Interview!

We all love talking about what we know and who do I know more about than myself?

The lovely Danielle of A Year of Healthy Eating sent me these interview questions. (Thanks again for all the thought you put into these!) Please see the rules below and please play along!


Here's the rules to play along:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." If a few people want interviews, I will randomly pick 2.

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Le Interview:

1. If you had to pick a "last meal" what would it be?
Ooh- that's morbid, but I'll play along. My last meal would be sushi- extra spicy tuna rolls, sashimi, lots of edemame and wasabi! I would also have dessert (of course) and it would be a giant chocolate fountain with dark chocolate, every kind of sliced fruit, marshmellows, and more dark chocolate for dipping. Mmmm...not so bad for a last meal!

2. I know that you are planning a wedding right now, what has been the most challenging part?
While I have really loved the idea of getting married and spending the rest of my life with my guy, the planning process is a giant headache! Though we have worked out the kinks, the worst part has been balancing everyone's desires and opinions of what the big day should be like. We are both of Russian heritage and our families wanted our wedding to be very traditionally Russian while we have both grown up here and wanted to have a more balanced mix of cultures. This has affected the food, music, and almost every other choice. We have to keep reminding ourselves that the day is about us and celebrating with our guests!

As an aside- the best parts have been choosing rings, my dress (super secret!), and food tasting!

3. What was/is your favorite subject in school and why?
My favorite subject in Undergrad and High School was Spanish. I loved studying it and everything about it. I also got to practice it when I traveled to Mexico every summer for 6 years straight for my job. I also loved every single writing class I took as I was a more linguistic person than technical person. Ironically, I enjoyed Statistics and Operations Management in my business program. Right now I am in my first year as an MBA student and still trying to get used to the program, so the intensity has not allowed for any favorites, but I'm hoping I will get into some great classes since I'm kind of a nerd if I allow myself to be!

4.What has been the best part of blogging for you so far?
The best part of blogging in my very limited experience is the people I can learn from and interact with. I have learned so much about nutrition, recipes, outlook on life, organization (a sore point for me) and body image from the talented ladies who blog. I have also enjoyed taking pretty awful pictures of my food, realized that I eat really odd combinations of food, and really taking a look at my nutrition. Sometimes I read back and say "I ate THAT?" and the whole process is really a great reflection exercise.

5. Have your friends/family/fiancé, been supportive of your blog?
Since I have only started a couple of months ago, I haven't told anyone but my fiance. His blogging experience is really limited to what he sees me doing and he thinks it's a bizarre concept. At first, he thought I invented it and I had to tell him otherwise. He is becoming very supportive of it and sometimes runs to bring me my camera before I take a bite. I think as I get more comfortable, I will share with friends.

Phew- that was a long one but I enjoyed it. Please play along and leave your lovely comments.

Happy Flippin Friday!

I'm Back and Kickin'

Thank you for all of your sweet comments and suggestions for cold remedies! I also enjoyed the volume of comments and appreciate each and every one of them. My readers rock!

I'm feeling much better and my appetite has partially come back so I'm hoping my eats will be a lot more interesting moving forward and I'll try to keep the cereal intake down because that can get very boring.

Here are some of my meal highlights over the last couple of days. While I had the best intentions to do a post last night, I came home at 10:00 p.m. and here it is 10:00 p.m. on Thursday night. I guess school kinda gets in the way! Anyways, enough about me, here is the food:


Wednesday's Lunch:
Carrots, an apple, and my Turkey Lentil Meatloaf






Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning Snack:
Hershey's Kissables




Thursday's Breakfast:
Special K (bleh!) and Kashi Go Lean Crunch (yum!)





Thursday's AM Snack:
Beloved Granny Smith Apple






Thursday's Dinner:
Flat Out Wrap with Goat Cheese, Turkey Slices, and a sprinkle of Mozzarella fresh out of the broiler, pita chips and hummus while I was waiting for the 5 minute wrap







Thursday's Dessert:
Pumpkin puree mixed with Vanilla Yogurt, Cinnamon, Cocoa Powder and a Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar





I have an interview sent to me by the lovely Danielle of A Year of Healthy Eating and the questions will be up tomorrow. See you tomorrow- it's almost Friday!

The Randomness Continues

It's another day down and I have had another day of random meals fueled by my lack of or bursts of appetite. I started off my morning with 2 vices. I used to be very much into energy drinks. Now I know there is nothing healthy about them, but I was falling asleep and grabbed my drink on the way out of the door. We actually have a free stash of these since our friend is a sales person for Rockstar and gave us some samples. I also had a pre-breakfast of a chocolate chip cookie. Most important meal of the day right? This fueled me through my commute to work.





When I got to work I had my real breakfast about an hour later of Kashi Go Lean Crunch, Cheerios, and heated light soy milk.






At 11:45 I wasn't hungry enough for lunch but decided to grab something to hold myself over for another few hours since my schedule was packed. I had a very green snack of 1/2 apple, sliced kiwi, and green tea. A few minutes later I also ate another Dark Chocolate Coconut Kashi bar.






I waited to get hungry for lunch but wasn't feeling it so I grabbed 3 sliced carrots with my favorite hummus:







I remembered that we had a birthday party at work (ahem, after it happened and I was one of the February birthdays) and walked into the kitchen to see this:





This is about 1.5" x 1.5" x 2" of pure chocolate decadence. It was the most flavorful thing I have had in a few days!


I came home to prep a few more meals for the week and ended up making some whole wheat pasta. I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't know what a real serving of pasta is. I cooked up one cup of penne and added some sauce that I bought earlier this week with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.





I also had the other half of my flat out wrap with a turkey slice for protein but forgot to take a picture...and also didn't take a picture of the chocolate chip cookie I just ate.


Balance

My meals haven't been the most balanced today. I got in my fruits and veggies (ok, 3 carrots count) but there is an overall lack of balance and I'm starting to feel it in my tummy. I know I can't be back to normal until I recover from this cold, but I am becoming frustrated with myself. I am trying to eat at least something so that I keep my energy up, but wholesome foods (not chocolate) are probably a little better for me. I'm also a horrible patient and don't like to eat soup so I just fall back on whatever is around.

I have got to start taking better care of myself since somebody has a birthday this weekend. We are having a party at our house on Saturday night so I've got to get it together.

Does anybody have any surefire cold remedies?

Don't Judge Me

Hello World! I hope you made it through another Monday. I hate to be one of those people, but Monday's really are no fun. Today I made a few strange meal choices. I am kinda doing this high carb thing- or at least that's what it feels like since they taste best and feel best on my finicky tummy and lazy taste buds. On with today's meals:

I forgot to take a picture of breakfast (ironically, it was a sandwich made of whole wheat toast, 1 slice turkey, and 1 slice cheese heated in the micro) but here is my LUNCH:

1 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch, 1/2 cup Cheerios, 3/4 cup Silk Light Soy Milk and my apple:





Don't judge me, cereal can be eaten round the clock.





My work also has the most humongous bowls known to mankind so they make it hard to eyeball portions, but I'm pretty sure I got this right. I think filling it up all the way would be about 3 or 4 cups worth.


At 4:30 it still wasn't close to quitting time so I went down to get a snack. I got an Organic Oatmeal Cookie from Starbucks. Now I have to explain one thing- there is a Starbucks INSIDE my building. Do you know what this means? It means that I smell Mocha-Latte-Machiattos-Wonderful-Deliciousness every time I enter my building. I have been at this location for less than one week and I already cracked. In my defense, I said I wouldn't buy any drinks from the 'Bucks, but if you are keeping score, the damage is done.

This 350-calorie sucker kept me full until I got home at 7:30. I also enjoyed it with one of my many cups of herbal tea:





I thought that since I filled up on my breakfast foods for the day, I would just have a snack for dinner. This guy had arguably more breakfast food, but it's all I could think of. Here is 1/2 cup fat free vanilla yogurt with 1/2 of a green apple, a sliced kiwi, and a Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut bar crumbled on top. This was very yummy and I can't wait to try it when my appetite is kickin':





My wonderful fiance is moving furniture and I'm helping him every once in a while, but waiting patiently for my bed to be assembled so I can go to sleep. Tomorrow is another early day. Have a great night!

The Texture is Awesome!

Since I last posted on Thursday, I have spent the last three days in the tastebud excitement that is a cold. Now, I must preface this with the fact that I know everyone gets colds and I am not the only person on earth, but this really, really bites. As a girl who likes her eats, not being able to fully taste anything has made the last few days really, really boring! Not only am I sick, but so is my fiance. He is a bit of a better eater than I am when sick but is still not feeling much better.

This morning I made him some french toast and an egg and asked him how it was. His answer was:

"I'm not sure, but the texture is AWESOME!"

I love him because he can really articulate things.

I have had a few textures over the last few days. Like I said, nothing too exciting since I can't quite taste it. The other interesting thing is that my hunger cues are crazy. I go from not hungry to crazy pains in my stomach while normally, I am hungry at 3-hour intervals.


I'm eating a power fruit plate right now with some fun dip (vanilla yogurt, cinnamon, and cocoa powder) and almond butter. I shall call this dinner.


Kiwi, Apple, Banana



Dip in my fancy glass:



Ironically, one flavor that has not been ruined is chocolate:




I am now sitting on the couch, watching the Oscars, and drinking out of what I have been calling my Crunk Cup for the last couple of days. The more cultured of the people living in this house told me that it portrays the Romanov dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of Russia before the revolution that threw them out of power. Whatever- it holds a lot of zen tea.




Have a great night. I'm off to fold some laundry and await my Nyquil time.

Valentine's Day All Over Again

It's official- we are both sick. This means a lot of things, but it also means that I go on an erratic vitamin search and my sense of taste is strangely off. It also means that I get a little high on some Tylenol cold in an effort to not fall asleep at my desk. I am a little sensitive to medicine and I get the feeling that my head is floating a foot or so above my head. I also have the impulse to pretend like I'm sober throughout the day.


I started my day with a stop at Walgreens to get some Vitamin C. I think one is supposed to take it before getting sick, but I double up in hopes that it will help. I found these gummy vitamins with Echinacea and snapped them up. The vitamins are topped with my next dose of Tylenol Cold- how is that for food styling? I also had the same banana oats as yesterday along with my drugs.





Lunch today was provided by my boss. We were all on conference calls and she decided to order in some pizza so we could get our grub on. Nice, right? I broke down at noon and grabbed a piece of mushroom and cheese pizza...and took a few bites and remembered to snap a photo. Then when I grabbed the second piece, I did the same thing and it was not worth another failed photo attempt, so use your imagination. I did the girl pizza blot with several napkins but the melty cheese was goooood.





At 5:00 I had my dinner- 1/2 cup cheerios and 3/4 cup Special K with a sliced banana and 1/2 cup light soy milk. It kinda tasted like it sounds and since everything is starting to taste like plastic, this basically filled me up.





I also had a few almonds a little before leaving- of course spicy works as dinner dessert:





When I came home, I got the sweetest surprise. Future hubby was at the store buying Dayquil and he bought me some vitamins- this is seriously the sweetest thing he has done besides asking me to marry him. AND...they are chocolate!





I got home at 9:30 and my stomach was growling again. I had a sliced green apple with a tortilla filled with 1 Tbsp almond butter...except for I ended up opening the tortilla, scooping out the AB, taking a bite, and throwing the rest away.





The tortilla tasted like nothing, so I had this instead:





We are watching some bad reality TV in bed right now and I'm calling it a night. I think they say "starve a fever, feed a cold" so I have done that today at around 1500 cals.
Tomorrow is Friday!! Happy Dance!

It's the remix

Today was my second day at the job and things got quite a bit busier. I guess I should have enjoyed my first easy day but I am glad to have new challenges- I hear it keeps the mind young. I started out my day with 1/2 cup oats and a banana cooked with 1 cup of water in the microwave at the office. I also had some coffee with a splash of light soy milk:





I got a little hungry at around 11:30 and had some Trader Joe's spicy almonds. I love the little kick these have and held my hunger off for another 2 hours:





After taking a short walk around the block, I settled in to eat some lunch. I had to pack this in the morning and I get a little creative. This is leftover tofu from yesterday, 2 large organic carrots, one (tasteless) tomato, and a tbsp of sundried tomato and basil hummus. I had an impulse to add some mustard for dipping but it just didn't do anything for me. I got an assignment and it took me nearly 90 minutes to eat this:





The rest of the afternoon looked like this:





And I had about 1 cup of Cheerios/Special K mix at 4:00 p.m.:





It worked to keep me full until about 7:00 when it was time to go to class. I thought I would get hungry so I bought this Minneola (it's a glorified orange) and some Dark Chocolate M&M's snuck in. I must be coming down with something because I only had a couple and put the pack away.





I did get hungry when I got home from school at 9:30 and made another pizza, this time topped with the remainder of the 2.5 pounds of spinach we bought 2 weeks ago and tofu. Tofu does NOT melt like cheese, but it was gooey in its own way. While it was baking, I had 3 chips with hummus...another Costco purchase if you can't tell by the size:





The finished product is here, but I ended up dipping or soaking it in BBQ sauce once it came out of the oven:





I'm seriously feeling a little sickly so I am about to drug myself with some Nyquil and call it a night. Have a great evening and I'll check back in tomorrow.

Healthy Junk Food

Happy Tuesday!

I hope you had an easy Tuesday back at work if you had Monday off. Today I started my new job and so far so good. I managed to take pictures of all my eats today except for breakfast and a sneaky little bit of dried fruit.


Today was officially junk food day- done right. Lunch was fries- butternut squash fries. So ok, it was half of a ginormous squash, and I felt the cooking spray action, but these were fries, people! I took inspiration from http://lovinmytummy.wordpress.com/ (Sarah) and THE fitnessista (Gina) and finally made them. If you haven't had butternut squash fries, do it and start living! On the side is some baked tofu with curry seasoning- it was just ok.





Lunch dessert included a green tea and an apple:





And at around 4:00 I enjoyed some Chai tea and this cherry kiss- all I have to say is ick! This kiss was the fakest excuse for a chocolate I have ever had.





The next part of my junk food day was pizza. I had a whole wheat pocketless pita topped with spinach, 3/4 of a tomato, 1 oz goat cheese, and parmesan cheese. It was very, very, good. I had this with a chopped carrot and some celery sticks. Look at the before picture:





And after:





Food magazine-worthy, huh? Dinner was hurried along since I went to the gym for a quick cardio session. Today was just 30 minutes of elliptical intervals- I wasn't in the mood to really move it, so this was all I could really do given my hunger level. I also need to mention that I have a paper due tomorrow and I have at least a couple of hours of work to get it ready- I know I will wait until the last minute (emailed to the teacher by 5:00 p.m.) but I am trying to get as much done as possible tonight.


I just enjoyed a dessert of thawed frozen blackberries, 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt, and a slice of my mom's honey cake all mixed together. It was very, very good and now I must learn. Have a great night!

Glorious Monday

What a great way to spend a Monday- off work! Today we had a great time and filled the day doing my favorite things. We went shopping, worked out, grocery shopping, and I cooked. We started out with a late breakfast. My oatmeal and piece of homemade honey bread kept me full for 6 hours and through a workout! It was awesome.

My shopping trip was devoted to getting some new work clothes and other fun things. I haven't shopped in forever since we have been saving for the wedding so this was a really fun treat. I must admit that I am not the hugest shopping fan- it takes me a long time to find what I like. I ended up walking away with a black dress, dress pants, and 2 tops- all for around $50- the sales were insane today!

My workout consisted of a 40-minute run. Since I am working up to running, I set time limits for myself and I have to complete the run over the course of the limit. I try to keep a good pace but allow myself to slow down just so I can keep running. I don't think this rationale comes from any legitimate training schedule but it works in my own world. I ran 3.56 miles and stretched right after.

After our shopping and gym trip, I came home to have a late lunch (around 3:30). I cut up 2 humongous carrots and made an egg sandwich since the hardboiled eggs had survived the fridge for several days and needed to be eaten. My sandwich was made from the following:

• 2 slices Milton's whole grain bread
• 1 egg
• Spicy southwestern mustard (our store brand)
• Sprinkle of Parmesan cheese

I also dipped my carrots in some TJ's sundried tomato and basil hummus. Somebody watched me plate my food and stared like a puppy until I offered half of the sandwich- I just can't say no to that cute face!

The carrots did their job and filled me up and the other half of the sandwich was great.





We are both settled down on the couch doing my homework (I swear I'll start after I finish this) and I just finished my snack. I had half of a sliced granny smith apple with 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt mixed with 1/2 cup nonfat cottage cheese and 1 Tbsp of my new syrup (only $.30 on clearance). I also had a camera-shy cookie.







Off to study and get ready for my day. Have a great evening!

Save the Date

Since I posted the silly picture of our Save the Date shoot, I thought I would share one of our wedding projects.

In an attempt to be crafty, one of our first projects for the wedding was our Save the Date cards. I looked at many options online and we (I) decided that this was a fun project to do myself. I knew we wanted to do a magnet because everybody needs a picture of us on their fridge!

We started with a photo shoot- and the photog was my mom. We live right next to a beautiful park with a huge rose garden and it was the perfect backdrop. Here are a few shots of the pictures that were just a little too lame and didn't make it:








Once we got the shot, I did a search and vistaprint.com had some great options for magnets. We uploaded the image and I added in the text and the magnets were at my door in a few days. Here is the final product:





It was quick and painless and the whole project came in at under $60 including the envelopes I ended up using. I highly recommend the print service if you are looking for something fairly low maintenance. We also chose to do this ourselves and save the engagement picture session for a later date. We were comfortable and this really represents how goofy we are together. The imperfections like the sunglasses on my head and ponytail holder didn't cross my mind at the time and I notice them now, but I am happy with the final product overall.

Valentine's Day and Other Nonsense

Valentine's Day Dinner


I hope you are having a great weekend and enjoying your V-day whether it's with your special one or friends and family. We all need a little love!

We went out to dinner at Paradise 33 last night. This was a new restaurant for us and a different experience. The menu is a mix of Asian cuisine including Vietnamese and Japanese entrees. We both enjoyed our meals and would go back again.

I ordered the Tuna salad with seared ahi tuna served over a bed of greens. I ordered dressing on the side but didn't use much of it since I was so into the wasabi. The tuna was perfectly done and tasted great.





My fiance, who wanted to be in the picture, ordered some kind of lemongrass prawn dish with rice and a side salad. He helped me with the food styling on this one (notice the elevated chopsticks):








Saturday Morning

This morning I went to the gym for some good ole cardio. I did a 5k on the treadmill followed by another 12 minutes on the elliptical to get my legs cooled down. I felt nice and sweaty. I came home and made an omelette with spinach and one egg and heated it in the microwave with some parmesan cheese and spicy mustard. I really enjoyed this breakfast and will definitely try it again.





Starbuck's Review

I tried the Vanilla Roobios Latte yesterday and I have to say- it was definitely a disappointment. After reading about it on Carrotsncake.com and Healthyandsane.com, I was hoping that it would be really good, but the taste was just too strange for me. The aftertaste was a bit too much- something. I guess it was just not my thing. Starbuck's never disappoints me, so this was just a fluke.





I have been snacking all day since breakfast and didn't really do lunch:

• sliced apple and celery with almond butter
• a cookie and some dark chocolate
• spicy almonds
• Cheerios and skim

We are kinda skipping dinner and heading to our friends' house to watch a movie about steroids (it's boy's choice tonight) and have some snacks. Have a great night!

I leave you with a picture of me and my valentine being goofy and posing for our Save the Date cards: