Do Not Do This At Home

Remember those stupid commercial taglines? Maybe it's an early 90s thing, but I remember hearing that on TV all the time!

Today was a better day at work. I decided to even (gasp!) leave the office. I took a walk and somehow ended up in a frozen yogurt shop. I was a little heavy-handed with the carob chip crank and thus lunch was made:

Tart original yogurt, blueberry tart, a little chocolate, blackberries, mangoes, lychee, a tbsp of granola and probably 2-3 tbsp of carob chips. Am I guilty, a little...but it was sooo good!



Bakery on Main

I got to try two products from Bakery on Main today!

The products offer a lot of options for people with any food allergies and special dietary needs:
"At Bakery on Main, our dedicated artisan bakers take the highest quality natural ingredients and craft them into unique and healthy culinary marvels. We use no artificial colors, GMOs, artificial flavors, trans-fats or refined sugars. Whether you follow a gluten free diet or a heart healthy high fiber diet, we offer you great tasting products."

I tried the Cranberry Maple Almond Granola (picture from website):



And here is my serving of it:

Now you know my dirty secret- I eat out of the container...but only because I'm the only one who eats it and there was almost nothing left!



The granola was perfectly crunchy, a little chewy, and not too sweet. The calorie content was 240 cals and worked great as a topping over yogurt. I would definitely buy this product again, but I would rather find it in a retail location near me instead of ordering it online. Thanks again for letting me sample this product. Look for my next product sample soon!

So remember that yogurt lunch? Well, it did nothing to keep me full. I had a mini apple and a cucumber later and by 7:00 my stomach was screaming for dinner. To make matters worse, some lady had a bag full of takeout food on the train, right next to me. I wanted to steal her food, but refrained. When I got home, I plowed through the kitchen, washed my hands and made this:


This is about 2 oz of baked salmon with 2 tbsp cottage cheese and salsa, all nuked together. I also had grilled brussel sprouts and a single asparagus:




Workout:

My knees were screaming again today, so I didn't push it. I did 15 minutes on the evil stairclimber and 20 minutes of hill intervals on the treadmill, mostly walking after the jogging did not feel well. I burned about 200 cals.

I'm off to take a shower and get to bed. The heat has been making me an insomniac. Peace out ladies!

Dare You to Try This...

Thanks for all the comments I have been getting! I'm a novice blogger, so it's awesome to see that I'm getting hits...each one of them puts sunshine in my day. Anyways- back to food!

For my morning snack I ate this beautiful pear chopped up in a million pieces:

Lunch consisted of something I put together last night in my cooking frenzy. This is a Trader Joe's whole wheat pits filled with approximately 2 oz of TJ's fat free cheese, some baked tofu, and 1 Tbsp of TJ's Eggplant Garlic spread. It's safe to say that I went shopping at Trader Joe's last night. This lunch was flavorful and filling, but I will have to remember how salty this is next time. It's hard to see, but here it is. I microwaved this for 1.5 minutes and the cheese got all melty.

Pita with some tofu peeking out:

Next, I moved on to lunch dessert. I decided to have a plain yogurt, but I was craving chocolate. I mixed in some cocoa powder and stevia and made chocolate yogurt. I had this with pretzels...and yes, I did dip them. It was kind of like a chocolate covered pretzel gone wrong, but in a good way. I don't really recommend this, but give it a try if you dare. I bet this would work better with vanilla- I know everyone is excited at this snack.

I'm having a marathon day today- out of the house from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. since today is a school night. I'll be back with some snacks to fuel me through class!

Ciao!

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.

Technical Difficulties

I think technical difficulties will be the theme of my day.
I got in my car this morning and realized that I needed to get gas and some tickets for my train at the grocery store- no problem as it was only 6:30 and I was running early. I stopped in to get some things for my two long days with work and school and promptly figured out that I had left my camera at home.

Here is what I picked up at the store to keep myself fueled:

• Turkey slices
• Mushrooms (random, but only $1 for the package)
• Vanilla Chai tea
• Chocolate Southbeach Diet bars (not my thing, but they had 10 grams of protein for only 140 cals so thought they were a good back-up)
• A box of beautiful strawberries on sale

I also got a grande nonfat latte for my ride on the train, but of course no picture!

At about 11:00, the lights in our office began to flicker and we lost all power yet again! How frustrating! I worked off my laptop battery for an hour and then had to walk to catch my train home to get internet access. It's crazy how dependent we have become on the Internet- but I seriously could not do a single thing without access!

New Dishes

My brother's friend was kind enough to give me some new dishes. He's one of those random guys who knows a lot of people and gave me some dishes from a sushi restaurant that was closing! I couldn't resist and had to share:

Aren't they cute? I decided that I would use one of the bowls I got for my afternoon snack- Chocolate Cranberry Citrus Yogurt!















This yogurt is nothing special, but tasted really good. Here is how I made my snack:

• 6 oz fat free vanilla yogurt
• 1 tbsp Nestle hot chocolate mix (the chocolate component)
• 1 tbsp dried Orange Cranberries
• ~1/4 cup TJ's high fiber cereal

Here is is pre-mixing:

And a lot less pretty afterwards!

I have my very first class of the quarter tonight from 7-10. I am going to see how long these technical difficulties last as it is very hard to do anything without proper access to our server- an impromptu workout may be in store with my newly acquired free time!

Though it is sunny now, I am off to make some tea or hot chocolate.

Have a great afternoon!