Fist Pumpin’ Like Champs

Ok, I CANNOT get that phrase from Jersey Shore out of my head….thanks to my husband, who insists upon repeating it 3 million times a day:)  Gotta love him:)  Anywhosey, it’s another snowy, slushy, RAINY(?) day in Milwaukee!  I actually heard thunder and saw lightening last night…..but it’s still snowing.  Temps are right around freezing and will drop as the day goes by, so tomorrow we will have an ice rink for roads and high temps of only 15 degrees….YUCK!  I plan to stay indoors, watch my DVR’ed Prep and Landing and relax:)  Sounds good to me!  Back to yesterday, though……lunch was typical…turkey wrap with Fage yogurt and pumpkin butter:I love this combo and can’t get enough of it:) And yes, I’m still using the Halloween fork:)  After running a couple errands, a snack was deemed necessary and based upon what I pulled together, I guess I was craving carbs!That would be TJ’s Kettle Corn (obsessed!), some whole wheat toast and some Kashi H2H Cereal…..YUM CARBS!  The husband once again made it home by 7:00 so we could eat dinner together!  Amazing!  KNowing this ahead of time, I picked up a Lemon Garlic Pork Tenderloin from the store and threw together a quick Green Giant Pasta/Broccoli/Carrot combo…….I am not the HUGEST fan of the ingredients (mostly because of the cheese sauce), but it works and was quick!  On a side note, I AM a huge fan of other frozen veggies (like plain corn) because several studies have shown frozen veggies to have more nutrients (as they’re frozen when at their freshest) than raw veggies….hmm.In addition to my hunk of pork and pasta/veggies (it’s a small plate so the pasta looks like a LOT!), I had a baked apple with brown sugar and cinnamon and some diced tomatoes with pepper and salt…..just for some more veggie goodness:)  Although technically, I guess the tomato is a fruit:)

Dinner held me over quite well, but I still wanted something salty…..enter protein pretzels and string cheese:As for dessert, I think after a pretty tiring work out yesterday, I needed something a little extra and you know dessert is where I like to indulge!  So, I had a small box of spritz cookies with sprinkles…I ate them all but they weren’t the BEST cookies I’ve had…they had a little lemon flavor to them and I was hoping they would be just plain!  Urgh…..

As for this morning, I slept in (rough life, I know) and did a quick elliptical work out….post-showering, I had some toast with blueberry spreadable fruit, but alas, I forgot to take a pic!  I am tired in the morning so it’s less likely I’ll remember to snap a pic early in the day:)  Now I have to find something for lunch….I’m envisioning leftover pork tenderloin on a sandwich….I’m getting better at this leftover meat thing!

Query of the Day: Are you a morning person or a night owl?  I used to be an ALL THE TIME owl back in my school days….I only got about 4 hours of sleep consistently……nowadays it’s SO HARD to wake up in the morning!!

Snow Day!

So we’re finally getting some snow up in this city!  It still doesn’t seem quite as bad as they were saying it would be, but I’ll bite my tongue!  My little weather man says it’s COLD outside:You can’t really tell in the picture, but his hat, mittens and scarf is on and the “Cold” marker is the last one “lit up.”  This little guy is so cute and sits on the outside of our patio door all year round so we know how to dress:)

Anywho, yesterday was a good one…the husband saw the Packers win on Monday Night Football, so there was peace in the household;)  I got in a good elliptical and ab workout too!  To fuel myself after breakfast yesterday, I had a turkey wrap (back to the wrap:) and some plain Chobani mixed with a new kind of Pumpkin Butter.  I picked up this pumpkin butter from Whole Foods and it was pricey, but really yummy!  
Whole Foods marks products as “buy local” products and this pumpkin butter was from Michigan (I guess that’s local?!)  It was delicious in my yogurt.Feeling snacky in the afternoon, I had some pop secret popcorn (even though it’s supposedly one of the worst foods to eat because the materials used in the lining has given people lung cancer) and 1/2 a Riviera pear….my last Riviera pear:(That didn’t QUITE cut it, so I snacked on a random bowl of Kashi Honey Sunshine:The husband actually made it home at a reasonable hour last night (guess he HAD to see the Packers) so I made wonton ravioli for both of us.  I have seen Nasoya wonton wrappers around blogworld and wanted to give it a try myself!  All I did was brush the outsides of each wonton wrapper with a little water, fill the wonton with filling and sealed them up into little purses….I wasn’t trying to make them all perfect or identical.  The husband’s was filled with ground Italian sausage and cheese and mine with canned pumpkin, cinnamon and vanilla.  Here’s how they look once folded up:I placed them on two cookie sheets lined with slippats (or you could grease a cookie sheet) and threw them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 13 minutes (until golden brown).  Here’s how mine looked out of the oven:The husband got marinara sauce on his and on mine I had some balsamic vinegar, cinnamon and a cooked, diced chicken sausage for some protein….this was AMAZING:I would HIGHLY recommend trying this for yourself!  I suppose you could also pan fry them in some olive oil or butter too:)  After dinner, I tried yet another NEW product…..Food Should Taste Good Jalapeno chips.These were GOOD….especially because they were just hot enough that I couldn’t eat much more than a serving at once….so I wasn’t tempted to eat the whole bag!  I still rank the Olive and Sweet Potato chips as number 1 and 2, but these were really good for a nice little spicy kick!Since I didn’t have too many chips, but still wanted something salty (not normal, I usually crave sweet!), I had a few protein pretzels with some string cheese (another thing I don’t normally eat that I’ve been really liking lately!)“Dessert” last night was a peanut butter chocolate vitatop that the lovely people at Vitalicious sent me:AND ANOTHER new find.  Whilst at Whole Foods yesterday, I found the limited edition Immaculate Baking Company gingerbread spice cookies.  As I’ve said, I usually like to make my own baked goods, but these pre-shaped cookie doughs are good for weeknights when you just wanted one or two cookies.  I baked up two of them for myself and they were yummy.  I love anything gingerbread or molasses-based!!  So Christmas-y:)My one gripe about these cookies is that they were crispier than I thought they’d be.  I wanted to bite down into a chewy cookie and instead it was crispy.  Other than that, delish!  I think I might try freezing the dough and cooking them straight out f the freezer next time…when I’ve done this in the past with my homemade chocolate chip cookie dough, the result is a crisp outside and a really soft inside!  YUM!  Of course, everyone’s ovens are different, so you never know exactly what you’ll get;)

As for this morning, I had some flax/Better n Peanut Butter Oats……gotta get some omega-3s in:)  I still really like Better n Peanut Butter for Oats because it melts more uniformly than regular PB:The rest of the day will be spent doing laundry (it never ends) and watching the snow fall outside:)  And can’t wait to see Prep N Landing tonight on ABC!  I’m such a child:)  Enjoy the rest of Tuesday, wherever you are:)

Query of the Day: What new products have you tried lately?  Have you tried anything you normally wouldn’t go for?

Sunday Funday

Per my plans, I used yesterday afternoon to get Christmas wrapping done:)  I watched Lifetime’s “12 Men of Christmas” while doing so…I know, cheeseball!  But sometimes I need a good cheesy movie in my life:)  For lunch yesterday, I had an egg white wrap.  In the flat out wrap was salsa, lettuce and egg whites with some salt and pepper:To go with the wrap, I added some protein and calcium in the form of pumpkin yogurt:)  Here we have some plain Oikos with pumpkin butter.  I actually bought ANOTHER jar of pumpkin butter at Whole Foods today since it doesn’t seem to last long in my presence!  Gotta stock up before the big snow storm we’re supposed to get tomorrow;)After wrapping and movie, I was surprisingly tired!  I think the early sunset really gets to me!  So I had some hot cocoa and Kashi H2H cereal for a snack….actually was I-chatting with my momsie whilst drinking the hot cocoa.  In the freshly made hot cocoa was the following:

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• a dash of salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar

Twas delish!  I warmed the milk on the stovetop and added it to the coca, salt and sugar in a mug…..then added the vanilla and stirred….SO much better than storebought packets of cocoa…and much better than using plain ole water!  The ony thing I’d do differently is use a smaller “dash” of salt!  I added it because I saw a recipe use it and it offsets the sweetness of the sugar and bitterness of the cocoa, but my dash was simply to big….I might not even add it next time!

I was still hungry after this, so I some turkey on a whole grain english muffin:Moving right along, the husband wanted ribs for dinner…we’re TRYING desperately to use things in our freezer!  I don’t like ribs.  So, I made him ribs and corn bread….I don’t know the recipe because I just kept adding things as I felt like it, including some chili powder and corn kernels:)  It turned out wonderfully….I had a small unpictured slice while he had his ribs, but here’s how it looked:For MY dinner, I made some mock “pigs n a blanket/”  I really wanted them but didn’t have crescent rolls, so I wrappred some Applegate Farms hot dogs in strips of Joseph’s lavash wrap and baked for about 10 minutes until heated through….these were definitely yummy but can’t replace the nostalgic taste of Pillsbury crescent rolls!  On the side, I had some corn (gotta get my veggies!) and the rest of the bag of Food Should Taste Good Sweet Potato chips….hence the millions of pieces!Dessert was the rest of the lavash wrap baked with cinnamon (which I thought to do thanks to Lisa) with some PB&Co. Bees Knees Peanut Butter…..along with half of a scrumptious Riviera Pear!The snack garbage disposal (aka my stomach)was still grumbly before bed, so I had a MojoAND a few almonds:

This morning the alarm woke me to head to a doctor’s appointment…..so I didn’t eat breakfast until I got back home……once again, a new staple of mine: oats with Newman’s Own Organics protein pretzels and TJ’s Crannberry Apple butter……hit the spot on this horridly cold Midwestern day!Hope you all are enjoying your Mondays (or trying to)!

Query of the Day: Are you a 3 square meal per day type person or do you graze?!  I am trying to find a happy medium:)

P.S.- check out Meg’s giveaway!!!! OR Lisa’s giveaway!

3 Day Recap

First of all, HAPPY ST. NICHOLAS DAY!  Does anyone else celebrate this?!  Well, I do….my mom always filled our shoes with great stuff when we were growing up and now I try to fill the husband’s shoes (even if I have to put them out for him myself!) Anywho, it seems I haven’t posted the rest of Thursday’s deets through today!  The reason being because Friday we unexpectedly went out with some friends to Hooters, yes THAT Hooters…..we spent hours there eating/drinking/chatting and didn’t leave until almost midnight (a long night for an OLD person like me:)  Before that on Friday, I grabbed lunch with a coworker, worked out and baked lots of zucchini bread so not only did I not get pics of Friday’s lunch and dinner, I was running out the door Friday evening, so I didn’t get a chance to post!  Anywhosey, let’s get to it, shall we?!  Thursday’s dinner was rather boring….egg white panini with cauliflower and Food Should Taste Good Potato Chive chips….again, not my favorite kind, but they’ll do:)  The husband likes these chips dipped in some sour cream like a potato pancake, but that’s a tad intense for me:)At some point on Thursday afternoon, I must have had this Oikos…..empty because I snapped the pic post-enjoying:)And for dessert Thursday, I tried the Nutridel pecan cookies that the company sent me to try.  These were not quite as good as the Oatmeal, in my opinion, but I liked them a lot nonetheless!  They were very sweet, but again, more like a granola bar, so it had a soft crunch to it:)I also tried the Newman’s Own Organics Caramel Cups, thanks to Melissa!  And no, I’m not an alcoholic- in fact, I despise whiskey, but when you live in a household with two attorneys, one who works an insane amount, you have to expect to see a little alochol don’t ya?;)  It’s where I keep my candy….near the whiskey;)Friday morning started with some delicious blueberry/protein pretzel oats……never disappoints!  Then I met my coworker at the Soup House (think Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi) for lunch.  But just as we got to the front of the line, they ran out of the soup we both wanted!  Rather than settle for something we didn’t want, we ran over to the Public Market because we still wanted soup!  It was FREEEEEZING outside!  I had a big bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup with a huge hunk of sourdough…again, unpictured because I didn’t want her thinking I was weird (since she doesn’t know about the blog!)

I jetted to the gym for a quick elliptical/weights session before leaving because a creepy man dressed in black street clothes wandered into the gym and looked like he was casing the place…….once home and showered, I snacked on a Z-bar:Then I commenced the baking…..zucchini bread…..I haven’t had this in FOREVER.  When I was younger, my good friend’s grandma made the BEST zucchini bread…..it’s the only way I ever ate zucchini when I was younger!  Well, my friend gave me the recipe this week and so I baked up 4 mini loaves!I tried a bite right out of the oven and it was DELICIOUS!  Sorry I can’t share the recipe, but I will say that the one thing I changed was to add some ground flax meal:)  Couldn’t even tell the difference!

After my quick sample, we were off to Hooters.  Now, I usually LOVE Hooters grilled cheese and fries, but wasn’t feeling it, so I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich.  The menu says that you can ask for it to be made “healthy” by asking for no butter on the bun……so I did that because I really don’t like chicken drenched in butter anyway!  When I got my sandwich, it was OILY….really OILY….the waitress said that they didn’t put butter on it, just put it on the grill…..um you don’t have to be a genius to know there’s OIL on the grill….whatever.  I was so hungry so I ate it and it was pretty good, but would have been better SANS OIL everywhere. I digress.  Once home, the husband insisted upon re-watching that Jersey Shore ridiculousness, so I had a slice of the fresh zucchini bread that I had taken out of the oven hours before……MELT in my mouth good!I digress.  Onto Saturday…..I MUST be getting old because we didn’t go to sleep Friday  night until almost 2am and I slept until almost 11am!  Once I woke up and got ready, it was almost 1…..so we jetted over to Panera before shopping for Christmas gifts for the husband’s side of the family (my side is already DONE!).  I had “you pick two” with Chicken Noodle Soup an the BBQ Chicken Chopped salad….SOOO good!After a major shopping fest (there were people EVERYWHERE, it made me batty!), we got home and I had some Cocoa Wheats and Kashi Cereal to snack on:While finally watching Transformers 2 on Demand, I quickly cooked up a Birds Eye “Meal for Two” that I had picked up in the event I didn’t want to put any effort into anything…..it worked out perfectly.  This was pasta, chicken, onions and peppers in a honey chipotle sauce….a tad spicy, but a really good portion for two people!Last night capped off with one of the best desserts I’ve had in awhile!  A small grocery store chain here (Sendik’s) has been advertising their new “Wicked Brownies.”  You know that caught my eye so I had to see what it was all about.  Upon first seeing them, I wasn’t too impressed….they came in 4 different types….the one I chose was a “Not a Nutter.”  So, it didn’t have nuts….just caramel and chocolate chips.  OMG…..on first bite, I was in love!  I don’t even want to KNOW how bad these are for you because they are SO good for my tastebuds! I slowly enjoyed this brownie and would definitely get it again!  Sadly, I think they replaced my cookie monsters (chocolate chips cookie sanwich with frosting in the middle) with these brownies in the bakery so I might not have a choice but to get this again!  Half way through, look at all the dense gooeyness!This brownie was dense, fudgy, moist, chewy and caramely all at once!  It doesn’t get much better than that!  HOLY YUM YUM YUM!  I’ll leave you with the thought of that brownie running through my head!  Today I have to get some Xmas wrapping done!  Only 19 more days to go!!!

Rushed

All day today I’ve felt like I’ve been in a rush….a rush to get ready this morning, a rush to get to work for a meeting, a rush to beat the snow on my way home (YES we have our first real snowfall of the season!)…..so I’m sure I’ll feel rushed thru this post so I can get things done around the hizhouse and make some dinner:)  Of course, at 9pm, all action must stop so we can (embarrassingly) watch that new Jersey Shore show on MTV……I wasn’t going to watch it, but my husband, who isn’t usually a fan of reality shows, WILL NOT stop repeating the line from the ridiculous commercial, “Fist pumpin’ like champs.”  Anyone else know the commercial I’m referring to?  Obnoxious I tell you!  Anyway, back to yesterday’s eats.  Since I am usually a snacker snacker snacker all the way, I have been trying to eat more bulky “meals” and less snacks……so far so good.  Lunch yesterday (the soup and sweet potato filled me up for a LONG time-probably all that fiber!) so I wasn’t hungry for a snack until late afternoon…..I had some plain Oikos with pumpkin butter mixed in……hardly turned it orange at all!  Topped with some cinnamon…For dinner, I made something I’ve had before but with a twist…in this mess is lettuce, corn, an Applegate Farms spinach feta chicken sausage, salsa, balsamic vinegar and the new addition (to add bulk)…..rotini pasta……YUM-O….because each bite was slightly different, it kept it from being boring….and with the slight spice from the salsa and kick of balsamic, it was perfect.  And YES, that’s my Bert from Sesame Street fork:To add some more bulk to dinner, I baked an apple (and not in the micro this time!)  I cored a honeycrisp apple (but not through the bottom of the apple)….in the cored out “hole” I put some brown sugar and cinnamon….baked at 375 for about 25 minutes and this puppy was ready!It was nice and soft on the outside and in, juicy and perfectly sweet from the brown sugar…..I’ll definitely be repeating this one!  After dinner, I was still a little hungry…weird…..but not ready for dessert, so I made a nice warm bowl of oats with some Better n Peanut Butter mixed in and some crushed Newman’s Own Organics protein pretzels…..I can’t tell you how good soft pretzels are in oatmeal!Because the husband got home so late last night, I stayed up far to late and thus had a late dessert.  When I was at the public market yesterday, I stopped by a bakery that I used to love but who has recently made the portions MUCH smaller and not reduced their prices……and their products don’t taste as fresh as they used to…….I hadn’t planned on getting anything but when I saw “Holiday Bar” I couldn’t resist.  Anything holiday themed and you’ve got me!  It’s like Christmas colored M&Ms taste better than the regular…but they’re the same….and need I remind you of my Holiday Capn’ Crunch debacle?!  Seriously, I’m a five year old.This bar was actually DELISH, but not AS good as I thought it would be by looking at it.  First, the lady at the bakery gave me the smallest piece and didn’t give me one with M&Ms in it!  RUDE.  I’ll survive.  I’m still not totally sure what was all in this bar….I tasted peanuts and chocolate and caramel and a shortbread like base…..not sure what else….hmmm.  Gotta keep that sweet tooth satisfied:)  I did manage to get in about 45 minutes on the elliptical yesterday, so this was completely justified:)

Since I was out the door early this morning, I took a pic of my lunch when I put it together last night….a peanut butter and pumpkin butter sandwich….not my usual wrap and totally called for!  I also knew I’d be rushing to a client today so I brought a mini box of cheerios and a Trader Joe’s Applesauce Crusher to eat on the go:)Also, I finally got some of my Christmas decorations up.  The MAJOR decorations are in our condo’s storage closet, which I can’t get to because the husband has been working so late:(  The storage containers with xmas awesomeness in them are on the bottom of a HUGE TOWER of stuff and by now, my accident prone self knows that it’s best to, as the hubby says, “Let a man do it.”  Here’s the few things that I have up so far that are semi-holidayish:

The Countdown to Christmas Santa is mine; the Homer nutcracker is the man’s.I love this wreath….my mom gave it to me:)A poinsettia courtesy of the husband’s grandma:A mini Xmas tree from trader Joe’s with little red lights shaped like stars….my mini ornaments are still in storage:(  Every year I say I’m going to get a HUGE tree but we just don’t have the room for one yet and we are never home for the days surrounding Christmas so I chose a mini tree once again.Holly and Bells on our front door:AND our Santa card holder:In keeping with the Christmas spirit, I have resorted to answering my cell phone with the follow, “Hi, Candy Cane Lane!”  I may like Christmas a LITTLE TOO MUCH!  That’s all for now:)  Toodles!

P.S. Check out this sweet giveaway! OR this one!

Lunch Date

Today I had a lunch date with the husband at Milwaukee’s Public Market…it was quick, but nice, since we don’t see much of each other before it’s time to go to sleep or I’m already asleep!  But rewind back to yesterday afternoon…….between lunch and dinner, I snacked on a fabulous honeycrisp apple with cinnamon and a whole grain waffle with dark chocolate dreams peanut butter:I hadn’t had a waffle in quite some time, so it was extra good!

For dinner, I was on my own, and since the husband doesn’t much like sweet potatoes and I LOVE them, I took advantage and made some NuOvo Sweet Potato Gnocchi…..the package looks like this and I’ve only seen it in a small grocer near my parents’ in Chicago:After a quick bath in boiling water, I topped the gnocchi with cinnamon and a hot, diced riveria pear……LOVE this combination!I was especially snackalicious last night (probably because I skipped breakfast), so I also made some toast with buttah on one side and regular ole PB on the other, with some string cheese for good measure:) Sorry for the blurrrrI also cracked open a new bag of Food Should Taste Good chips…..Potato Chive this time…I just had a handful and they were OK.  I like the Olive and Sweet Potato much better.  In the Potato Chive flavor, the taste of the corn almost fights the taste of the potato so my mouth was confused!  Am I eating a corn chip or a potato chip?!  Oh wait, BOTH!  Haha…..It tasted like a potato pancake in chip form:)

While watching the VS fashion show, I also got crafty and made up some ornaments from a kit my mom got me:Dessert last might was a Take 5 candy bar…LOVE the saltiness of the pretzels in these with the sweet chocolate……my sweet tooth thanked me:)  I also had another Nutridel oatmeal cookie that Nutridel kindle sent me to sample!  I really like these, not because they cure a cookie craving, but because they taste like a sweet nutty granola bar, but aren’t as heavy!

This morning I had some blueberry and flax oats while doing some laundry:Then I met up with the husband for that lunch date at the Public Market.  I love the Public Market, but the number of options is often overwhelming for me!  I ended up having a cup of chicken noodle soup and a HUMONGOUS baked sweet potato.The sweet tater came with 2 free toppings, but they were out of brown sugar and marshmallows….figures…so I had it plain, which is A-OK by me!  I love sweet taters in just about ANY form and I scraped the skins of this one clean!  It must have weighed 5 lbs…..kidding, but it was huge….i’m talking 9 inches long….it didn’t mess around!

My tummy is now content so I’m off to finish my house “chores” for the day and catch up on some DVRed shows:)  Only 23 days till Christmas!!! But who’s counting?;)

A Potato the Size of My Head

Hey everyone!  I can’t believe it’s December 1st already!  And NO SNOW in MILWAUKEE!!!  The last few years, there have been HORRENDOUS snowstorms on December 1st, so the high of 50 degrees and sunshine today is well earned I think:)  As for yesterday, I was so tired after cleaning and working out, that I spent most of the night on the couch:)  The highlight of the night was making one of my “famous” twice baked potatoes for the husband when he got home late from work.  My twice baked potatoes are about the size of my head and probably weigh about that much….definitely not a health food by any means….but they taste OH SO GOOD.  Twice baked potato including the man’s thumb:)I wish I could post a recipe, but I don’t measure a thing when I make these…it suffices to say there was some italian seasoning, pepper, worscheshire sauce, salt, butter, sour cream and lots of cheese (a mixture of several kinds) in the mix:)  Like I said, not a health food:)

My dinner was on the lighter side…..an eggwhite panini, cauliflower and some sweet potato chips…..I hadn’t had this combo in over a week and I really wanted it:)Pre-dinner, I had a snack attack, so I had a Mojo and some Whole Foods orange ginger almonds….Mojos and almonds are “staples” in my diet:)

I also realized that I hadn’t had any fruit so I had a Harry and David Riviera Pear, which was spectacular per usual:And some oats with my new favorite combo of TJ’s cran apple butter and Newman’s Own Organics Protein Pretzels…what is it about these pretzels that make them so darned good?!

“Dessert” last night was a Blue Bran Vitatop…..this just reaffirmed my love for the bran vitas:)This morning I totally forgot to eat breakfast, as I woke up late and had to make my way to the DMV to renew my driver’s license….SUCH A PAIN.  Once I got home, I was about ready to eat my arm off, so I threw together a flatout wrap with eggwhites (cooked with some italian seasoning), salsa and lettuce.  I usually like eggs better for dinner for some reason, but they were delicious wrap-style today:)  I also added a dollop of Better ‘N Peanut Butter to some plain Fage yogurt to get some calcium and extra protein:)On the Christmas list today is to make cards online and order them so I can get them out some time before this Christmas:)  and I’ll probably cry because the ABC special Prep and Landing has been moved to next Tuesday instead of tonight:(  Stinkin’ presidential addresses….who does he think he is, the president?!;) I do plan to watch the Victoria’s Secret fashion show tonight as well…..I love watching the show, perhaps because in law school it gave me an excuse to stop studying for finals for awhile….whatever the reason, I’m watching.  However, it ticks me off a TAD that the VS models have gotten SUPER SKINNY lately….has anyone else noticed them shrinking in recent years?!  Ciao:)

HFCS, Trans Fat and Sugar (Oh My!)

In honor of Melissa’s new outlook on life/food/etc., I share with you some of last night’s eats.  I did not photograph everything (such as the frosting off two cupcakes and Cape Cod potato chips), but let’s just say it was a day full of High Fructose Corn Syrup, Trans Fat and LOTS OF SUGAR.  I post this just to support the idea that healthy living food bloggers don’t have to eat “healthy” all the time.  I firmly believe that part of a healthy, balanced life is eating both what you crave and what your body needs for fuel…..most days I eat my fruits, sweet taters, yogurt and egg whites (not as many veggies as I’d like due to stomach problems)….but on other days, I JUST NEED ME SOME GREASE OR SUGAR!  Plain and simple…..but because I exercise, take my multivitamin and choose “healthy” foods about 80% of the time, I realize that my body also needs some sweets and pizza to keep me happy……it all balances out in the end.  If I gain weight because of this mentality, I know it won’t be an unhealthy amount and trust that my body will fall where it needs to be….and sometimes that may be a little heavier than others.  I’ll get off my soap box now and get on with it……we went out for pizza at Balistreri’s in Milwaukee last night for dinner….and when I eat pizza, I EAT PIZZA.  The hubby and I split a medium cheese and sausage pizza (NONE of that “light on the cheese”, “no butter on the crust” crap)….I ate my half plus one piece of the hubby’s half, to which he replied, “That’s my girl.”  Haha.  But before that, we started with an antipasto salad with lettuce, olives, peppers, tomatoes, feta cheese, pepperoni, salami and sliced cheese……I guess I got my veggies in here:And the pizza (minus a slice or two)…YUM, this is some of my favorite pizza places in Milwaukee…maybe because it’s so darned good and maybe because we went there for one of our first dates back in college:)Once we got home, I settled in to watch some Desperate Housewives and I consumed this chocolate chip cookie (that I baked) TIMES 5:That’s right, I said TIMES 5….so what:)

I was also craving something other than water, so instead of soda, I chose some pineapple juice….hit.the.spot!This morning I was back on track with a “healthier” choice, Harry and David pumpkin butter (yes it has HFCS in it) on toast:

While I don’t like this pumpkin butter as much as my dearly departed Williams Sonoma Pecan Pumpkin Butter, it is definitely reallly good.  It hsa more of a pumpkin pie taste to it than the WS butter…..I could see it being a bit much if I eat too much of it…but I’m sure I’ll tear through this jar too:) Post-toast, I started madly cleaning our condo for 4.5 hours and stopped in the middle to have some Fage yogurt with pumpkin butter and a side of Kashi H2H Cereal:Lunch went unpictured as I shoved a turkey wrap down my throat immediately after I finished cleaning….cleaning is so exhausting, no?  Post-wrap, I hit the gym for some ellitpicalizing/walking and weights.  I lifted with my legs for the first time in weeks….after reading Melissa’s post today, I realized I had been neglecting my leg muscles….and only I can change that, so I lifted for 30 minutes….I know I’ll be SORE tomorrow!  The couch is calling my name as I type this…..off to make dinner and relax:)

Query of the Day:  Do you ever neglect strength training in favor of cardio or vice versa?  How do you motivate yourself to stay on track?

Rewind

So I figure it would be impossible to recap the last 9 days (or at least FAR too long of a post)!  Instead, I’ll share some of my favorites over the last few days that are semi-exciting:)  I’ll get back to normal everyday eating posts tomorrow.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!  After spending 3 days in Chicago for my grandma’s wake/funeral, the husband and I (feeling oh so exhausted) drove up north to spend the day at his Aunt’s home.  Because they eat “dinner” in the early afternoon, we had a SECOND meal at 6……I actually ate more at the second meal than the first….it was all DELISH!  We even had pizza later in the evening….I was quite full:)  Anywho, before Turkey Day, I tried a new vitatop, chocolate peanut butter……I really liked this one, better than the other chocolate vitatops….I think the peanut butter complemented the chocolate perfectly….yum-O!

My newest creation may not be new to some of you bloggies, but it’s new to me and already one of my favorites!!  I added some crushed Newman’s Own Organics Protein Pretzels and Blueberry Spreadable Fruit to plain oats….I stirred the pretzels and fruit into the oats and then microwaved it all for 40 seconds more to soften the pretzels….I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this at first, but the salty sweet combo is so good, I have had it about 3 or 4 times in the last week alone!

Yet another combo that I tried with oats was fruit loops!  Now, I don’t eat fruit loops much but my mom had a small individual serving box in the cabinet that was sent as a promotion(since Fruit Loops now have added fiber) do I gave it a try.  About half the box crushed into plain oats was glorious, but not AS glorious as the pretzel/fruit combo:)  Another newbie in my food rotation is Joseph’s Lavash Wraps….I have seen these all over the blog world, so when I saw them at Walmart, of all places, I picked some up.  The town where my husband is from is so small that the closest exciting thing is a 20 minute drive to Walmart…be jealous:)  I used the Lavash to make a pizza (although a tad torched on the side!)……I ran out of shredded cheese, so I used salsa, string cheese, and spinach/feta Colemann’s Natural chicken sausage….I actually loved this more than the usual flatout pizzas that I was obsessed with for a period…..try these if they are sold near you!

I have been having ODD cravings lately too……like jalapeno cheese and peanut butter with crackers…..and NO I’m not pregnant…..very strange:

One of the BEST returns is COCOA WHEATS!!!  Who grew up eating these?!  I always ate them as a kid in “layers.”  That is, I poured a TON of sugar on top, ate one layer with the sugar then added MORE sugar, ate another layer and continued until it was gone……HOLY DIABETES!  Not I Just eat them with a teaspoon of sugar mixed in and a pinch of salt and they are phenomenal…..I haven’t had these since law school, when I used to eat them CONSTANTLY as a quick late night dinner when I’d get home from class around 10pm.

I hated them SO MUCH that I forgot to take a pic until they were gone…….haha

Finally, before Turkey Day, I finally tried Five Guys…..they have about 4 or 5 in the MIlwaukee area now and although I have tried their fries before, I had never had a full meal there…….they pride themselves on using no trans fat and telling you exactly where your potatoes are coming from every day.  The hubby loves their burgers (for a fast food type joint) so I gave in……I don’t eat hamburgers, though, so I tried the grilled cheese:

What you see is cheese in between an inverted hamburger bun…….it was good, but not GREAT…..it tasted like maybe they used artificial butter…and while I’m sure they didn’t, something was just a tad off…but I’d order it again if I went back.  I also tried the fries which everyone raves about……no trans fat, but still greasy as all heck……

The hubby and I split a large order……and warning: don’t look at the nutrition information on the website before going if you want to enjoy yourself:)  I don’t think the fries were so good to warrant the nutritional value…..I would rather eat waffle fries or crinkle fries for the same or lesser damage!  Overall, it was good, but not a favorite of mine….especially since we have SO MANY good burger/fry places in the Milwaukee area.  Another place we visited which we hadn’t been to in awhile was this morning for brunch.  We hit up the Wicked Hop in Milwaukee’s Third Ward neighborhood….I got a yogurt/granola/fruit/honey bowl and “sunday spuds” on the side:

The granola was hiding under the yogurt…..I almost got huffy with the waitress for forgetting it:)  This was all really yummy and filled me up nicely for a Sunday afternoon.  I HEART brunch and don’t get it enough!!  That’s about all for now…..I have actually FINISHED all my Christmas shopping and now have to go light up a mini xmas tree I found at Trader Joe’s this morning:)  YAY for Christmas season!!!

Back to business…

Hi Everyone!  I hope everyone’s Thanksgivings were fabulous!  Mine was bittersweet, but I thank everyone for their thoughts and kind comments!!  I am back in action now, but since I was out of town for the last week, I have a lot of stuff around the house to catch up on….I will be back tomorrow with a “real” post:)  Enjoy your Saturday nights!:)