Tag: oatmeal

The heat is on

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Wow, sleeping until 6 is such a luxury! I hope I don’t get too used to it 😛

Heat story #1: I woke up and sat on a heating pad for 10 minutes. Then, I tied the heating pad to the top of my right thigh with a belt and dove into Gentle Hatha Yoga #1. I’m still feeling the pain, but it’s definitely getting better!

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Breakfast this morning was a second incarnation of protein porridge. I was craving a more “old-fashioned” flavor combo this time, so last night I mixed 1 cup of the porridge with 1 tbsp molasses, 2 tbsp raisins, cinnamon, and a crushed clove.

Heat story #2: This morning, the “oats” (just kidding, since there are no oats in here!) went in the oven (covered) for 30 minutes at 375.

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Heat story #3: While the porridge was in the oven, I tried to straighten my hair with the iron to address some of the style damage Supercuts did yesterday during the balding session. Since there was not much for the iron to grasp, this heat story was not as successful as the previous two.

Heat story #4: My apartment felt really warm, and I realized the heat was up to 70! I turned it off.

So back to the food. I layered the heated porridge over 1/2 cup Greek yogurt + part-skim ricotta blend and topped it with vanilla-almond granola, crumbled graham sticks, unsweetened coconut, and an extra little circle of raisins:

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Are you hot or cold?

Remember to enter my Bob’s Red Mill giveaway!

And check out this week’s BSI hosted by Ruth at Plentiful Plants. She’s doing avocado!!!!

A wrench …

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… has been thrown into my plans.

But just so that you don’t get too bored too fast by too many words, here’s another mini Tale of Expansion from my coworker Nitza, who had the honor of experiencing an authentic homemade Ethiopian feast at a friend’s home a couple weeks ago.

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OK, it’s not so much a tale as a photograph, but I wanted to share because Nitza has been showing me this photo for a week, and it has made me drool every time. Ethiopian food is such an adventure.

So, back to the wrench. Kate and I did our 10 miles on pretty much the same route I did last weekend, through Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights, over the Brooklyn Bridge, and back. Stats: 1 hour and 49 minutes, 916 calories, average heart rate 152, max 173.

Now the bad news. I have had some slight inner thigh muscular discomfort for a couple of weeks. I figured it was probably some minor tug or tension or something due to the increase in running, and I’ve been focusing more on stretching and yoga this past week to make sure that nothing gets too out of whack. I started the run really slowly and gently today to give my body time to warm up, and it worked. Discomfort seemed a thing of the past by mile 3.

In mile 7, however, the muscle pain flared up again! I kept going because it was manageable, I wasn’t feeling fatigued, and I had a lot of things on my to-do list that I wanted to get home for! This may have been a bad idea. When I got home, I immediately did the 20-minute Yoga for Runners #1 from yogadownload.com because I felt in serious need of stretching and injury-prevention. After yoga and a shower, I was finding walking through the apartment to be an abnormally painful and arduous endeavor. I tried to bend down to get something in the fridge, and I couldn’t. My analysis is that I may have pulled or even sprained my right groin muscle somehow. I know — very cool, right? This could be a disaster.

I tried to carry on as normal and sat on an ice pack while I ate my muesli brunch.

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The muesli consisted of 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, 1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk, 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, and about two tbsp chopped dried fruit (berries, apricots, prunes, and raisins) from Newman’s Own Organics (yet another thing I had no idea that Newman’s made before yesterday). I let that mix sit for an hour during yoga and shower, and then I ate it on top of a cup of my tropical fruit salad and topped with some trail mix:

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And the pain persisted. I thought of the haircut, the laundry, the cleaning … everything I was finally going to do this weekend since I don’t have a ton of homework for once. But I couldn’t move!

I got up briefly from my ice pack around 4 to heat up linner. Here it is between the petals of the gorgeous roses Myrna gave me yesterday at work:

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I had some of Myrna’s chicken lasagna topped with homemade parmesan:

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And the rest of the Granny Smith apple slices from my work meeting on Wednesday with cinnamon and homemade almond-cashew butter:

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And then I hobbled to my room and napped for four hours because there was nothing else to do. I woke up a little after 8, got a new ice pack, took 3 ibuprofen, and called my mom and cried for an hour. I’m thinking I may need to go to the emergency room tomorrow? I’ve never had an exercise-induced injury before … and especially not a sprained groin which seems like the most awkward-possible location of a muscle sprain ever. Do you have any advice for me?

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things look less bleak in the morning. I don’t know what I’m going to do about this!

Frosted Friday

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I had a snacktastic breakfast this morning:

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But gym before breakfast. I did 15 minutes on the bike followed by 30 on the elliptical (again, trying to go easy on the old knees). Stats: 1 hour and 10 minutes, 397 calories, 123 average heart rate, 171 max. I know that strength has been conspicuously absent from all of my workouts this week. All of a sudden, I just can’t even stand the thought of doing the same old, same old. Coming up with a new plan is at the top of my agenda for the weekend.

My snacky breakfast began with 1/3 toasted blueberry bagel with 2 tbsp of a spread made of Greek yogurt, part-skim ricotta, goat cheese, lemon curd, and cinnamon. Topped with sliced strawberries:

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You MUST try this combo!! (Emily almost already has, with her blackberry and lemon curd filled wedding cake, drooooool.)

Breakfast snack #2 was 1/3 cup healthy lemon [curd] cream cheese icing (hidden on the bottom) topped with the last 1/3 cup spinach oatmeal, another dollop of icing, a spoonful of homemade almond-cashew butter, unsweetened coconut, and sliced strawberries:

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Along with a couple tbsp granola/trail mix/cocoa-java almonds for gradual mixing in:

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With soymilky black tea and sunlight of course 😀

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This afternoon will be interesting, as we have a four-hour long “fun” event planned that is going to involve discussion (and perhaps break-out groups and role-playing, my FAVORITE, haaaaa) of this book.

Lunch is going to be provided, but word on the street is that it will be pizza from a local pizza spot. I am aware that I live in NY, home of the best pizza in the world, and the notion of free lunch pizza should excite me … but I work in East Harlem. Not exactly the pizza capital of the city …. I’m bringing a bunch of snacks just in case.

P.S. It’s Friday! What will be the best part of your day today?

P.P.S. I mentioned the other day that I should have been born in the DR (Dominican Republic) because I am in love with the food my coworkers bring to share with me. My dad replied to the post, “We thought about having you born in the Dining Room but thought better of it.” His comment made me laugh out loud, and so I wanted to share 😀

All-in-one

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Well, I suppose it’s time to get moving on a recap of the entire day! Seriously, where does the time go??

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I got back into the cardio groove this morning (thank goodness because my body was craving some sweat action) with a solid run around the park. Stats: 4.2 miles, 41 minutes, 380 calories, average heart rate 160, max 173. Despite the cloudy chill outside, the air sort of smelled like spring. Do you know what I mean? And I saw a few little yellow daffodil buds peeking out on the side of the road. Very exciting!

I got crafty for breakfast. Last night, I mixed 1/4 cup of my spinach oatmeal blend with 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats and spread it on a plate to set in the fridge breakfast cookie-style. This morning:

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Because the cookie behaved so well, I smothered it with 1/3 cup of modified healthy cream cheese icing: nonfat Greek yogurt, part-skim ricotta, cinnamon, vanilla, and 1 tsp each of lemon curd and goat cheese. You may be skeptical of the goat cheese-in-a-sweet-meal combo you’ve been seeing on here lately, but believe me when I say it pairs perfectly with the lemon curd!

I topped it all with strawberries, granola/trail mix, and some cocoa-java almonds:

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I was running ridiculously late for class, so I ended up rolling the whole thing into a breakfast burrito of sorts and stuffing it into a container so I could enjoy on the train.

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And enjoy it I did!

I continued nibbling all throughout class, starting with a sliced apple and my second packet of Barney Butter from the Foods That Fit prize pack.

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(Sorry for the recycled picture! I got to class too late to do my usual photo shoot before it started.)

Next was the last two stuffed collard greens:

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With a half cup roasted veggies:

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And, of course, my colorific tropical fruit salad + yogurt topped with golean crunch:

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After all the healthy, I needed chocolate and peanut butter stat. Luckily, Lisa came through with this golden nugget:

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When I got back to the Slope later, I popped into the library to return a couple books and pick up my latest reservation, Gastropolis. I’m so excited for this one!

I also stopped into Union Market for samples — a cube of gruyere, two rice crisps, and some marinated mushrooms. I continued the snacking when I got home with 1/3 cup of fruit salad with trail mix and dark chocolate-pomegranate tea (leftover black tea from this morning, a fresh bag of TJ’s pomegranate white tea, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, splash unsweetened soymilk, spinkle of cinnamon):

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(Warning: Before you try this at home, I did not sweeten this tea because I was in the mood for some bitterness. If you’re not into straight unsweetened cocoa powder, you should prob add some sweetness!)

I got hungry again around 4:00 and decided to just go straight for dinner instead of messing around with some sort of snack endeavor. I made a quick open-faced sandwich with two slices of pumpernickel baguette (from work last week), a smear of goat cheese, slices of radish and granny smith apple (also from work), and two Sweet ‘n’ Spicy Black Bean-Salmon Patties.

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In the background, you can see the last 1/3 cup roasted veggies that I tossed in for bulk:

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Dessert was brilliantly fun! I heated about 1/2 cup of the Sylvia’s banana bread pudding from work yesteday (thanks again, Pura!) and froyo’d a mix of 1/3 cup Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup part-skim ricotta, 1/2 mashed banana, 1 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 tbsp peanut butter, and 1 chopped hershey’s kiss. Here’s the resulting chocolate chocolate chip peanut butter banana ice cream sundae, garnished with sliced strawberries to appease my dad and his brownness-aversion 🙂

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And to conclude, I had 1/2 a chocolate rugelach (from the Gastropolis event mentioned above) and two Jasmine Tea Biscotti Bites.

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Speaking of the bites, more reviews have been popping up around the blogworld, thanks to Vani and Brandi. Three dozen of these goodies could be all yours on April 6! Make sure you save the date so you remember to bid on these and other treats during Meghann‘s bake sale for a good cause!

kreativIn other exciting news, Dulcie of Daily Dulcie and Leanne of Fuel and Fitness have both awarded me with the Kreativ Blogger award. Thanks, ladies!! This is such a huge compliment coming from bloggers of your “kreativ” caliber 😀

When and where do you feel most creative?

    Food, doldrums, and a tale

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    Dinner last night was quick and easy because I was rushing to finish up that assignment. I had two more stuffed collard greens leaves:

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    And two Sweet ‘n’ Spicy Black Bean-Salmon Patties with a thick layer of cinnamon-cayenne peanut butter between them:

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    I see those weird looks you’re giving me, but come on, you know you want to try it!

    Halfway through I remembered about the radishes and lettuce in the fridge I should be using, so they got inserted into the middle. Less pretty but more nutritious:

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    Dessert was about 1/3 cup of my tropical fruit salad (look at that juice!) with a dollop of part-skim ricotta mixed with lemon curd and a sprinkling of granola/trail mix/cocoa java almonds:

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    And dessert dessert — the One Lucky Duck blonde macaroon sample from Sunday’s brunch:

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    This was delicious and made me think about how I really need to get into the macaroon-making business.

    This morning, I slept in until 6 and then did the 20-minute Morning Flow #1 yogadownload. On top of feeling achy, I’ve been feeling unmotivated about the gym and just stretched too thin in general all week. The yoga was a good way to combine extra sleep with more gentle exercise … but I also keep finding myself trying to make deals in my head, i.e. you didn’t do cardio this morning, so no cake today if some shows up. I need to stop that!

    I’m going to try to find some time this weekend to revamp the exercise routine because I think the biggest problem is that I’m getting bored.

    And, of course, spinach oats yet again for breakfast! (Click here for the process.)

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    Topped with strawberries, homemade almond-cashew butter, granola/trail mix, and unsweetened coconut:

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    And I’ll leave you this morning with a mini Tale of Expansion from my good friend Wife, who you met in a couple photos here. Wife is in the process of getting her PhD (!!!!!) in Athens, GA, but she recently spent spring break in Tucson with her boyfriend. Here is what she had to say about that:

    Ted and I went for high tea at the Tohono Chul Tea Room in Tucson over spring break. Not nearly as official and elaborate as the three tier Harrod’s affair when we were in London, but as you can see the scones still make me go crrrrraaaaaazzzzy.

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    What makes YOU go crrrrraaaaaazzzzy?