Tag: yogurt

Just call me Popeye

12 Comments

Breakfast this morning was another new and exciting (to me!) creation:

img_6512

I got up at 5 to go to the gym, got all my layers on, jogged there in the 30 degree weather … and found six other people waiting outside the locked and gated entrance! My gym is supposed to open at 5am on Mondays, and it was definitely 5:20 by this point, grrrrr. I gave it a few minutes, but every moment counts at that time of day, so I eventually gave up and jogged my creaky crunchy knees back home. It probably worked out better anyway since it gave me time to do the beginning Yoga for Runners #1 from yogadownload.com — my knees needed the rest!

So back to breakfast, yet another work of art inspired by Heather and her spinach oats!

img_6506

If you recall, I brought home a giant packed bag of fresh spinach leaves last week when we had extra in the food pantry at work. Despite diligently incorprating the spinach into salads all weekend, I barely made a dent! So last night, I made 1/2 cup stovetop oats custard-style and also added about four cups of spinach, half of a giant grated carrot, and a chopped apple. When everything was wilted and cooked, I immersion-blended my heart out. With the heat off post-blending, I mixed in another 1/2 cup oats (for texture), 1/2 giant mashed banana, 1/2 giant chunked banana, vanilla, cinnamon, 2 tbsp lemon curd, and 2 tbsp unsweetened coconut. The whole thing made just under 4 cups of oatmeal.

This morning, I heated 3/4 cup of the mix, set it on a bed of lemon yogurt (yogurt + more lemon curd + cinnamon), and topped it with strawberries, vanilla-almond granola, more coconut, and a big ol’ spoonful of homemade almond-cashew butter:

img_6510

And you know the soymilky black tea was not far behind:

img_6504

Thanks for yet another delicious breakfast idea, Heather!

I’ll be back much much later tonight because I’ve got class after work. Can I just say how much I love these endless Mondays??

Where do you go when you leave work at the end of the day?

Weekend remainders

17 Comments

More photos from yesterday …

Taken by photographer/organizer extraordinaire Melissa: Ashley (reader), me,
Dori, Missy, Danielle, Ashley, Gena (the Raw Foodist and soon-to-be-blogger), Mark, Heather, Shane, Emily, Amelia, Vani, Olga

pics-0031

And waiting in the subway station with Vani and Emily, my fellow slopers:

hpim2176

I eventually got around to another salad-infused dinner last night and finished up the contributions that I got from Inginia and Nydia Friday at work.

img_6487

This salad had greens, peppers, cranberries, corn, garlic-lemon juice, goat cheese, strawberries, roast chicken, s&p, and a drizzle of Annie’s Lite Gingerly Vinaigrette:

img_6493

Dessert came in the form of another salad!

img_6498

This combo of fruits made me feel like I was in Costa Rica, sigh. My fruit salad contained pineapple, mango, plum, grapes, strawberries, orange, and banana. I topped it with a mix of plain yogurt, lemon curd, and cinnamon. Plus a sprinkle of coconut and vanilla-almond granola because I couldn’t stop.

And yes, I did balance the bowl on the TV so that I could capture the last whimpers of natural sunlight for the day:

img_6502

I cooked a few things for the week (and nibbled on them, too, obv), including the latest oatmeal which will be along in my breakfast shortly!

Did you make any new friends this weekend?

Accidental 10

19 Comments

Let me just preface this by saying, I am not the kind of girl who runs 10 miles by accident. I am more likely to accidentally eat something like this:

img_6448

In second grade, it took me a full 3 seconds longer than the rest of the class to run the 50-yard dash, and my fear of running was born. However, something has changed in the past year, and not only do I find myself training for a half marathon, but I also woke up this morning with the urge to run.

I’ll just do 5 miles, I thought to myself. But then I made it over the Brooklyn Bridge and figured I might as well go back over to the other side and run to the next subway stop instead of taking the train back from the city. By the time I got to the next stop, I was hungry and really had to go to the bathroom and decided it would be quicker to run home than to deal with the slow Sunday subway schedule. I thought I’d done 8 or maybe 9 miles … but I gmapped it and found 10.5!! How did this happen?? Craaaaaaaaazy. Anyway, stats: 1 hour and 46 minutes, 876 calories, average heart rate 151, max 173.

Obviously, I spent most of the run dreaming about this:

img_6445

A Fitnessista breakfast cookie made with:

  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1/2 large mashed banana
  • 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 cup super-thick homemade Greek yogurt
  • 1 tbsp peanut butter

I was feeling feisty after my surprise run, so I made “frosting” with my last PB2 sample packet and 1.5 tbsp yogurt and smothered the cookie with it. I also couldn’t help adding a chopped square of Godiva dark chocolate and one mammoth strawberry‘s worth of slices.

img_6442

I’m just about to head out to the blogger brunch, and I will be ready to eat for sure! As even more proof that I’m crazy, I didn’t want to show up empty-handed, so I spent all of Thursday afternoon baking a million batches of teeny Earl Grey Biscotti Bites (but with jasmine tea in place of earl grey):

img_6457

In reality, I multiplied the recipe by six and not by a million, but that certainly was enough to keep me busy! Each pack only has four little bites (and the 5 non-blue packages have wheat-free and vegan versions — oat flour instead of whole wheat and all canola instead of canola/butter combo — because I imagine there will be a few vegans in the bunch), but something is better than nothing!

Hope you’re having a great Sunday!

I know you all accidentally grocery shop, but do you accidentally exercise, too?

Guess what!!

21 Comments

I’m DONE!! I finished the midterm tonight at 8:32 😀 So much faster than I expected, yayyyyyyyyy. And I’ve been on a roll with “relief” eating, but I’m stuffed now, so I think I’m through for the night!

As I predicted, lunch 2 came less than 10 minutes after my last post: my final fajita wrap sampler.

img_6401

It was still delicious, but after eating it three days in a row, I’m glad it’s gone!

Sometime a little bit later, I had these Earl Grey Biscotti Bites (x2):

img_6406

With chocolate tea (black tea, soymilk, unsweetened cocoa powder, cinnamon, cayenne):

img_6409

For dinner, I turned Mildred’s Dominican beans and pork (brought home from work yesterday) into a soup by adding veggie broth, a handful of spinach, and two crushed tortilla chips:

img_6416

Soooo tasty. And I love how my coworkers keep feeding me all weekend long 😛

img_6418

Dessert #1 was a mini breakfast dessert cookie:

img_64261

The cookie was a mix of 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats, 1 tsp goat cheese, 1 tsp lemon curd, 2 tbsp Greek yogurt, 1 chopped strawberry, 1 chopped square of hazelnut chocolate, and 1 tbsp vanilla almond granola. After letting the cookie “set” in the freezer for 20 minutes, I topped it with the last of my chocolate mousse mixed with 1/4 cup Greek yogurt and unsweetened coconut.

img_64211

I ate the cookie faster than the mousse, so dessert #2 was a piece of chocolate chip blondie from the freezer bag of desserts mashed into the remaining mousse:

img_6431

And, ummm, dessert #3 was a slice of chocolate chip brownie with chocolate frosting, also from the dessert freezer bag:

img_6433

Dessert #4 (I was in a celebratory mood!) was a spoonful of vanilla ice cream with an almondine cookie … you guessed it — from the freezer bag.

img_6438

And I’m pretty sure I had a piece of Lindt hazelnut chocolate, too. But like I said, I am now officially stuffed, so that should be the end of that! I’m lounging on the couch with a mug of sugar cookie sleigh ride tea and taking care of some other odds ‘n’ ends.

How many desserts did you eat tonght?

ewardAlso, a big, enormous thanks to Kailey for my second “eward” in one day! I LOVE reading Kailey’s blog SnackFace — she’s probably the busiest person on the face of the planet, but she manages to squeeze everything in with such a fun attitude 🙂

Tomorrow’s the big brunchy brunch, planned by organizational genius Melissa from Fitness NYC, and I’m so excited to meet all you NYC bloggies!

Brief interruption

12 Comments

Ahhh, there’s never enough time! I’m working furiously to get a midterm paper taken care of today so that I can enjoy the NYC blogger brunch with a clear conscience tomorrow. I have a feeling I may be up all night …

Onto the food! Breakfast, 10:30 am:

img_6381

On the left is an oatmeal combo of sorts. I stovetopped 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats with a small chopped apple, the usual spices, and 1/2 cup water. Then, I mixed the oats with 1/3 cup plain yogurt and a little dollop of lemon curd. On top went more lemon curd, a ring of chopped strawberries, and 2 crumbled basil-spice meringue kisses.

img_6377

On the right is a little 1/4 cup pile of mango surrounded by a starfish (so I can pretend I’m on the beach) of soy-lime coco loco tofu (the last of it) spread with 1 tbsp cinnamon-cayenne peanut butter and topped with more toasty coconut pieces.

img_6371

At some point late morning, I got up to make more tea and got sidetracked chopping all of my fancy fruit into an enormous fruit salad. Hmmmm, procrastinate much? I made a little snack plate of the pineapple core and the mango pit (with some homemade almond-cashew butter in the background).

img_6385

Lunch was a group effort.

img_6386

This salad was a mix of work contributions — from Inginia: greens, cranberries, roasted peppers, apple slices, roast chicken, garlic & lemon juice dressing; from Nydia: greens and corn; from the food pantry’s overflow: fresh spinach; from me: strawberries, goat cheese, toasted cashews, s&p.

img_6394

Variety:

img_6398

I’m still feeling munchy, so I bet lunch part 2 is just around the corner.

A couple things worth mentioning before I re-enter serious productivity mode (does that even exist?):

1. Danielle at A Year of Healthy Eating has presented me with my first-ever blogger award:

ewardDanielle was actually my first non-family/friend commentor on the blog back in January, and I’ve been hooked reading hers ever since because I love her honest and realistic approach to health. Thanks, Danielle!

In the spirit of community, I am going to pass this award onto two other bloggers who brighten my days!  Diana at Soap & Chocolate usually gets me laughing out loud, but my laugh was louder than average today when she amped up one of my oatmeal methods and renamed it  “Apple Aneurysm Baked Oatmeal.” And at the other end of the spectrum, Vani at Fit for Free consistently challenges me to reflect on my food-related behaviors with her thought-provoking and sincere posts. Thanks, ladies!

2. Mo Diva has let loose a torrent of peanut butter madness at Food Snob. Check it out!

OK, back to the midterm paper race against the clock! Who will win?? And do you ever spend hours working on something and then realize you haven’t gotten very far at all?