A Ravaging Tuesday

I woke up this morning to find myself feeling a little strange... Do you ever feel very full but hungry at the same time? I can't explain it! It makes me confused about what to eat for the day.

The 2 little wheat and sugar-free-syrup pancakes that were my breakfast choice didn't hold me over very long this morning... so I picked up a Larabar on sale at Kroger's during one of my stops today. I usually opt for the chocolate or peanut butter flavors of these sorts of things, but today I swapped that out with a lemon bar... AMAZING.




I love the short ingredient list! Somehow there were 22 grams of sugar packed into this baby, but I'm sure it's all natural. We'll let that slide.

Speaking of ingredient lists... Have you ever looked at some of the ingredient labels on products you thought were harmless in your cabinet?

For example, the syrup I ate for breakfast today:

So...water is just about the only natural thing in this crap. Sodium hexametaphosphate? Hmmm... Maybe eating regular syrup or just honey might be better. But it's sooo yummy.

Check out this label... this one is surprising. Bread crumbs?!


Yikes. Lengthy. And why must there be high fructose corn syrup in such things? Might as well just make my own bread crumbs!

I've very excited about my plans to make this tomorrow, thanks to Evan at Food Makes Fun Fuel! DESSERT HUMMUS! It's like a dream come true...

Here's a picture from his blog, and hoping mine is just as beautiful and cookie-dough-looking...

Question of the Day: Do you think it's better to go for sugar-free options (ones that don't have more fat, anyway) or do Splenda/other artificial sweeteners, or just go with a little bit of sugar and avoid all the fake stuff?

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?