PapayaFish

We’ve got way too much avocado in this house.  I used it in both of my post-noon meals today, but I barely made a dent!

Lunch was taken to go, as I had a 1pm appointment.  I made this bad boy and then wrapped it up to eat in transit:

He was a Tbsp hummus with some cado & tomato slices on an Arnold’s whole wheat sandwich thin.

And he hung out with an almost too ripe naner.

On the way homeee from my appointment  I made an unscheduled stop at Best Buy to pick out my birthday preseeennttt   And then another unscheduled trip at COSTCO!  Lovelovelove.  I got a lot of delicious eats I’ve been wanting to try - including Dr. Praegers california veggie burgers & those whole wheat Roll-Ups Cait is always eatin.  Mmmm. 

I came home starving and saw that there was some way-old whole wheat noodles in the fridge, so I heated them up with a little satay peanut sauce (the best.).

Snack number one was incredibly un-filling, so I followed that up a little while later with an apple.  Then I was fine, but my sister placed this bowl in front of me:

And I might have had a handful or two.  This stuff came from Costco, too, but I’m not too crazy about it.  It’s a bunch of crunchy rice snack things with nuts and wasabi peas, but overall it was kindof boring.  And for 160 calories in a 1/4 cup, boring just won’t do.  Ohh well.

Dinner was my first Dr. Praegers burgerever, and it was pretty darn good.  Way better than Morningstar Farms regular veggie burgers.  Good thing, cause that costco box is way big.

I put it on another whole wheat thin with a portabello mushroom cap, some sliced cado & some TJ’s organic ketchup.

The shroom stems hung out on the side.  I ended up not loving the mushroom on the burger, and just took it off and ate it on the side.  I did find that the burger sort of fell apart when I ate it, so I may have to get creative with it’s consumption.  I’ll certainly be eating them, though.

No dessert tonight as I am fill to the brim from all my snackyfaceing today.  Guess that’s OK, since I had dessert for breakfast

Good night world!

Happy Hump Day!

It’s the middle of my last week before I go back to work.  As much as I’ll miss sleeping in everyday, I sure am not going to miss sitting on this couch!  To celebrate this morning I had dessert for breakfast

Mom’s homemade rice pudding!

I had a half serving with strawberries (from the garden), bluberries & raspberries.

Gooey goodness!  Can you see the raisins in the puddin?? It was to die for.

I ate it verrrry slow, and enjoyed every single spoonfull.  Heavenly.

Lunch today was so simple & delicious.  I was feeling lazy, so I grabbed the last Morningstar Farms spicy blackbean burger from the freezer, nuked it, and layed it atop a bed of salad.

Doesn’t that dressing look too good to eat??  And it’s SO EASY.  It’s just a quarter cup plain lowfat yogurt, a tsp tomato paste, and a tablespoon canned green chillis all mixed up.  It was incredible – very creamy-salsa-ish.  There was a little too much on the salad, but I didn’t want to let any of that deliciousness go to waste!

Then in the afternoon before PT I crunched into a gala:

Along with a few sugar snap peas right outta the bag.

Physical Therapy went really well today.  He really pushed me further and my whole body literally felt like jelly when I left.  In a good way!  It almost felt like I was leaving the gym after a really great workout.  Almost

Dinner tonight was yuuummy!  I have a love affair with salmon.  LOVE.

YUM!  It’s broiled with just a tiny bit of EVOO, salt, pepper, a little paprika and LOTS of fresh lemon juice.  That came with a side of grilled zucchini:

And a sweet potato!

Dessert was as per usual, some TJ’s 72% dark.  The size of my palm.  Love my dessert!

Mmmm mmm mm. 

I am now sooo sleepy, so off to bed I go!  Goodnight world!

I just signed on this morning and it appears I did not post my dinner post last night?  I could have sworn I did.  Ooops!  Here’s a quick recap of post-lunch yesterday.

I “worked” under the umbrella in the backyard until about 5, and then had a yummy snack of 2% cottage cheese, a sliced banana & 5 grapes.  It was good and looked like this:

Twas good.

Dinner was outside on the deck under the umbrella again, and it involved this huge plate of meat:

DELICIOUS juicy grilled pork chops!  Mmmmmmm

Here was my plate:

With some brussels & carrots.  I would be proud to say I finished that chop, but I didn’t.  I left about a third of it behind…

With a side sally:

Anddd these beauts came to visit in the canal!

Dessert was .8 ounces TJ’s 72% dark..and then dessert #2 was 2 Flying Dog Road Dog porters   Both were equally delicious!

Anddd on to this morning.  A DELICIOUS new breakfast!!

I found these Ancient Harvest Quinoa Flakes in my kitchen (thanks Mom!), and decided to make a pancake a la Cait & Kelly’s pancakes this week that looked delish.

The mix for one big pancake included:

Dry:
1/4 c. Quinoa Flakes
1/8 c. Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Tbsp Ground Flax
1/3 Tsp baking powder
dash salt
Tsp cinnamon
2 Tsp brown sugar

Wet:
1/4 c. Almond Breeze
2 Tbsp egg whites
Tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 c. water

I mixed together all the dry ingredients in a bowl:

And then slowly added the wet ingredients one at a time.  I hadn’t planned on the water, but the batter was a little sticky, so I added it.  Into a pam-ed nonstick skillet it went:

And came out golden and fluffy!

Perfection topped with a sliced banana and 2 tsp pure maple syrup:

Overall I think the quinoa flakes were a very interesting addition to the pancake.  You could definitely taste the quinoa flavor, but it was good!  And quite a fantastic way to pack in some early morning protein if you ask me!

Anddd now I have tons of work to catch up on after this marathon post.  Have a good day!

Ahhh lunch today was hot hot hot.  It wasn’t on purpose, but it sure was tasty!

I decided to make a simple chick-pea salad with 1/2 a cup of garbanzo beans ( i LOVE that word), a 1/4 c. lowfast plain yogurt, tbsp tribe hummus, and some canned chopped green chilies

I mixed it all together and it was certainly missing something, so after I plopped it ontop of a bed of salad, I sprinkled on  doused it in hot sauce!

Beauutifulll and spicy!

I also enjoyed a nice crunchy apple with my soapnet

So then I was allured by the sun shining through my windows, so I came outside. 

The internet works back here!!  Why haven’t I been doing this everyday I’ve been working from home??? You know I will be from now on!

The computer screen is not entirely easy to see out here in the sunshine, but I’m doing the best I can.  It’s so worth straining my eyes.

Enjoy your afternoon’s everyone!

Goooooood morning!

I woke up this morning feeling like I needed a serious break from oatmeal.  I thought about eggs…but then I wanted something sweet.  Thought about a yogurt/fruit/granola parfait a la GraduateMeghann.  But then I found that I still had a serving of oatmeal left in the fridge, and figured I may as well use that up. 

I’m vowing now to try to not have oatmeal at all for the rest of the week!  Or at least until until Friday.  OK, no oatmeal on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.  Why?  I don’t know, I’m just bored.

Plus, as I was throwing together my very simple bowl of oats, I found a box of QUINOA FLAKESin my kitchen.  I didn’t even know these existed!! I am SO excited to try these one day this week, too.  I’m thinking tomorrow might be a quinoa pancake kindof day!

But alas, here is my lovely deliciously simple Monday morning breakfast:

1/2 cup (dry) precooked (by mom) Irish oats
Tbsp Flax
1/2 Tbsp honey
Cup blubes

Today is a gorgey day out there, thinking of maybe trying to take the laptop outside and enjoy it.  Wish me luck on the wireless connection working out there!  Somthing tells me it’s not going to…guess we’ll see!

For dinner I was looking for something easy and no-cooking-required, so I thought about making another sandwich out of the TJ’s rosemary chicken.  Butttt I’ve been eating a lot of sammys lately, so I decided to have it “deconstructed.”

Rosemary chicken with a scoop of hummus, some very soupy yogurt, 1/4 of an avocado with a chopped tomato, and an end-piece of whole wheat.  It was good getting a tiny bit of everything in each bite!

Of course mopping up all the yogurt/hummus with the bread was great too!

Dessert was .8 oz TJ’s dark chocolate.  I think 95% of the food I put in my mouth today came from Trader Joe’s.  Gosh I love that store!

Boo for it being Monday tomorrow!  Where do the weekend’s go??

But hey – things to look forward to:

Next weekend – the big 2-4 birthday!
Two weeks – BLOG SUMMIT!!!!!!

Things are lookin up

Ohhh goodness, I have not felt so great today!  Yesterday was a LOT of fun, but I did have a few too many of these, thank you very much.  I never said I was classy!

I woke up early yesterday to eat some typical breakfast that looked like this..

…thrown on my bikini, and make some lunch before “running” out the door to the beach.  Unforunately, I temporarily forgot how long it takes me to do ANYTHING these days, so it took much longer to get out the front door than I had planned.  By the time we got down to my favorite beach the parking lot was full, and the very professional man blocking the entrance couldn’t have cared less that that was the only beach with easy handicap access to the beach. He said we had to wait for FIFTY cars to leave before he could let anyone in.  We could SEE parking spots, but he absolutely could not make an exception.  Thank you, Town of Hempstead Dept of Parks & Recreation.

Soo we drove farther down the island to Long Beach and my sister dropped me off with all the stuff while she drove around for half an hour trying to find a parking spot so that we could pay $10 per personto get onto the beach.  You may be catching on about now why I needed a few cold brewskies in the afternoon

I completely forgot to take a picture of my delicious lunch sammy I made to eat at the beach! It was TraderJoes Balsamic Vinegar & Rosemary chicken breast, tomato & plain yogurt with garlic powder mixed in on an Arnold’s sandwich thin.  YUM!  I also brought a bag of blueberries that were a perfect summer snack.

But I did take a picture of this hilarious advertisement for the new G.I. Joe movie:

That’s a real guy hanging off the helicopter!! Loved it.

Dinner was some simple sauteed chicken, in Soyaki sauce & siratchi, with a little bit of homemade mac & cheese ( ) and some brussel sprouts

And of course a side sally:

After dinner I went out and enjoyed a few more drinks!  I desperately needed a whole day outside of this house, and it was wonderful.  I might also have had some snacks when I got home. (umm melted cheese on whole wheat, and a few handfuls of those TJ’s mini chocolate chip cookies? I think?)

Unforunately my camera died so this morning’s breakfast pic is missing also.  Luckily, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.  A bowl of oats with 1/4 c. Almond Breeze, a smashed banana, a Tbsp TJ’s almond butter & a Tbsp coconut.  Perfect.

After laying on the couch “recovering” all morning, I threw together an easy delicious lunch.  We had some leftover whole what macaroni, and I needed to use the massaged kale from the other night, so I made a quick peanut veggie & mac stirfry.

I shredded a small zucchini & a carrot with a hand peeler and sauteed those with the kale in a little soy sauce:

When the leaves wilted and everything looked just about done, I threw in a cup of the noodles, about a Tbsp chopped pickled ginger (sushi style), and 2 Tbsp TJ’s Satay Peanut sauce.  Ah I’m in love with this sauce!!  And I think the ginger really made the dish!

Yummmmmmmm

And I followed that with a sweet handful of these bad boys:

They hit the spot.  That lunch certainly made my tummy happier

This afternoon I spent way too much time on altrec.com, they’re having a huge clearance sale!! Go get your sporting goods!

And on that note I’m going to go finalize my order.  SO sorry for the extremely long post!!

Hiiii and happy sunday!

Sorry I’ve been completely MIA this weekend – camera is dead and currently soaking up some juice, and when it’s done I’ll be back with a semi-complete (mostly unpictured) weekend recap.  I’m eating my breakfast right now, so obviously there is no pic of that!

Be back sooooon

Today was such a slow work day — love it!  I caught up on tons of blogs and got all my PT exercises done for the day.  Even though they’re just small moves, I’m just happy to be moving! 

Dinner tonight was fantastic.  I made myself a left-over lamb sammy, with some raw carrots & a gigantic bowl of kale.

I have never eaten raw kale before, but I’ve seen it massaged in lemon juice so I decided to give that a try.  When it came down to it I really wasn’t in the mood for massaging it, so I just squeezed the juice of half a lemon on it and sprinkled on some salt.  I tossed it around a little to coat it.  I thought about adding some olive oil, but decided to try it as-is, and it wasn’t half-bad!

This bowl was HUGE.  I thought I’d be able to finish it, but I don’t know who I was kidding.  Not possible.  I was way too busy devouring this:

An Arnold’s sandwich thin with some lowfat plain yogurt, and leftover roasted leg of lamb & onions.  Sprinkled in some garlic powder.  HOLY YUM!  I could eat 10 of these sandwiches.

So I ended up massaging the rest of the kale (after I ate about half of that bowl) in the lemon juice and put it in the fridge for tomorrow.  It will definitely be making an encore in my lunch tomorrow..

After dinner I needed a little sweet treat, and mom had brought home some TJ’s goodies today, so I had a serving of miniature Trader Joe’s crispy chocolate chip cookies.

I really do think food tastes better when it’s cute!  And what miniature food isn’t cute??

Right now it looks like the sky is finally parting and the clouds are flirting with the idea of getting lost, but we’ll see.  Weather report for tomorrow is looking like a PERFECT 85 & sunny for the beach   Crossing my fingers that blue skies get here!

Just gonna veg out on the couch for a while and get to sleep early to make up for all my sleeplessness last night.  Have a good weekend everyone!