Tag: yogurt

Supporting roles

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In addition to the lunch and snacks I packed today, several supporting food items deserve appreciation and acknowledgement for getting me through! It started with a thick chunk of crunchy chocolate chip cookie that I discovered in one of the kitchens while filling my mug with tea water this morning. The cookie chunk became my 9:10 am snack:

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My orange came out to greet the world (and my mouth) at 10:30, and lunch took place at 12:30. As an intermediate course (or 3!) between my packed soup and yogurt, I enjoyed (seriously enjoyed) some of Mildred’s Chinese food broccoli:

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I love plain steamed broccoli, but there’s just something irresistible about how it’s done in a Chinese restaurant …

Myrna came along with her shrimp (!), beans, and rice, so I had some of that, too:

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And several (again, several = at least seven) pieces of Jessica’s cantaloupe:

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Then, Rosalie came straight to my desk with a box of Ghirardelli chocolates (!!) and gave me first dibs. I took one of each kind:

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They went into my empty tissue box because they’re wrapped and can stand to hang out for a little bit while I work through the unwrapped Russell Stover truffles I snagged yesterday. For lunch dessert, I extracted this from the tissue box:

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It turned out to be dark chocolate filled with vanilla cream … yum!

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At 2:30, the next round of packed snacks came up for air: green grapes and red pepper strips, just like yesterday. And also, I may have eaten my 3rd of 5 mints for the day:

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The real trouble began at 3:30 when Mildred came back into the office accompanied by evil in the form of rich, freezing, creamy, sugary deliciousness:

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Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I had about 1/3 cup and couldn’t help but crumble a butterfingery Russell Stover chocolate (you guessed it — from the tissue box) over the top:

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Ummmmm … and another 1/3 cup:

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Interestingly enough, the ice cream did have a positive side effect: it satisfied me enough for the rest of the day so that I was able to resist mindlessly inhaling the Z-bar I had packed :-).

I’m running somewhat behind schedule tonight, but I do know that dinner is going to involve serious experimentation with our apartment’s fall decor (that we finally decided to swap for some springier accessories!):

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Results of the experiment are forthcoming!

Things to do:

1. Caitlin is hosting a RoadID giveaway at Healthy Tipping Point, so go check it out!

2. Jamba Juice has coupons for $1 oatmeal again right here!

3. Now that Wednesday is over, do you feel like you’ve really jumped over the hump of the week? I do not …

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!