How can it be Thursday alraedy!?

Honestly, I am not sure where this week has gone! I have not posted since Nicole’s guest post on Sunday, what a shame.

I must admit that my 1500 calorie days are not making for the most earth shattering meals to report, but there are definitely things to blog about. I promise to be back tonight to recap the week – especially the awesome dinner we all had on Sunday night at my favorite restaurant, Red Stripe in Providence.

The entire week I have been having Quaker’s Weight Control oatmeal – the Banana bread flavor. Unlike other food-bloggers, I don’t have time to make my oats on the stove-top every morning – rarely do I have time to make breakfast at home. While sometimes I will make a batch of oatmeal in advance, I find Quaker’s instant oatmeal to be a good alternative when I’m not planning ahead and don’t have time for a nice breakfast at home.  The oatmeal has been keeping me full on its own, and especially when I add some Aria protein powder and / or a teaspoon of Barney Butter to the mix….

Speaking of Barney Butter – Ben tried my favorite Almond Butter this week and he loves it! We are sort of running low on it at the moment, and now that there are two people in the house enjoying it, I will feel less guilty ordering another supply in a couple of days Sweet!

I can also report that I have been to the gym three out of four days so far this week for great workouts! My new “favorite” (in quotes, because it’s actually sort of hellish!) machine is the stair-mill… also known as the Stair Master, but a different version of it.  This thing is a huge case of stairs that keeps moving while you work out. On Tuesday I did the stair mill for 22 minutes and burned over 180 calories. 

Anyhow, I have to sign off for now. But I will be back tonight with updates and photos! Until then – have a great Thursday everyone.

Guest blogger in da house!

This is a blog fan’s dream! Actually getting to guest blog on one of your favorite blogs. Perez Hilton is next! So the foodie extravaganza started on Thursday night at The Other Side cafe downtown on Newton. Heather had the grilled cheese with tomato and chips and I split a veggie burrito (with tofu) and a bowl of carrot ginger soup with my friend Maya. Didn’t take a pic sorry. The soup was a highlight of the meal. It was really flavorful and thick!

The next night (Friday) we had our gourmet-fancy meal-double-date at Hamersley’s Bistro in Boston’s South End. We started the meal with two appetizers. One duck confit and the other multi-mushroom sandos w/garlic puree accompanied by a vinegary slaw.

Both were super tasty and great to share. Heather took a pic of her plate with a bit of both apps. Heather also took a pic of her bread and butter. The bread was a wheat sourdough. Heather had the seafood boullibaise which looked delish (and the pic came out spectacular).

I had a veggie dish of polenta and roasted veggies (onions, olives, nasty red peppers [I hate bell peppers of any color], and mushrooms). I was pretty full but had a taste of Ben & Dwaine’s beef dish. The beef was very tender and tasty. For dessert, my prix fixe meal came with a chocolate cake topped with coconut gelato and sliced papaya. We all shared it. I was disappointed with it because the cake was dry. Everyone else seemed to think it was decent. Heather also took a great pic of the dessert.

I think it’s safe to say that we all recommend Hamersley’s Bistro for a exquisite & romantic dinner. Oh and expensive!

The next day I took Dwaine back to the Other Side cafe for b-fast. I had b-fast envy because his b-fast burrito was chockful of guac and cheese. I had a veggie omlet with no cheese! BORING. I ended up horking some of it on the way to Salem for our witchtastic adventure. I got a bit motion sick in the back seat. No worries though, more room for a yummy lunch! We lunched at The Witch’s Brew across from the inlet. It was my turn to have a grilled cheese (w/tomato) but it came out as a ham & cheese! I sent it back and by the time I got my sando everyone was done with their meal. Heather had a crock of French Onion soup and split a burger with Ben. Oh and we started with zucchini sticks. They were great. We enjoyed a piece of our candies we got from the oldest candy shop in the country before we went to lunch. We all got a few pieces of their hand made chocolates. After a witchy day in Salem, we headed back to the Newtons. We were going to get a workout in, but Heather & Ben’s gym closed at 6:00 so we all jogged to the liquor store. Not kidding! Ben and I mostly walked though because we were hurting from the cold. That evening we went to a local resto and had a hummus app and followed that up w/din at the Local. The Local is really popular w/locals and non-locals. It received great reviews so we waited over 45 min for a table. In the meantime we had an app of fried pickles w/chipotle aioli and another app of warm chips w/french onion dip. Three fried apps in one day! They were all great and worth the guilt. Once we got our seat we ordered right away. Heather was on her best behavior and ordered a mixed green rabbit food salad. It looked disgusting. I only eat mixed greens if they’re covered in stuff and I’m really hungry! Heather’s a champ. Ben ordered the truffle and chive mac & cheese. It was very pungent and GOOD! Dwaine and I order the peas & ham mac & cheese and a blue cheese wedge and a kobe beef burger. WOW. We went all out. I knew I was going to make up for my bad behavior w/a healthy Sugar and Spice b-fast at Heather and Ben’s.

This morning I got to try Vitamuffins and Barney Butter! FINALLY! After reading about the two I was anxious to sample them. I also had some Earth Balance which was surprising spreadable and tasty.

After that I had some eggs (Heather put her usual spice blend in them) on a piece of her low cal wheat bread.

Ugh. I’m very full right now. I’m also wired from the coffee Ben made which was like rocket fuel. We’re heading to Providence for the day and flying out tonight. Hopefully the storm doesn’t delay us and we’re not stuck at the airport. It’s been a delicious trip! Thanks Heather and Ben! And thanks Heather for letting me guest blog!

Happy Monday

Hey All -

Well, it’s Monday again   I had a pretty good start to the week. I packed a great couple of meals for work.

I started the day off around 7 o’clock this morning. I had a quick five ounces of Calcium and Vitamin D fortified orange juice to get me on my way. Instead of taking the extra time to have breakfast at home, I packed my oatmeal, banana and an individual sized serving of Barney Butter.

Breakfast mixed together really well! I put the oatmeal in the bowl I keep at work (you should never, ever EVER microwave in plastic!) added half a banana and water and popped the bowl into the microwave for 1 minute. I then stirred the oats, and put it in again for a couple more seconds. I cannot tell you what a difference microwaving the entire bowl makes in the consistency of the oatmeal – it becomes so much more substantial!  Once the oats were cooked, I added one tablespoon of Barney Butter to the mix.

The total calorie count on breakfast was: 300 calories, and 370 calories if you count the orange juice.

Breakfast was so perfect and filling, I was able to go for a brisk 22 minute walk before I ate lunch. It was freezing outside – but it felt great to go for a walk. I even saw a few snow flakes while I was walking! Since we work right by the water, the wind today was very strong… I am glad I got in the 22 minute walk in – even though it was definitely a challenge!

For lunch I brought some of the left over salad, one tablespoon of light dressing, and a piece of pizza from last night!  The pizza was about 240 calories and the salad was about 40 calories for a total of 280 calories.

Today I went back to visit a website that I used to frequent quite often: Calorie King. If you haven’t checked Calorie King, click on the link. You can find out how many calories your favorite snacks are. When I’m trying to get back into eating well and back on track I find Calorie King really helpful!

I had to leave work a little bit early today because I have been having an alergic reaction to something… I am not really sure what.  But a couple of days ago I changed my facial mosturizer, and ever since I’ve been having the allergic reaction. I returned the mosturizer today and bought the one I usually use… I hope that helps. I also bought fragrance free laundry detergent and bath soap. Ugh.

When I got home from Whole Foods, I made my afternoon snack.

I am still sipping on the seltzer water as I type. The apple and Barney Butter were sooooo perfect!  In case you are wondering what a tablespoon looks like check out this picture:

Today I measured out my tablespoon of Barney Butter for the afternoon snack. It’s nice when a tablespoon is actually more than what you think it is!   The apple is about 60 calories and a tablespoon of BB is 90… for a total of 150 calories for my afternoon snack.

I am hoping that when Ben gets home from work we will be able to go to the gym and get our first workout of the week in. I will be back soon for a post dinner post!

Is it really only Tuesday?

Ugh. I don’t even know where to begin today’s blog post – sorry to start on such a negative note. This seems like the longest week so far!

This morning I woke up at my normal time, and started getting ready for work – and realized that I had a smashing head ache (bad way to start your day off). So, I decided to take a Tylenol and go back to bed in hopes I would wake up feeling better. I woke up again at 9am and I was feeling better. I started getting ready for work.

I had breakfast at home for a change. It was mostly TJ’s fiber cereal, with the last of the of Kashi Vive mixed in.

I got to the office  late, and went straight to work.

For lunch this afternoon I had leftovers from last night’s dinner. Chicken, cous-cous, broccoli and cauliflower.

Our main office area has a candy jar – and I do not like it very much! I do not have candy from it often, but today I had two pieces!  They were both small pieces of dark chocolate – and they were good.  Normally I pack more for lunch, and today (running behind) I just did not have much to take with me.

My afternoon snack (besides the chocolate that I had at 2:30!) was a piece of protein bread and Barney Butter. I was missing my Greek Yogurt – but this definitely did the trick!

On the way home from work, I could not decide what to do next! I knew I needed to get to the market for veggies and Greek Yogurt but I also wanted to get to the gym. I decided to head to the gym first. I did a simple work out tonight, 35 minutes on the elliptical machine.

After the gym I went to the market where I got veggies to make a salad for dinner tonight. I also bought a great loaf of French bread to go with dinner (yum)!

Tonight dinner was salad with the chicken from last night. We had orange peppers, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and baby romaine lettuce. Ben drizzled olive oil on his salad, and I used balsamic on mine.  We also enjoyed a couple of pieces of french bread. I toasted mine and had it with Earth Balance.

A couple of hours after dinner I enjoyed one of my favorite treats – low fat ice cream with skim milk.  This goes all the way back to my childhood. I used to call it ice cream soup.  The ice cream was double churned cookies and cream. It really hit the spot tonight!

Well, that is about it for the re-cap. Does this week feel really long to anyone else or is it just me? Meh. This week is feeling never ending right now!
Hope everyone has a great Wednesday – I’ll see you sometime tomorrow!

Friday

I had a great breakfast on Friday! I remembered that we had some packets of instant oatmeal (no sugar added even!) and I grabbed one to take with me to work along with a banana, and a to-go packet of Barney Butter. Great combo!

I warmed up the banana in the microwave for 15 seconds, then I mashed it in the oatmeal bowl while I waited for my water to heat up. Then I combined all of the ingredients together and came up with my breakfast bowl of oats! It was sooo satisfying and kept me going all morning long!

For lunch I had a chicken salad wrap, I made the chicken salad from canned chicken which I found in our pantry…. when I opened it up this morning, I thought I was making tuna salad… I was surprised!

I mixed the chicken together with a teaspoon of Miracle Whip and then added red pepper flakes, garlic, and ground pepper to the mix. That really gave it some nice flavor!  At lunch time I made the wrap. I piled on some mixed greens onto a small tortilla wrap, and then added the chicken salad. It was sooo good – I could have had two! But instead, I snacked on some grapes. Here’s what the wrap looked like before I rolled it up:

Now that I’m looking at the wrap, I’m reminded that I added some mustard to it – because I left the hummus at home by accident. Oops!
Here is what the rest of the lunch looked like:

But I never ended up having the pudding. I brought it back home with me.

I was very glad the weekend had arrived after work on Friday! I did not do much last night, but I relaxed after a long week – the first five day work week in a while! I’m so happy for the weekend

Hope you are all enjoying your weekends so far!  Here in Boston we are preparing for yet MORE SNOW – they are calling for 8 – 10 inches in our area tonight!  It seems like it will never end!  Well, I guess that is winter in New England for you!

Wednesday

Hey All -

Well, it was a snowy, stormy, icy, and rainy day here in Boston!  Ben and I both had delays at work this morning. I took the opportunity to sleep in…. and Ben totally surprised me with breakfast in bed! Can you believe it? It was fantastic – especially because I had mentioned before that it was one thing I wanted for my birthday – but with the house guests we’ve had recently – it just never happened. Wow, was I surprised to wake up this morning to coffee, juice and oatmeal!  It was fantastic and was so perfect for a wintery morning!

Obviously the oatmeal kept me full for a long time this morning – and I was fine until lunch time came around.

For lunch I packed a can of Amy’s veggie and barley soup, a piece of Great Harvest bread and a fat free Jello pudding! At lunch I measured out one cup of Amy’s soup and warmed that up in the microwave in the bowl that I keep at the office. I put the remaining soup in a pyrex traveling container and then recycled the can.

I seasoned the soup with a packed of pepper, that really added even more nice flavor!  I love Amy’s soups. I just wish that soup was not so high in sodium. I don’t know about you guys – but I HATE sodium – and it is in so many things! But more on that later (as in, I will devote an entire post on sodium sometime soon).
Here is what lunch looked like:

After lunch I had my adora disk for my calcium… and I was set until 3:15 when I had my Chobani yogurt – today I had the strawberry kind.

I left work at 5pm and had to stop at Whole Foods on the way home and do a couple of other errands.  I was ready for dinner when I got home – but I had planned to do an hour of yoga first… so I made a quick snack of a piece of bread, banana and a tablespoon of Barney Butter… the snack was perfect!

Before I settled down to do yoga, I picked up around the house and did a few lingering dishes (what we would not give for a dishwasher!!) After getting all of this squared away, I was ready to concentrate on yoga, breathing and relaxing.

The gym had been really stressing me out this week for some reason. I think it was a combination of a few things – number one it is so crowded with everyone going back in conjunction with their New Year’s Resolutions.  I had also been bothered by my heart monitor, which had started to freak me out. So today I decided to have a day away from the gym and concentrate on relaxation. I had a great hour of yoga at home, in the living room

It was after 8 by the time I got around to eating dinner. I made a wrap with chicken, brown rice, lettuce, yellow and orange peppers, salsa and fat free sour cream. It was really good (and kind of pretty)! I could have had two… but instead I had a some extra pepper slices, and in a little while I will have a snack of grapes.

Here is what dinner looked like:

I think that about covers it for the day! I hope you all had a great day, too. See you tomorrow!

Back to the Grind and Birthday Celebration #3!

Hey all -

I hope you all had a decent “back to work” / “post holiday” Monday!  Things in our house got off to a decent start today – until we stepped out of the house and realized that our entire neighborhood was covered in a huge sheet of ice! Some how I managed to get to work by 8 o’clock this morning.

I packed everything this morning and had breakfast at my desk once I got situated at my desk.  Today for breakfast I had a slice of GH honey whole wheat and one tablespoon of Barney Butter in one of the handy – dandy individual packages. I love these things – but usually save them for road trips.  I figured today’s ride to work was pretty much like  a road trip, so I took one with me!

Amazingly enough this “snack” got me through until lunch! I was truly surprised by this. In total the breakfast was only 210 calories.

At around 10:30 this morning I decided to enjoy a mug of Emergen’C.  Yesterday I was worried that Ben was coming down with a cold (knock on wood – because he seems to be ok today!) and when I got to work I received a call from one of my colleagues saying she was home sick… Yikes! If there is one thing I hate it is getting sick.  So, I consumed a large amount of Vitamin C in hopes of keeping it at bay.  We shall see if it works.

For lunch I enjoyed more left overs (yet again)!  It was great having lunch already taken care for me this morning! I just packed one container with some baked turkey / pasta and another container of salad.

(I don’t know what to say about the pasta stuff – it just cannot be pretty!)

About an hour after lunch I was hungry (!) and snacked on half a cup of the Trader Joe’s fiber cereal. This stuff is so wonderful! It is high in fiber (so it helps to keep me full) and low in fat and sodium. Woo-hoo!

At 3:30 this afternoon I was called to an office of a few of my colleagues, where I was surprised with mini – cupcakes!! How exciting! My friend Laurie knows me so well that she knew the mini-cupcakes were the way to go – and they were fantastic!

I left work a little bit after 4:30 and went directly to the gym where I walked and jogged an easy 2.25 miles with my heart rate monitor. I think my heart might be still adjusting to the new gadget and I might be nervous because I keep looking down to see what my heart rate is… could it be possible that my nerves are making my heart rate higher?  I think it might be.  I do love the “calories burned” feature on the monitor. In just 2.25 miles, I burned quite a few calories! I don’t remember how many exactly, but I think it was around 270. Not bad for such a quick workout.

Once I got home, Ben and I caught up on our days and eventually I made dinner for myself. (Ben had pasta because he did not have it for lunch!)  I decided to make an egg and egg white omelet – but it turned into scrambled eggs with mushrooms, red peppers and lots of spices of course!  To spice it up a bit I used garlic powder, onion powder, fresh ground pepper, red pepper flakes and basil. I had two pieces of toast and salad on the side.  It was a pretty good dinner. However, after dinner  I was still hungry and snacked on a handful of baked potato chips that were left over from my birthday party.

I am tired and adjusting to my work week, so I will probably head to bed early tonight. I also might have a snack of left over birthday cake in a little while – I cannot let the cake go to waste! 

Sunday night

What the heck is it about being snowed in and snacking!?

The day started out well, with great oatmeal (I cooked 1/2 a cup of oats with 1/2 a cup of water, 1/2 a cup of milk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and a small pinch of salt) and then at the end added a tiny bit of brown sugar, 1/2  a teaspoon of Teddy (just wanted that flavor!), cinnamon and ground flax seed – yum!  I also enjoyed a homemade cappuccino (thanks to Ben!) and some coffee.

By the afternoon, I was feeling some serious snack cravings coming on… was it possibly because we were watching football? Was it because we had been out shoveling and playing in the snow – and thus burned some calories? (We did make a great snowman and had a great snow ball fight along with making progress in cleaning off the cars, driveway and sidewalks!) I am not sure.

But I can tell you that Ben and I snacked on Sun Chips and Munchies (seriously!?) today – and loved them!

For my actual lunch, I had a turkey sandwich on Arnold’s with spinach and a slice of low fat American cheese, and some baby carrots.

At around 8:30 tonight I made an ice cream shake with low fat Friendly’s ice cream, skim milk and half a scoop of protein powder. That was the best dinner / dessert I have enjoyed in a lot time!!  The protein powder added some extra power to keep me perfectly full for the rest of the night, which was very nice!

I cannot believe our snowy weekend is almost over.  This makes me very sad. I am not looking forward to having to leave the house and go to work tomorrow… which also makes me wonder if something is wrong with me.

I had Friday off (but was not snowed in until later in the day)… Saturday was actually a productive and busy day, even with the snow, and today I had a good amount of time outdoors. So I guess I can say that I had a busy weekend and hopefully it is not too strange that I would wish for the weekend to be even longer!

On Saturday Ben and I went out even though it was still snowing and the roads were pretty bad. For breakfast I had a banana. I thought we were going out for a big brunch, so I did not make oatmeal for breakfast.

Oddly enough, the brunch never came about – but eventually I had a slice of cheese pizza at Upper Crust and Ben and I saw Slum Dog Millionaire at Coolidge Corner theater at around 4:15 yesterday. What a great movie – I recommend it to everyone (although there are definitely some scary moments during the movie).  We also did some shopping at Brookline Booksmith (yay for holiday gift certificates!) where I bought a few books.

Here is what I spent some of the weekend reading:

My Real Simple magazine came just in time for the snow storm – and I am also enjoying In Defense of Food… and will write more about it when I get further into it.

Another thing that came in the mail this weekend was super exciting to me – my first full jar of Barney Butter!! Yes!

When I first started my blog, I wrote to the folks at Barney Butter to see if I could get a sample of their amazing almond butter to try for myself. I had read rave reviews of BB from some of my other favorite bloggers – and wanted to try it for myself.  I have to say, not only do I love Barney Butter – but I love the company!

The other day when I was ordering Barney Butter for me, and for a couple of holiday gifts, I had a question regarding my order – so I called the number on the website…. I was so shocked when Jennifer Barney (the founder of BB) answered the phone that it took me a minute to remember my question! She was so helpful (obviously) and nice – it just made my experience with Barney Butter even better.

This almond butter is like nothing else I have tried. I love it! I also love the fact that it comes in jars and in convienet travel, individual sizes that are 90 calories each, with three grams of protein.

Well, I am sorry my bloggies – but I am going to have to sign off for tonight. It is very late – and my old computer is running very slowly – it’s been hard for me to edit the blog entry tonight – as I am sure you will be able to tell!  Sometimes I hate computer updates – even for Macs!

Hope you all have a great Monday and I’ll catch you sometime tomorrow!