A friend we were with was outside talking to him, so we know it was definitely him! Not sure why he was in Baltimore, but still, I had to mention my "celebrity" sighting! :)

When Kevin and I were leaving the bar, we decided that we were hungry and since we hadnt had pizza in so long - i think the last time was the healthy pizza? We stopped by Py Pizza in the square and ordered a full pizza because the slices looked REALLY old. I told my self I would only have 2 slices of cheese and I stuck to that! This pizza is great - really thin with homemade sauce, fresh mozzarella and they cook it in a brick oven. I think people i talk to either love it or hate it, but we LOVE it. Kevin ate a slice before i could get my camera out. ;)
So with this day starting off so healthy- I felt sick after eating so horribly at night. ughh - need to get back on the right track for friday!

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Healthy Pizza

Using Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough (which is only 99 cents), TJ fat-free pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and some fresh veggies - I made up a veggie pizza that was delicious!
First, I started by sauteing some garlic and veggies I had on hand in about a tablespoon of olive oil with oregano. The veggies included white onions and red, yellow and banana peppers from a produce stand on the way home from the beach last weekend. I have found that the best way to really get that good caramelized flavor and color is to turn the heat on medium high and just leave it for a good 5 mins.
Next up was rolling out the whole wheat dough in some flour. well, maybe a little TOO much flour...I love my pizza dough roller from pampered chef! first time using it.


Then I added the sauce, veggies, and CHEESE. I love cheese. It makes everything better. (the flour was everywhere - please disregard for now as I dont yet have photoshop to remove these items from the picture)
Here it is right before putting in the oven at 425 for 12 mins. Oh - those fresh tomatoes were an addition by Kevin - I said he could put them on half.

Here it is after pulling it out of the oven

Here is my one huge slice - I stuck with just one slice, but it was probably the size of two. There are always workarounds. ;)
Then, for dessert, I heated up some of my blueberry/peach cobbler and added some roasted, unsalted almonds, a few spoonfuls of vanilla Chobani (greek yogurt), and some drizzles of honey. YUM. Hit the spot! And yes, I did use the same plate that my pizza was on. I was trying to save water, well actually, my dishwasher is broken, so trying to use the least amount of dishes possible! Remember, it all goes to the same spot - a quote I heard alot growing up!

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