Fall is in the Air

Hey All -

Happy Hump Day. I feel particularly proud after surviving a sort of long day! Because of a decent exit off of my train car, my awesome and new short cut, and the fact that the bus was RIGHT THERE when I got to the stop – I got to work five minutes earlier this morning. Sweet!

My overnight oats were even better this morning! I remembered to add cinnamon and nutmeg into the mixture last night – I cannot believe I forgot it for Tuesday’s mix. It was missed! The fresh strawberries and blueberries were so great. I added another spoonful of Barney Butter to the mix too. I think the almond butter gives the oats just a little more staying power.

Yum:

Breakfast was particularly satisfying today.

Lunch was at 12:25 this afternoon. This is when I realized how dull my nightly blog post was going to be… because I was eating basically the same thing as yesterday. But the eggplant parmesan was really good today, too!

But it looks pretty disgusting. As I was packing my lunch bag last night, it fell off of the kitchen counter – so things got a bit mixed up – thankfully the leads were on my little containers!

At four o’clock I had a trail mix bar from Trader Joe’s and it was really good. I did not realize that there would be a few mini-chocolate chips in the bar… it was really good and knocked the afternoon munchies right out of me

I walked my 1.2 miles to the train station after 5 o’clock tonight. I was on the train by 5:40 (it only takes 15 or 16 minutes to walk to the train – but I had extra time to get a new train pass this afternoon). Tim and I sat together during our trip back to Prov – thank goodness because we had a few delays along the way. We [finally] got off the train at 6:50. During our delay I snacked on a small handful of peanuts. I was so happy to have a snack in my lunch bag still!

After getting home I had to head back out to run some errands. I finally got home and prepared a great spinach salad and sat down just in time (right at 8!) to hear President Obama give his speech to the nation tonight!

Here is what my salad looked like:

Spinach, hard boiled egg, tomato, carrots, cucumber, croutons, and a gross salmon burger leftover. I am so sad that I do not like these salmon burgers. Here is what was left after I was finished with my salad:

Eww. Everything else was great though! To make up for some lack of protein, I had a glass of organic 1% milk and a spoonful of protein powder I think that will give me another 10 grams of protein…

Well, that is about all I have for you guys tonight. Tomorrow I will be back at the gym. I am packing my gym bag tonight, because I am driving to work I can make myself go right to the gym after work tomorrow. We shall see!!

Catch ya’ll tomorrow.

Wednesday – a new do!

Hi Guys -

Well, the haircut is a success, at least so far… My hair always looks great when I leave the salon because my stylist Erin is awesome! She took a few minutes before getting started this afternoon to look through some pictures with me and discuss what the plan was. I’m glad that we took the time to talk it over – and I really like my short new cut!  I just hope I can make it look as good when I’m doing it all myself…

Here is the new style, after I got home from the hair cut, the fundraiser and a visit to my friend Jenn post-Fenway Fundraiser:

I am not photogenic, and I hate getting my picture taken – but I think the hair looks pretty good – and it did a great job of surviving the rain and horrible humidity!

Ok, now that I’ve showed you the new hair style, I will get back to a brief re-cap of the food now that the computer is set up!

Where to start!?  On Monday and Tuesday I had great turkey and lettuce wraps, as I reported yesterday – here is a shot of them:

Yes – that is a dark chocolate Adora disk behind the sando – gotta get that calcium! I love Adora chocolates, perfect addition for lunch!

Tuesday morning I was hungry at 11 o’clock so I enjoyed a Luna cookie which was supposed to be my afternoon snack! These cookies are full of whole grains, 95% organic, packed with vitamins and minerals and most importantly they taste great!

Last night I finally got around to making this pizza that I had in my head for a long time.  I had three great peppers: orange, yellow and red. I cut them up, sprayed with olive oil, sprinkled lemon and pepper and a pinch of sea salt and roasted the peppers for half an hour in the oven at 400 degrees. I flipped sides half way through.  In the last ten minutes that the peppers were roasting, I started forming the pizza dough. I added TJ’s pizza sauce and their new light mozzarella cheese. Once the peppers were done roasting, I cut them into a little smaller and put them right on top of the pizza, which then went into the oven for about 12 minutes. The end result:

It was wonderful! I think roasting the peppers before cooking the pizza makes a huge difference. I highly recommend giving this a try soon, if you like peppers (sorry Nicole!!) and pizza!

Some how, in between setting up the new computer and getting things done around the house last night, I was able to think far enough ahead to make some over night oats before bed last night!  I used 1/3 cup portions this time (1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup low fat yogurt and 1/3 cup light vanilla soy milk with a sprinkle of oat bran to add some more texture) I also added a good sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Here is what everything looked like this morning:

But since I had to get to work early this morning and did not get up super early (obviously!) I had to throw the oats into a to-go container. I also took some raspberries (these are sooo good and beautiful!!!!) ground flax, dried goji berries, PB2 and cacao nibs. Wow – what a powerful combo this all turned into:

I love fresh berries:

This breakfast was fantastic.
But I was still excited for lunch because I had left over pizza slices!

Today we had a mini-intern celebration since it was the last day of the spring intern term for my department. I brought in “two bite treats” from Whole Foods… one container was the traditional brownies and one was full of blondies which I preferred. They were both good desserts!

After work was the haircut and then Ben and I headed over to the Bleacher Bar for Lauren’s fundraiser which was a lot of fun! I had a slider hamburger, a Sam Summer beer, and a few french fries. The Bleacher Bar was a lot of fun, I must say. What a great view of the field @ Fenway Park! If you can’t get tickets to a Red Sox game, you might want to try to get to the Bleacher Bar during a game to check out this scene!

Ok, well I am exhausted – but I’m going to head for bed and do some reading for a while. I am totally enjoying Julie and Julia. If you love cooking, or reading about cooking and food (which you might, since you are reading this right now!) I highly recommend this book! I am finding it so much fun to read… I know a book is great when I can actually stay awake after 10:30 in the evening reading it!

Have a great Thursday everyone! I will be back tomorrow for a normal re-cap of my day.  See you then!

PS: Let’s all keep our fingers crossed for some SUNSHINE tomorrow!!!

Monday again…

Hey All -

Thank goodness I put together the overnight oats Sunday evening or else  I would have been pretty out of luck for breakfast this morning.

Light vanilla soy milk, organic Trader Joe’s low fat vanilla yogurt (I’ll probably be getting plain next time – with the spices, vanilla soy milk, etc. I think it’ll taste better and less sugar…) 1/3 cup of oats and 1/8 cup of oat bran. It was a great combination. I added nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla and popped it into the fridge for the night.

While I was able to get up pretty early this morning, I spent my extra time getting ready (make up – what’s that!?) for work and decided to take my breakfast to – go. I did have enough sense to put coffee on and enjoy a cup at home this morning.

The oats were great at my desk as I was checking e-mails and catching up with things at the office.

By 11:30 I was soo hungry for lunch. But because I did not have time to go to the grocery store on Sunday (actually, I seriously try to avoid food shopping on Sunday due to the crowds) lunch was sort of a challenge.  Thankfully I had some wonderful Dakota bread from Great Harvest and it made a pretty wonderful peanut butter and jam sandwich.

All natural peanut butter and organic jam from Trader Joe’s (and no added sugar – sweet!)

I think Dakota bread might be my favorite from Great Harvest. It is 100% whole grain bread with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, millet and sesame seeds mixed in.   I ate my sandwich at my desk and then went out side for a 25 minute walk, on my own today.  I was so glad to get outside today for some exercise, especially since it looks like the forecast is for rain for the next several days.   I feel like I cannot complain too much since we just had such a beautiful weekend with lots of outdoor activity…

At 3 o’clock in the afternoon I was hungry… I took a walk down to the vending machine because I really wanted a salty snack, and almost got a small bag of pretzels. I re-thought the temptation and walked back upstairs to my desk and settled for my GNU bar that I had already packed for part of my lunch.  It was chocolate brownie flavor… I’m not a huge fan of the chocolate bars, but this was good.

The consistency was very nice…

140 calories, 4 grams of fat, 12 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein. It kept me going until dinner…

A report on dinner is coming soon. Ben, Lara and I went out to one of my favorite places in Brookline as sort of a good-bye get together for Lara, who is leaving us on Thursday after two fun years in Boston…

Now that I’m back home…

I can finish up the earlier post! I’m still sad that my brilliant idea did not work out.

Anyhow, last night I prepared my overnight oats again… I’m so glad that I did because they were fantastic once again!
However, this morning I had a really hard time getting out of bed. If it was not for my friend Katherine calling me this morning, I might not have ever gotten out of bed. Sigh. I am so glad that Katherine called me this morning – and I’m really glad that I had a great “to go” breakfast already prepared and a left over lunch all ready to go!

Today I topped the oats with dried goji berries, raw cacao nibs, and a spoonful of PB2. I actually could not finish the entire bowl of oats and I was full until well after 12pm.

I went for a 20 minute walk today at lunch… it was cloudy and cool but very humid, so I warmed up quickly while we were walking. It was nice to get outside during the work day.
After I got back into the building, I grabbed my lunch out of the staff fridge… there was a line for the microwave (as there always is around lunch time!) so I decided to eat my pasta cold. I really do love cold pasta, actually.

Here is my entire lunch:

I ate the pasta, half a vegan veggie burger (both from last night) and a GNU bar which I loved. (12 grams of fiber in one 130 calorie bar – amazing!) I saved the banana for my afternoon snack.

So, I had really started the day off well – eating pretty healthily, etc. But at 3:15 or so the wheels came off the wagon.  At around 1:30 or so I had been offered a sandwich from Panera, and I had politely declined because I had just finished my lunch and I was really full.  However at 3 o’clock or so an e-mail went out to the entire staff saying that the sandwiches were now up for grabs in the lunch room along with cookies, etc.  By 3:15 I should have been snacking on my banana, but I thought, “oh I’ll just go for a quick walk down to the staff room to stretch my legs…” When I got down to the staff room a few of my other friends were down there eating sandwiches, cookies, etc. and for some reason I decided to enjoy an amazing turkey sandwich (it was officially 1/4 of a sandwich, but I think it’s actually equal to a half a normal sandwich) with lettuce, onions, and a yummy, herby spread on artisan bread. Wow. This sandwich was so good.  For some reason after the sandwich I decided to have half of a large shortbread cookie.  This all added up to a lot of food.  It is now 7:15 pm and I have not had a thought of hunger.

So, that about wraps up my day thus far. My banana is now sitting on the kitchen table because I elected to eat a sandwich and cookie instead. Meh.

Hope everyone is having a great Friday. I’ve spent my afternoon post – work cleaning my room! It looks so much better now

Have a great weekend everyone – I’ll be back either later tonight or tomorrow.

Overnight oats – and a morning post!

Hey All -

I cannot believe that I have time to do a morning post – sweet!

Last night I realized that I really wanted overnight oats, thankfully I realized it while there was still time to prepare them. I had never actually made overnight oats so I quickly went to Kath’s blog and got the instructions for summer oats!

I used 1/2 a cup of rolled oats 1/2 a cup of low fat Stoneyfield yogurt and 1/2 a cup of light vanilla soy milk.

The dry oats:

All mixed together:

I covered the oats and put them in the refrigerator for the night. I have to say the excitement over my oats really helped me wake up early today! Along with the overnight oats, I had a glass of iced coffee with light soy milk and a half scoop of protein powder.
Breakfast with the new New Yorker:

Close up of my pretty oats:

Great consistency:

Well, I really love overnight oats! I love that this is a great way to eat oats in the summer when it is really too hot to eat oatmeal.  I also love that most of the prep work is done the night before! Breakfast was a snap this morning. The toppings are:

• Teddie Peanut butter (just under a tablespoon)
• blue berries
• raspberries
• sprinkle of Chappaqua Crunch Granola
• last night I added nutmeg, cinnamon and pumpkin spices along with a small splash of vanilla – the flavor made everything taste great this morning!

OK – I’ve got to get to work and then the gym after work. I’ve already packed my gym bag – a new Vineyard Vines bag that I picked up at Union this weekend. I love it because Union College had these bags custome made with the Nott Memorial on them:

Packed for the gym:

I also hope to get a walk in during my lunch time today.
Ok – hope you all have a great Thursday! See you later tonight.