Month: February 2009

Step by step

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I tried to step it up this morning at the gym with my arm weights on the step + Stairmaster routine (thanks for all your suggestions last week!) by increasing the weights and switching from the “fat burner” to the “speed intervals” setting. It worked a little bit, but I think I need to up the Stairmaster level even more next time. Stats: 1 hour and 11 minutes, 378 calories, average heart rate 120, max 151.

My breakfast titles are getting longer and longer. Today, I had peanut butter chocolate strawberry cheesecake ice cream oatmeal:

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Along with 3/4 cup of the oatmeal mxture and the usual crumbled graham sticks and 1/3 cup cream cheese icing, I added 1 tsp peanut butter and one chopped square of the Lindt chocolate hazelnut bar I got from blogger secret cupid 🙂

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I obviously don’t need to tell you how good it tasted.

On the side I had 1/2 an orange and soymilky black tea (very soymilky — probably 1/2 cup because there was more left in the carton than I expected):

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Lunch and snacks today should be nearly identical to what I ate yesterday, but I’ll be back tonight with an update, as usual. In the meantime, go enter the BSI!

Happy Wed-nes-day!

Plans may go awry …

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… but not today!! Today was a rare day in that I was able to stick more or less to the food plan. As much as I love all the free food and exciting flavors that I typically encounter at work, I have to admit that, once in a while, I enjoy eating a reasonable amount of healthy food and having legitimate room for a real dinner when I get home.

In addition to the soup and yogurt that I had for lunch around 12:30, I also packed an orange that I ate mid-morning:

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And since it wouldn’t be interesting if there were absolutely no meal interlopers, my coworker Jennifer shared her leftover Moroccan food of couscous and veggies. I had about 1/2 cup after my soup (which was actually not as foul as I had expected; the overnight must have given it time to mellow) and before my yogurt:

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And then Jessica released her private stash of Valentine’s Day chocolates to the office. I broke the chocolate ice, of course:

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I chose one (well actually, I chose four but put three in my empty tissue box for “safekeeping”) to eat for dessert. Dark chocolate with praline cream filling, mmmmm:

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Afternoon snack happened around 3:30. My packed “Christmas” snack baggies of grapes and red pepper:

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And at 4, this yummy bar that came from Tina in my V-day scavenger hunt prize pack:

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This bar was very minty and very chocolatey (one of my favorite combos!), but despite its deliciousness, it did nada for my hunger. I was ravenous when I got home! Obviously, I had to make a three-part dinner.

I heated my last piece of pumpkin kibbi and steamed the rest of my asparagus:

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Part three was pumpkin-apple pie yogurt which I made by heating 2/3 cup pumpkin, mixing it with 1/4 cup yogurt and the holy trinity of spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger), and topping it with a baby apple that I chopped and sauteed in canola and water until browned:

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Mmm, such a comforting and satisfying meal! I am about to indulge in a dainty little dessert of my dark chocolate pomegranate truffle that came from Brandi as part of my BSI: Spinach prize and some Italian cookie crumbles I brought home from our Valentine’s lunch at work on Friday:

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Ahhhh, I just had a bite of the truffle … AMAZING!! Thanks, Brandi!

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I’m off to attempt a repeat last night’s successful tea and reading in bed … though tonight’s reading may be more of the blog variety since I haven’t had a chance to read any all day! What’s your bedtime routine?

Also, you must go visit Beadie for the scoop on this week’s BSI and the amazing one-of-a-kind prize she is offering!

Use what you got

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My lunches for the work week happened when I found an intriguing soup mix packet while cupboard-organizing the other day … probably left over from the roommates I had before the current ones, over 3 years ago! Because my apartment just kept getting sublet, there was never any sort of complete clean-out. Here’s the packet with some other soup ingredients:

soymilk, coconut, homemade (!) veggie broth, frozen work mystery meat from a while bag, coconut-ginger soup base

soymilk, coconut, homemade (!) veggie broth, frozen work mystery meat from a while back, coconut-ginger soup base

And:

chopped green pepper, chopped red pepper, chopped onion

chopped green pepper, chopped red pepper, chopped onion

I made this soup yesterday and sort of used the recipe on the soup mix packet, but mostly I did not. The veggies all got sauteed in canola until they were browned, at which point I added the meat and sauteed more until it was fully thawed and heated through.

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I did not have coconut milk, as requested by the soup base packet, so I kind of made some by simmering 1 cup of soymilk, 1 cup of water, 3 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut, and 2 tsp of this guy I’ve had in the fridge:

img_4087It probably would have been delicious as it was, but I had to go and add the actual soup base packet to the pot:

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I knew pretty quickly that this soup was not going to be amazing because I could smell that fake lemony concentrate smell coming from the pot as soon as I dumped it in. But I forged ahead. Eventually, everything went into a big pot with the veggie broth (and loads more water because I was trying to dilute the packet), powdered ginger, and black pepper:

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It got pretty thin, so I added 1/2 cup whole wheat cous cous for quick thickening, and that seemed to do the trick:

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In the end, the soup turned out okay and I’ll definitely eat it, but I won’t ever use one of these packets again!!!!

My experimenting resulted in about six cups of soup, so two went into the freezer and the rest I’ll eat one cup at a time for lunches this week.

Along with the soup, I’ve packed a standard yogurt blend of 1/2 cup yogurt, 1 chopped date, cinnamon, chopped apple pieces, chopped strawberry pieces, and a sprinkling of kashi golean crunch over the top:

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I’ll be back later to report on snacks and any adjustments to the food plan. What’s your experience been with soup mixes/spice packets? Do you prefer seasoning yourself or using something pre-made?

Also, The Healthy Hostess is giving away Banana Nut Cheerios along with some fun kitchen goodies (including a banana tree!), so make sure to go check it out!

It’s time …

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Reading in bed last night was glorious … and I managed to turn the lights out at 8pm!! I got up at 5am today raring to go :-D. Gym was the 45-minute treadmill run again. I felt less tired doing it than I have before … yet I burned more calories. Go figure. Stats: 1 hour and 2 minutes, 524 calories, average heart rate 145, max 179.

Breakfast was more strawberry cheesecake ice cream oatmeal. I had about 2/3 cup heated with 1/2 cup cream cheese icing on the side and cinnamon and two crumbled graham sticks sprinkled on top:

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I’m out of fresh strawberries, so I had 1/2 cup grapes on the side and a giant mug of spicy cinnamon peanut butter hot chocolate:

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The hot chocolate contained 1 cup water, 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tsp sugar in the raw, 1 tsp peanut butter, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper … oh, and a sugar cookie sleigh ride tea bag 🙂

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Yummmmmmmmm! So now that I’ve checked exercise and chocolate off the list, I think I’m ready to face the new week. To work I go!

High to lowwwwww

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Lunch was out. of. this. world.:

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I had 1/2 grapefruit; 1/2 thinly sliced apple, part of which got cinnamon and part of which went into this:

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Looking at that picture right now kind of makes me want to eat my computer. I had an open-faced sandwich on 1/3 toasted sun-dried tomato bagel with cheddar and jack cheese slices, thin apple slices, and a toasted Morningstar black bean burger (I found the lone burger at the bottom of the freezer when I was cleaning it, and I swear angels started to sing). Once assembled, I broiled the whole sandwich for 3 minutes so it could melt together. Ahhhhh, give me another one right now!

Dessert was a small handful of chopped grapes (I’ve been grape-crazy lately … prob because they’re so cheap right now!) with healthy cream cheese icing, a crumbled graham stick, cinnamon, and an Earl Grey Biscotti Bite:

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I needed a snack around 3:30, so I had soymilky Tazo chai:

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And the other half of my grapefruit with a heaping tsp of peanut butter:

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My friend Ting was headed back to Providence this afternoon, so I met her for a little pre-drive snack around 4:45 at Bar Toto. She ordered a Margherita pizza, so I had a slice of that:

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The pizza was decent, but it looked prettier than it tasted. See the grill marks?

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We were both feeling anxious about returning to real life, so we decided a stroll through CVS was in order. For the past eight and a half years that I’ve lived in New York, CVS has always made me feel better when I’m stressed or homesick. I can walk into any CVS, and it just feels so familiar! Do you have places like that? I used an ExtraCare coupon for shampoo, and that helped as well. Because I know CVS really does care extra :-).

Ting set off for good ol’ RI, and I set off for my apartment. I’m kind of appetite-less, which is weird — again, maybe the end-of-weekend-caused stress — so I made a quick little mess for my official dinner:

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The mess had 1 cup pumpkin, 1/4 cup soymilk, 1/4 kashi golean crunch, 1 chopped prune, 1 chopped date, 1 tsp peanut butter, and a sprinkle of cinnamon:

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It was good, but my tastebuds are tired or something. Weird, I know! I guess I’m just feeling mopey because I’ve had such a lovely weekend full of perfect friends, things checked off my to-do list, healthy and unhealthy delicious food, good workouts … and I don’t want it to end! So I’m going to go put on cozy pjs, make up a mug of sugar cookie tea, and read (for pleasure!) in bed — something I haven’t done in ages! Maybe it will make me feel more ready for tomorrow …

Sleep tight!