Oh, my. I forgot about you, Blog.

So I didn't really forget but rather haven't had the time to sit down and write... I have been taking pictures of yummy foods, but haven't sat down and put words to them!

First of all, let's check out my 3 goals of the month and how I'm doing.

1. Groceries: I have, so far, spent about $45, so I'm a little ahead... The good news is that non of my produce has gone bad for once!
2. Workouts: I succeeded in hitting 4 last week, and I'm already up to 2 this week. 2 more to go!
3. Recipes: I tried a random veggie fried rice "recipe" last night (once again, saw someone else's on another blog and tried my own), and tonight I'm making spinach enchiladas. Last week, I made 2 new recipes. Check!

Sounds like I am on track!

So I just got done with my second outdoor run of the year because it's simply beautiful outside. I did 3 miles yesterday and an impressive (for me anyways) 4.5 mile run to the nearest college campus and back today. I'm so excited that I ran over 4 miles when I haven't been working on endurance running at all this year yet, just intervals.

Let's check out some of the food I've made during the last several days (and we won't talk about how I went to my Mom's the other day, ate Steak and Shake, 6 sugar free fudge stripe cookies, 2 100 calorie packs...also cookies, and a Little Bucket Parfait from KFC. How does that happen!?)

After being inspired by all the crazy oatmeal recipes in all these blogs I read, I thought I'd try something that combined my favorites: Chocolate and peanut butter! In this delicious concoction is a tablespoon of natural peanut butter, a tablespoon of Smuckers Sugar Free chocolate syrup, and powdered sugar. Voila, I call it Reese Cup Oatmeal!



I added soy milk to this because I realized lately that I'm a little too tolerant of my lactose intolerance to be having so much dairy in my diet.... and for some reason, it doesn't seem to cook the oats the same way. They aren't done... or something. Anyone else experience this? For some reason, I like it better!

Another delicious and healthy recipe in my attempt to eat more vegetables (I hate vegetables!): a Spinach Omelet! Now this is how I can eat my greens and still think it tastes good...

In this, I used 3 egg whites and 2 yolks (sometimes I just do 1 yolk), a handful of fresh spinach leaves, and a mixture of feta and 2% Kraft shredded cheese (any kind... I think mine was the fiesta blend?). I dipped forkfuls of this in ketchup, because I have seen people do that... and it was actually good!

Now please tell me how all of you get those photogenic Homes -and-Gardens-looking pictures? My photos, even with my nice Canon, always end up looking like those faded pictures posted on the windows of cheap Chinese restaurants!

Let's see... my next creation was a veggie pizza. This was delicious!


This is recipe-worthy...

Portabella Red Pepper and Spinach Pizza

1 whole wheat tortilla
2 tablespoons pizza sauce (I used Kroger brand)
A handful of Kraft 2% Shredded Cheese (again, I used Fiesta Blend)
Sliced portabella mushrooms
Chopped red pepper
A handful of spinach

Cook at 350 for 10-15 minutes or when the tortilla looks crispy!

Another dinner I had this week: Parmesan-crusted Salmon with a spinach salad...



This is so simple. Dip a salmon fillet in milk, then dip the fillet in a mixture of bread crumbs and parmesan cheese (I just used Italian-style bread crumbs and Kraft parmesan from a can.) Cook at 350 for 12-15 minutes and you're good to go.

But this salad is so good. It's simply spinach leaves sprinkled with my new favorite trail mix (dried cranberries, golden raisins, pepitas, and almonds) and topped with a little bit of red wine vinaigrette. I despise salad but this one actually kills a craving for sweets. The only thing that might make it better is raspberry vinaigrette dressing, but I couldn't find it in my Kroger! At least not in the cheap section...

Finally, this was my dinner last night... it was not good, because I hate veggies. But I ate it. It's simply every veggie that was in my freezer plus the ones about to go bad, made into a fried brown rice dish. In it is peas, onions, carrots, red pepper, mushroom, green beans, broccoli, and a single egg. Some sesame oil, ginger, and soy sauce.... and topped with Frank's Red Hot sauce to make the veggies tolerable.



Reese lurking in the background... little does she know she's begging for vegetables.

And that's been my week so far! I'll be sure to take pictures about these veggie enchiladas... looking forward to them.

What has been your favorite recipe that you found in a blog?

Have you enjoyed the weather yet in your area?

Oscar Mayer convention... disgusting and delicious!

Well it's a good thing that my March goals have nothing at all to do with nutrition, because I got off to a terrible (but wonderfully delicious!) start yesterday! First off, I'll touch on my goal status:

• Groceries: So far, I have spent $28. On track!
• Workouts: I have had 2 of 4 this week. Should be easy to accomplish 2 more.
• Recipes: Tried 2 new ones this week (even though I made them both up): my portabella panini below, and my "sushi" wrap earlier this week. So I'm set until next week!
  

So I had to attend an Oscar Mayer event for work, and I assumed right away that I was not gong to want ANY of the food that would be provided. Bologna? Hot dogs? Nooo thank you. And after the videos we saw, I'm surprised anyone ate the mini-wiener samples at lunch, even if they were new "no-nitrates/nitrites added"!!!

It started with a healthy beginning of my own version of raspberry cheesecake oatmeal (inspired by Kristin's recipe at Iowa Girl Eats! And by "my own version", I mean by being lazy, skipping ingredients and making it in the microwave.... and using strawberry preserves instead!). I simply mixed fat free cream cheese and powdered sugar for the "icing". Yummy.

Then I had a peanut butter sandwich on my way to Cincinnati.... long drive to the airport! (Which is actually in Kentucky, for whatever reason.)





Annnd then when we got to the Marriott, I realized that the food looked fantastic. I didn't have my camera, but my breakfast looked basically like this:



Plus strawberries, if that makes it any better!

Lunch included lunch meat and Lunchables samplings, and then I was terrible and ate TWO CHEESECAKE SLICES! Ahhh!

So when I got home, it was back to being healthy. This was my new and VERY delicious invention: a Portabella Red Pepper Panini!

My camera died post-grilling, but this still looks pretty good, right? Here is the recipe:

2 slices whole wheat bread (or fancier bread, if you wish!)
1 portabella mushroom
Sliced red pepper
Avacado to spread on the bread
Feta cheese to taste!
Red Wine Vinegar dressing... if you please.

Slap it all together and grill it up! I used a George Foreman. I found that it was actually easier to grill the mushroom cap a little bit before putting the whole sandwich together, because the heat wasn't quite getting to it when it was assembled. I then dipped it in a new dressing I'm trying for salad, and it was quite good! I meant to add spinach to this also, so that might be what I try tonight with leftovers :)

Well it's off to work! Getting trained at a Wal-Mart today with our Market Trainer. I'd be dreading it if he wasn't such a super-nice person!

What is your guilty pleasure?

Day two... gotta pick my goals!

I will have more to post later, but I realized that even after that long-ish post last night, I didn't pinpoint my March goals! The ideas I listed in an earlier entry were just ideas... no way I could complete ALL of them in a month. That's a lot of self control!

Here are my goals for March:

• Spend under $100 for groceries (again!). Bonus points if it's under $90!
• Get to the gym 4 days a week. (My gym isn't exactly in a convenient location...)
  
• Try 2 new recipes a week, whether it be from a blog or a cookbook!

I should set up some sort of rewards system so that I can actually stick to these. Last month's reward (accidentally...I was gonna get it regardless!) was a gigantic bowl of cake batter and cookie dough ice cream from Cold Stone... in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone topped with graham crackers. Oh my God. Heaven. And probably 209285908 calories. Yumm.

What are your short-term goals?

Grocery store and some yummy eats!

Happy March! I finally made some photo-worthy health food after being inspired by other blogs I have been reading.
Here was my surprisingly delicious lunch....

I'm not one for measuring... but this was a combo of Yoplait Lowfat Vanilla yogurt, Libby
's pumpkin (in a can), sliced bananas and almonds, sprinkled with cinnamon. Wow!!! What a creation!

Of course, little Reese was standing by to help... (there goes the crazy font issue again!)


I went grocery shopping today to start off month 2 of $100 food budget madness. Here's what I got for $27:



And I made a FABULOUS discovery today. If you use Shortcuts.com (where you can link coupons to your loyalty card rather than clipping them out), apparently it doesn't "see" that you have printed coupons also. For this reason, I got a box of Fiber 1 90 Calorie Chocolate bars (they taste like Cocoa Crispies!) for 89 cents!! That's from having a 50 cent coupon that they doubled, plus having a Shortcuts coupon for 40 cents (those don't double). This makes me very happy!

(Notice the knockoff bottle of V8 lurking behind my oats... that will be a challenge...I hate my vegetables!)

Finally, I made a noteworthy dinner from leftovers! I call it a Sushi-rito, which is grammatically incorrect because it has no rice!



Mmm... It tasted better than the pictures look! Not sure how some of you get your pictures to get so fresh and cookbook-like.

The "recipe" for this yummy, healthy wrap:

1 whole wheat tortilla
2 tablespoons fat free cream cheese
2 tablespoons fresh avacado
Small strips of cucumber
Smoked salmon

Guilt-free! I also squeezed a little lemon juice in there and dipped it in a bit of soy sauce.

New month, new goal!

So today starts a new month, and I have no idea what my new goal will be for March! It might end up being a few weekly goals or maybe an entire month-long goal. Either way, I'm going to keep my $100 grocery budget on top of whatever it might be. I'll report back after work. Leave a comment for me if you have a good idea!