Let's Get it On- Come On!

Eats

Yesterday was not terribly exciting food-wise.  We went to Yogurtland for lunch/snack and got some yogurt.  They have special edition spoons and new cups, so of course I jumped up and down like a little kid when I saw them:

Mine was the one on the left with raspberries, lychee, honey nut cheerios over plain tart and pumpkin spice yogurt.

I also had this new (to me) bar on our walk home at about 10 last night when my stomach was eating itself from my 4:30 dinner.  It was really good and did not taste fake at all- good job Nature's Path!

A New Trend?

There have been lots of trends in the blogworld- oatmeal, pumpkin-everything, green monsters, chia seeds, raw diets, the yoga challenge, and many others that I am probably too far behind on to capture.  What I'm proposing may not catch on, but it's worth a try!

Last night we went to a bar to watch this event:

(Image courtesy of http://www.ufcupdates.com/)

I won't spoil the results for all you fans out there, but the main event was a good fight.  In case you are wondering, this is what some of the athletes look like before their faces get pounded in:

We are not much of a sports family, but I have been brainwashed to appreciate Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA over the last 4 years of our relationship.  It was a little hard to get used to at first, but my natural aggression came out and has made me a fan!

Do you watch any sports?  Have you learned to like any with your significant other over the years?

We are waiting for my parents to come over to have breakfast and so I can get hyped up on espresso for the day!  Hope you enjoy your Sunday!

It's Really Fall Out There!

Living in Northern California doesn't really lend itself to the changing of the seasons.  We basically have two seasons- Spring/Summer or Fall/Winter.  We are lucky to have mild weather all year long and the subtle changes are really fun- for a little while.

Today was definitely a Fall day!  I tried my first Apple Pie Lara Bar- I like Lara Bars when I eat them, but I am not huge on bars in general.  This cinnamon-spicy-goodness held me over through our errands.

When we got home, I worked on those dreadful thank you cards and worked on some meal prep.  I am going out of town starting Wednesday morning and I wanted to make enough healthy meals to last through the week.  If left to his own devices, hubby would do just fine, but I like to leave him prepared.  Here was the final result:

I came up with a couple of recipes tonight and I'll post them over the next couple of days- the suspense must be killing you, huh?  Throughout the afternoon, I also snacked on some home grown tomatoes- I guess the weather is still mild enough, huh?

I was able to enjoy the Fall today when I purchased this enormous squash at Trader Joe's for $.99.  Does anybody know what kid of a squash this is?  I think it's an acorn squash, but I forgot to look on the sticker.

 I decided to roast it with cumin, chili powder, and salt for 45 minutes at 400 degrees.  I hope it's good for lunch tomorrow!

  

I had big plans to go to the gym today, but I wasn't feeling it and I know better than to force myself to workout when I don't wanna.  It will happen when I'm in the mood- most likely tomorrow.

For now, I am planning on walking all the way to my kitchen to get this:

 

Isn't it cute?  I got this one for myself and a coffee one for the husband.  I think it's one cup of ice cream and a perfect amount to enjoy while watching Amazing Race!

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!

Breakfast Times Two

This morning I drove to the train and stopped to grab breakfast and lunch for the day. I picked up an Optimum Energy Bar in Blueberry from Nature's Path for my long, long ride to the magical place I call work. This bar had 200 cals, 5 grams of fiber, and about 5 grams of protein. All of the ingredients were recognizable, although the list is quite long. When you open the bar, you are greeted with icing- a welcome addition to any breakfast! The bar is chewy and not at all sticky. You can taste the grains and the blueberry chunks. I would definitely recommend it. There are 20 grams of sugar and 38 carbs, but it seems like everything comes from natural sources. This baby kept me full for about 2.5 hours.

Nature's Path Bar with Shape Magazine

And frosting

When hunger struck again, I had breakfast- Part 2. This time I had a nonfat plain yogurt with trailmix on top. After I finished this, I dug into the remainder of the trailmix single serve pack. I have no self control with trailmix- the only thing that stops me is the end of the pack. Now I'm full and happy and working away until I can take my break- I am predicting a nice walk in my near future.

A Very Orange Dinner and a Red Pear

My day today was filled with work and then a workout. I came fully equipped, meaning I had no water bottle, no iPod, and no lock for my stuff. I went and changed, and marched right over to the treadmill with my briefcase. It was classic. For my workout, I started out with an 11-minute run, which was interrupted and stopped when my fiance arrived. I proceeded to do another 25 minutes of run/walk when I feel like it intervals. It was nice and sweaty. After some stretching I joined the boy for some lifting- cables, skullcrushers, (OK- tell me if there is a cooler exercise name, I dare you!) and dips. The final exercise was some chest press thing that threatened to tear my arms off so I called it a night.

When I came back from the gym and set to work making myself an orange themed dinner. I don't usually eat conventional dinners and rarely plan them ahead of time, but my growling stomach came up with a plan- pumpkin oatmeal pancakes!

Now, I must warn you- I can't follow a recipe if my life depended on it. I am always compelled to give it a twist, add some of this, omit that. If you make this, feel free to mix things up.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup oats
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 eggwhite (but if you are me, then the whole egg actually falls in...oops!)
1/4 scoop vanilla whey protein powder

Frosting:
1/8 cup plain yogurt
1/8 cup pumpkin
sweetener of choice

I made these beauties by first omitting the cooking spray...when they started to sear I took them off, flipped them, and ended up cooking the rest of them in the microwave for a minute to make sure that I did not give myself salmonella poising. When they came out, I sprinkled them with cinnamon and frosted them. Yum! These pancakes are not at all sweet, and look like blobs, but they were good.


Los Pancakes:



El Frosting:




Dessert was the much-anticipated Pumpkin Pie Kashi Bar. The bloggers are not kidding when they say this thing is tiny. It was very good, almost too sweet, and that is a lot coming from me. I will use this as a dessert option. After I ate it, I was still hungry and had the red pear, ruining the theme for the night. It was not worthy of a picture.

NuGo Nutrition

Still on my quest to get in more protein for satiety and less fun foods for peace of mind, I decided to try a NuGo bar in chocolate flavor today. The bars can be purchased just about anywhere, but today I snagged one from my future MIL's pantry.

Here is the website for the bars:
http://www.nugonutrition.com/

The bars taste wholesome and don't have that fake processed flavor. Here is what their website says:

"All NuGo products offer sensational taste and flavor. Our unique bakery style process ensures a light, crispy and completely delicious texture and taste in every NuGo bar. We use only real milk chocolate coatings and nuGO Organic is lightly enrobed with smooth, anti-oxidant rich real dark chocolate. Be prepared for unsurpassed snacking satisfaction."

I really enjoyed this for a light breakfast, but it was not very filling. The chocolatey taste would make for a better snack than a meal. The stats are 180 cals, 11 grams of protein, and around 5 grams of fiber. I'm not a big meal replacement kind of gal, but I would try this again with coffee and a piece of fruit.