Days 73 and 74

Day 73

Hello readers!  Today I had my go-to breakfast to start off my day.  And a few sips of coffee, but not a full one.  My sister-in-law (Bethany) emailed me to say that she tried my amazing go-to breakfast:

subject: mmmmmm

email: just tried your english muffin with pb and banana... so good!!!! yum best easiest breakfast ever!! xoxo

Need I say more?  Go try it!  Then post a comment! And email me!  I'll post your rave reviews!  We can start a WWEMw/PB&B fan club!  Total group membership: 3 (and counting).

For lunch, I threw some chicken nuggets in a salad.  If you're going to eat nuggets, you might as well throw them on some romaine, right??

During the day, I snacked on 1 cheese stick and 1 cup non-fat plain yogurt chock full of fresh blueberries and 1/4 cup granola.  Extremely tasty.  Go try that too.  

For dinner I went back to my planned list for the week and cooked up from steak salad.  I bought the steak already cut up at the grocery store and broiled it in the oven.  I probably over cooked it, but I never said I was Betty Crocker - I'm still learning!  Also in the steak salad was corn, red beans, and lettuce.  It just now occurred tome that I forgot to add tomato.  Whoops!!  

As a dressing I made a mix using Evoo, Red Wine vinegar, and sweet relish! 

Last time I made this salad, it was much prettier.  And I added a lot more veggies. 

 

For dessert I ate 1 chewy mocha brownie cookie.  Bet you forgot about those!?  They're still kickin in the freezer!!

Day 74

I started my day with my.... GO TO BREAKFAST!!! What a surprise!!!!! I bet you had NO idea! 

Seriously - try it.  Write to me about it.  You're welcome. 

I got to work early enough to get a skinny caramel mach. before my 9am meeting.  Smart choice for a smart woman.  

Lunch today was some leftover steak salad.  Hooray for eating leftovers!  My only regret was not bringing my own silverware to work, because cutting little cubes of steak with a plastic knife does not a good time make. 

Today I had a "go to snack," compliments of Chef MJ.  I also ate one apple and one cheese stick.  Are you sensing a pattern yet?


For dinner, we replaced the eggplant/kale/penne dish with the definition of a pot luck dinner - we used all the fresh veggies we had in the fridge (corn, broccoli and snap peas) and added whole wheat pasta and chopped up 2 veggie burgers (1 each).  I added some low fat mozzarella cheese to mine and MJ added tomato sauce to his.  A true mishmosh of food.  Here is the final result:

More Lollygagging

Here are some more clean eating tips and snacks from my good friend Sophia and her awesome fam at notimeforlollygagging:

http://notimeforlollygagging.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/a-little-clean-eating/

Day 72

Aloha!  I am not in Hawaii.

Breakfast
For breakfast today I tried something new and totally different!  I got a frozen breakfast called Amy's Organic Tofu Scramble which is all natural, has all ingredients I can read and pronounce, and was a nice change of pace from my normal breakfast routine.  The whole breakfast was only 320 calories and it definitely held me over until lunch time!  It wasn't extremely attractive to eat, but it was definitely palatable.

At work I drank a super big coffee.  Shocker.  Does anyone else find coffee a necessity on a Tuesday? 


Lunch
For lunch I had more leftover pasta and meatballs with tomato sauce.  I only had 1 serving of turkey meatballs and this will likely be the last time I eat the pasta.  I did find a single guy from my hometown who just moved in to my building and said he would love some free pasta, so I will be passing that on to him and advising him to freeze it or toss it.


Snacks
My snacks today were 1 red delicious apple and 1 slice of whole wheat bread with almond butter - my go-to snack.  We're at the point where Michael Jordan will pack his own almond butter slice every day!  I'm impressed how much our regular routines have changed since we started eating these new foods.
 

Dinner
MJ was working late today, so I met my fairy blog mother out on the town for this fun girls event (with free drinks) and then dinner.  At the girls event, they were sampling these new Micaelob Ultra Dragon Fruit Peach that is only 95 calories!  I didn't think it tasted anything like beer, but it was definitely sweet and pretty tasty.  Mom - you might even like it!

For dinner I got a bento box at this Asian place - my bento box came with seared tuna (probably 3 oz), broccoli, sweet potatoes, rice, 1 veggie egg roll and some veggie tempura.  It also came with a mango margarita, which was gross and was not consumed.  

The good news is that today was another high-scoring fitbit day!  17,400 steps (7.49 miles - 2308 calories burned) without setting foot in the gym!  And a lot of them in high heels!


Overall just an okay day clean-eating wise, but all for a good cause - Happy Birthday to my Fairy Blog Mother!!!  

Day 71

So I'm trying something new this week.  Instead of picking out a set day everyday, I picked out 6 dinners that I plan on making, and listed them here.  Now each day I'll pick a dinner and blog about how it goes!

Monday Morning Weigh In:
I was dreading this morning's weigh in.  Mostly because I know how bad I was this past weekend.  I was not surprised to see the number went back up 3 pounds.  However, my percent body fat went down about 5%.  I guess this means I'm actually gaining muscle!  Once I realized this I was no longer sad to be back at 5 pounds from my end goal. 

Today for breakfast I had my go-to englishmuffin/pb/banana with 3/4 cups of milk.

For lunch I had a salad with lettuce, chickpeas, cucumbers, tuna, tomatoes, broccoli, and some cheese.  I used a little balsamic vinaigrette. 

For snacks, I had 2 cheese sticks, some granola, a SKINNY caramel machiatto from starbucks, a little "whoopie pie" also from starbucks, and some smoothie that MJ made after work.

For dinner, I really wanted to make the Eggplant, Kale and Penne (since we still have so much left over pasta) but the grocery store is still not carrying eggplant!  I guess it's out of season?

I skipped ahead and made a Maple Soy Salmon, found in the "summer bbq" section of the best of clean eating cookbook.  Now I know I often make fun of the clean eating editors, but this recipe is a simple hit: marinate salmon in 1 tbsp pure maple syrup and 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce.  Grill.  Eat.  So easy.  Thanks editors!  

Since it is not warm out, I broiled the salmon instead of grilling it, and served it with brown rice and edamame.

The only change I would make would be to marinate the fish longer and use the extra soy-syrup as a sauce (we just used soy sauce alone).  

For dessert I had - you guessed it - a vitamuffin top.  Yum!

This Week's Meal Plan (Week of March 28)

Sorry for the lack of posting! My computer is getting repaired and should be back tonight. Here's what we have planned for the upcoming week:

1. Eggplant, Kale and Penne with pine nuts 
1. (Variation made on Day 74)
2. Grilled chicken with sweet potatoes and veggies
3. Steak salads 
1. (Day 73)
4. Grilled maple soy salmon with brown rice and edamame 
1. (Day 71)
5. Beef and broccoli orange stir fry
6. Tilipia citrus couscous salad 
1. (Day 77)
7. Leftovers

Tune in later this week to read about all these clean eating dinners!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

UPDATE: I've added links to each of the meals I ended up making this week.  Enjoy!

Days 67 - 70

Dear Readers,
I'm so sorry that I haven't been blogging!  I was about two days behind when computer mouse stopped clicking, and the apple store needed to borrow it for a while to fix her up.  She's back and working, and now I have a lot of food to share with you!  I'll try to do a quick synopsis since I have so many days to cover!  Unfortunately I have no pictures to share.  I'm so sorry, I'll do better next time!

DAY 67

For breakfast I had a half cup a kefir.  Clearly that means I was starving by the time I got to work, so I purchased an egg and cheese sandwich.  It was on white bread, and I can't remember the last time I ate white bread.  I tried to pick off the extra pieces/crust and only eat the egg-y and cheese-y parts.  Along with this white bread sandwich came a huge coffee.  

For lunch I ate the leftover Jack Daniels pulled chicken with brown rice.   


I ate a lot of snacks throughout the day, including:

• 5 multigrain flaxseed crackers with peanut butter
• 50 calorie blueberry yogurt
• cheese stick
• apple

For dinner, we went on a double date with our friends the Paternos.  I had edamame, 1 vegetable dumpling and delicious sushi.  We also had some tasty martinis and a few beers.

Overall, I did a good job eating up some of the leftovers we had in the house, but shouldn't have purchased breakfast AND dinner.  

DAY 68

For breakfast today, I had a whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter.  I couldn't have my "go to" breakfast because we were out of bananas.  

I met my fairy blog mother  for lunch and we shared a Chopt Salad, which as you remember is super low cal and also great for sharing!

For my snack I ate a Twix.  It was one of those days.  You know what I mean. 

For my other snack, I had a cheese stick.  Much better option.


After work I went to an African Dance class, and set a new "fitbit high score" with 18,482 steps!  Take that twix bar!  


After the gym I had a little bit of a smoothie that MJ made and then we ordered in some dinner.  I had some trout with a butternut squash and wheat berry risotto.  Delish!  Pretty sure it's not healthy though.

For dessert I had a VitaMuffin Top and loved it.

DAY 69

Tonight we had a big banquet for work, and I was hosting a pot-luck dinner before the banquet for some coworkers.  This meant that MJ and I needed to pre-workout in anticipation for the night to come.  We went for a run (about 3.3 miles) and ended at our favorite bagel place as usual.  This will surely become a once a weekend habit, weather permitting!  At the bagel place I got a whole wheat bagel (scooped out) with low fat cream cheese, lox, tomatoes and onions. 

The only other snack I had during the day was a "go to" almond butter slice. 


Then I made an epic amount of pasta.  For the pot luck, I was making pasta, some one was bringing different sauces, another person was bringing garlic bread, someone else was bringing bruchetta, someone else mini hot dogs and some baked cheese dish, others brought desserts, and of course all the men who were not domestically inclined brought alcohol.  

I think it's safe to say that this was definitely my "night off" of my clean eating meal plan.  I wasn't too too bad though!

However, I did set a new new world record in my own fitbit stats!   After running in the morning and dancing at the banquet, I put in 19,861 steps! And the crowd goes wild!!!!!!!

DAY 70

Today for breakfast I had a little 50 cal yogurt and a half of a banana.  Then MJ and I ran some errands (AKA to the apple store to bring my poor little laptop in to get fixed!)  We also stopped at Costco and I had a few free samples - turkey bacon, tuna, and apple juice!  Don't you just love free sample day at a food store?!  I mean they stuff they have is always so random but you can't help but try it, right?


For lunch we had pasta and turkey meatballs.  I mean I have a TON of pasta left over and hate to see it go to waste.  YES, I did call the local homeless shelter and unfortunately they can't accept cooked food.  


In the afternoon we had some cantaloupe and mini cheese quiches.  Also we had some brownies.  Also a caramel machiatto from starbucks.  I forgot to say a skinny one.  Shoot.

For dinner we went out to eat with the Jordans.  I had 2 little slices of bread and 1 cup of mushroom/barley soup (with 2 saltine crackers).  For my main dish, I had cod with green beans almondine and rice pilaf.  


For dessert I had 2 bites of dark chocolate with mint in it.  Totally unnecessary.  Man I was not good at all this weekend.  This is not going to go well tomorrow on that scale. 

Day 66

My first day without a meal plan.  On the agenda is to clear out our fridge of food that we acquired over the week.  I hate when leftovers go to waste.  

Breakfast: Fat-free plain yogurt with blueberries and granola
I certainly missed plain yogurt.  Sorry I've skipped you so many days my dear friend yogurt!  The blueberries and granola were a fantastic addition to the yogurt.  This would probably make a better snack than breakfast because I was pretty hungry shortly after breakfast.  Mental note to keep yogurt as a snack instead of a breakfast.  

Snack 1: 1 cheese stick. 
Pathetic, I know, but that's what I packed.

Lunch: pulled chicken sandwich with onions and green peppers on a whole wheat roll- just like yesterday
Today's lunch was just as good as yesterdays, and just like yesterday, someone again asked me where I bought my sandwich.  And, just like yesterday, I didn't have a camera to take a picture.  Sorry I've failed you. 
 

Snack 2: 1 huge, unhealthy cookie. 
I couldn't help it.  I was in the mall after work and passed the cookie stand.  I gave in to my cookie cravings and purchased $3 of unhealthiness.  I almost felt bad with each bite, but it was so good.  I don't even want to look up how many calories it was because I'm positive it's a number larger than I could ever imagine.

After my ridiculous snack, I went to the gym to a zumba class.  According to my fitbit, I walked 17,077 steps today!!!!  That puts my old record of 15,000 steps to shame!  I also burned 2,410 calories, which I think makes up for the cookie, but probably not.  

When I got back from the gym, I was famished and ate another cheese stick before dinner.   

Dinner
For dinner we cooked up a ton of the leftovers we had in the house: green pepper, scallions, onions, snap peas and spinach.  We sauteed the veggies and served them with whole wheat pasta.  I topped mine with mozzarella cheese, and MJ topped his with the Jack Daniels chicken.  We were both really happy with our meal.

Dessert - because I make the rules now!
I firmly believe that dessert should be a regular part of the daily meal plan!  Tonight for dessert, MJ and I split a VitaMuffin Top.  I would have had my own if I didn't scarf down a deliciously horrible cookie earlier today! 

Week 4, Saturday LAST DAY! (Day 65)

Holy cow, here we are.  The last day of the 28 day meal plans... only took 9 weeks!

I honestly cannot believe I got through all 28 days and that I actually continued to blog the whole time.  No, I will not be stopping.  Tomorrow will be a leftover day and then I've yet to decide whether I will continue by either:

• repeating days I liked
• repeating days I didn't do right the first time
• using meal plans from the Clean Eating Magazine (available online)
• making my own meal plans
• trying new healthy meals, muffins, cookies, etc. from the rest of the clean eating cookbook

I'm interested to see what you would most like to follow, but ultimately the decision is mine.  I don't want to stop because I've seen such great results by clean eating, I'm afraid that I will make backwards progress if I don't continue to follow some type of meal plan.  

But that will be after a few days of leftovers anyway.  I'll also write another post with things I've learned, the best meals, and the worst meals.

Now without further ado, Week 4, Saturday!


Breakfast: 1 cup quinoa with 1 sliced banana; 1 cup low fat milk
Although I was a fan on quinoa for dinner, I can't say that I'm a fan of quinoa for breakfast.  This kind of reminded me of oatmeal, only very different.  I couldn't stomach the thought of adding a banana into the quinoa, so I ate that separately.  I got though maybeeee half of the quinoa.  I'll try it again another time.

When I got to work I ate one minimini (very tiny) blueberry muffin and one bigbig (very needed) coffee.




Snack 1: 8 multigrain flaxseed crackers, 2 tbsp natural almond butter, 1 apple

Shockingly, I messed up this snack.  Very fitting for the last day, right?  I packed peanut butter without realizing until right now it was supposed to be almond butter.  The peanut butter with the flaxseed crackers was a great combo.  I highly recommend it.

The apple was refreshing and light as always.  I realize that I only really like bites with skin.  I also like apples 1000 times more if they are cold (aka straight out of the refrigerator). 




Lunch: 3 oz shredded lean pork chicken, 1/4 cup onions and 1/4 cup green pepper with 1 tbsp low-sugar bbq sauce on 1 whole wheat sandwich roll; 1/2 cup strawberries.

I looked high and low in my grocery store for a "low-sugar" BBQ sauce to no avail.  I was going to settle for regular bbq sauce when I found this great Jack Daniels pulled chicken (precooked) mix.  The calories for one serving was really low and I knew that 3 oz was going to be way less than what they consider a serving.  Plus it saved me the convenience of having to buy both pulled chicken and a BBQ sauce.  Plus it was delicious.  I microwaved my sandwich when I got to work and when a co-worker saw me eating it she asked if I purchased it!  That's how good it looked!  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera at work, or else I would have snapped a photo for you.  If/when I make this sandwich again, I'll be sure to take a picture!

I ate the strawberries with my afternoon snack, mostly because it was easier to package all the fruit together in one container!



Snack 2: 1 oz goat cheese; 1/2 cup blackberries


1) goat cheese is not portable
2) goat cheese is not meant to be ate without crackers
3) I forgoat (pun intended) to pack the goat cheese. 


Instead, I intentionally replaced the blackberries with blueberries and ate them with my strawberries.  Delish!




Dinner: Spinach Salad (2 cups spinach, 3 oz tuna, 1 chopped hardboiled egg, 1/2 cup mandarin oranges and 1 oz chopped walnuts with 1 tbls balsamic vinegar and 1 tsp dijon mustard); 3.4 cup low-fat plain yogurt with 1 tsp honey.

This was a very simple, light, easy meal to put together and a great way to end my 28/65 days of meal plans.  I liked not having to really chop up anything.  MJ doesn't like tuna, so I used some of the Jack Daniels chicken in his salad, which he really enjoyed.  

Here's a picture of my salad without the dressing, which was served on the side.
 

 

As per usual, I forgot to eat the yogurt.  I now have a huge container of yogurt that was supposed to be eaten a number of times this week, and managed to get skipped each time.  I'm not sure why - I really do like yogurt, especially when I have some berries throw in.  I was interested in trying the yogurt with honey as well.  And granola.  These all sound like good ideas for my future meal plans :)

So that's it.  28 days completed.  MJ and I poured minimini glasses of wine as a toast to how far I'd come, even if it did take 9 weeks to get there!

Week 4, Sunday (Day 64)

Monday Morning Weigh In:

I lost another half pound this week.  That means I'm only 2 pounds away from my goal weight.  I'm also 2 days away from finishing the meal plans in the book.  

Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 chopped apple, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 cup low-fat milk; 3 egg whites

This morning's breakfast was pretty good.  I ate the apple as a whole apple instead of spending time chopping it up.  The oatmeal was decent with the cinnamon.  I upped the milk to 3/4 cups and instead of 3 egg whites had 1 hard boiled eggwhite.  Very filling.
  
Snack 1: 2 tbls natural almond butter, 1 whole wheat English muffin

This was a nice twist on my normal "go to" breakfast.  I think I like peanut butter on an English muffin better than almond butter on an English muffin, but it wasn't bad at all. 

Lunch: 1/2 cup edamame, 3/4 cup wild rice; 1/2 cup blueberries with 3/4 cup yogurt

I vote this meal in the "strange" category.  When I went to prepare this lunch in the morning, I was disappointed to see that MJ selected a package of edamame that expired the week before.  I could see that the edamames were brown and slimy inside.  I ran to the grocery store and went right to the customer service desk.  They let me replace the edamames, but all the fresh packages were expired or dated today (I advised the customer service lady to take the bad edamame off the shelves) and so I had to get frozen edamames.  This only required a little more effort on my part in the morning, but I definitely like the ease of using the fresh, shelled edamames.

Instead of wild rice, I used microwavable frozen brown rice.  Way easier since I had to spend more time with the edamame.  I threw in some soy sauce as well to add some flavor to  my otherwise boring lunch.  


I never got around to eating the yogurt or blueberries.  Whoops.


Snack 2: 1 sliced banana with 1 tbsp natural peanut butter wrapped in 1 whole wheat tortilla; 1 handful unsalted almonds

Another snack similar to my "go to" breakfast and lunch, but different.  This was a pretty good snack, but could definitely use a big cup of milk!  


I also had 1 mini Reese's Peanut butter cup.

And a free iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts (SO MUCH BETTER THAN STARBUCKS!)

And 2 beers at happy hour.

Dinner: 3 oz grilled pork chop (replaced with chicken thighs), 1 cup torn romaine lettuce and 1/2 cup chopped cucumbers with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 1/2 tsp evoo; 1 cup cooked black beans; 1/2 cup cooked quinoa

MJ and I don't eat pork, so we replaced the pork with some chicken thighs.  I ended up broiling the thighs so they would cook fasted.  We also didn't have any black beans, so we used a can of chickpeas instead, which went well with the "salad" side dish.

This was my first time making quinoa.  My mom warned me to rinse the quinoa a few times before I cooked it to get off the "yucky" taste.  Rinsing quinoa is kinda tricky because it is so small!  I need a strainer with smaller holes!  Mom also suggested throwing fresh, raw garlic bulbs into the water while the quinoa was cooking to give it some added flavor.  I think the final result turned out very successful!

 

Looks good right!??!?! It was super filling and I would definitely make this meal or some combination of this meal again!     


The only negative thing was the amount of dishes I used making this meal.  Good thing the rule in our house is whoever cooks doesn't have to do dishes!  Thank you, Michael Jordan.

Also, I didn't go to the gym today, but Mr. Fitbit says I walked 12,419 steps (5.35 miles) and burned 2,152 calories!


Also, I now have over 3,000 blog hits!  Thank you for reading my blog!!! Maybe one day my blog hits will surpass my fitbit steps.... maybe...

Days 61 - 63

Hello all!  This Saturday I had a huge event for work, which is why I've been exhausted all week and not eating my best.  Here's how the weekend played out, clean eating wise:

DAY 61

For breakfast I had a cup of Blueberry Kefir.  Kefir reminds me of those drinkable yogurts I used to have as a kid.  Gogurt I think it was called. Was there another kind?  Mom feel free to comment if you remember!


I honestly can't remember what I ate for lunch.  I'm 90% sure I had my "go to" snack of almond butter on whole wheat bread, but I can't say for sure.  Sorry :(

For dinner, we had a "kickoff" cocktail hour for the big event.  At the cocktail hour I had some wine, some bites of cheese (I love brie cheese!), 1 beef satay stick, 1 coconut shrimp, 1 mini chicken empanada, and some pita chips with artichoke dip (not very good).  


After the kickoff cocktail hour, we stayed at work until past 11 working to finalize things for the big event.  I ate a twix bar.  It was 100% necessary.  One of those "In case of emergency, break glass" type of things.  You understand, right?  Great, thanks!

DAY 62

Today was the day of the "big event".  In the morning, I wanted my "go to" breakfast, but we didn't have any bananas, so I settled for a whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter only.  I also had a huge coffee.


During the day, I only ate 1 granola bar and 1/4 whole wheat bagel.


Next thing I knew it was 6pm and the event was finally over and I was ravenous!  I had some chips and bean dip, and then we went out for Spanish Tapas to celebrate a successful event. 
I had a few bites of the following items:

 

We also order Sangria, and then we went out drinking.  I allowed myself to have beer.  Partly because I knew I had eaten so few carbs that having beer really wouldn't matter, and partly because I just really wanted to, and I make my own rules!

DAY 63

HOOORAY!  For the first time in a LONG time I could sleep in today!  And then, I had absolutely no plans.  Probably the best day ever.  Mr. Jordan and I decided to start our day with a nice run, and then to end at our favorite bagel place (where the owner knows us by name and has 2 waters ready for us as soon as he sees us!)  The run was great - I surely missed the warm weather and I like spending that quality time with MJ.  When we go to the gym together, MJ is in the "big boy" room with all the weights, while I usually just go to a class.  

For brunch at the bagel place I had a whole wheat bagel scooped out with chicken salad, lettuce, tomatoes and onions.  It was delicious.  They use cranberries in their chicken salad so it reminds me of thanksgiving!  

After we ran/walked back home, I check my FITBIT STATS and found that we had taken over 7,000 steps and traveled about 5 miles.   I didn't look at the exact mileage before we left, so that's an approximate guess. 

In the afternoon, I ate a health valley granola bar and a little bit of thai food leftovers.  


Since it's March Madness, and there are few things in life I enjoy more than March Madness, MJ and I made some homemade guacamole and homemade pita chips as a snack to enjoy the basketball games.  Delish!  

homemade guacamole!

homemade pita chips!

For dinner, I made a quick and easy salmon with cauliflower.  Just broiled in the oven for 10 minutes.  We weren't really hungry, so it was the perfect, light dinner to end our relaxing, pleasant day.

 
Only bad part about today was that my basketball team lost.  Time to start rooting for the underdog!!

Days 57 - 60 (Week 4 Thursday and Friday)

Monday Morning Weigh In:
I lost 3 pounds this week!  I can't believe it.  I've lost 11 pounds in 8 weeks and now I'm only 2.5 pounds away from my goal weight!  I'm really happy with the way I've been losing weight.  Not a lot at one time and I really don't feel like I'm on a diet.  I cheat.  I eat twix bars.  I substitute out things I don't like for things that sound better.  I drink.  But I do everything a lot less than when I wasn't "eating clean."  It feels great to have made this progress.  In fact, today a male friend of mine asked me if I lost weight.  I didn't think my weight loss was noticeable and I really enjoyed getting that compliment from my friend.  

***Now since it's been so many days since I've blogged, I can add that three separate friends have come up to me to tell me it looks like I lost weight.  Feels great to know that my hard work has been noticed.  Thanks friends!

DAY 57

I did not follow a meal plan today.  


For breakfast, I had my "go to" breakfast.  Whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter and bananas.  And I look lots of pretty pictures for your enjoyment.  

Also, MJ made a smoothie for breakfast, so I drank about 1 sip.

For snack 1, I had my "go to" snack.  A slice of whole wheat bread with almond butter.

My new best friend, Mr. Almond Butter

Folded up, ready to go!

I had another snack later, because they were giving out free FREE free chocolate pudding at work.  I looked at the label and recognized everything, so pudding I did eat.


For lunch I had leftovers from when we went out to dinner the night before.  Essentially, I had some rice and veggies left over, so I added my own cooked grilled chicken to make it a meal.  Yum!

For snack 2, I ate some grapes.  No picture, but they were green.


Dinner
Tonight for dinner I decided to make pizza!  I wanted to reward myself with some food that I love and show that anything can be healthier and still taste good!


I open up my good ol' clean eating cookbook and find pizza in the index.  SHOCKINGLY the page numbers are wrong.  Seriously???  Where are the editors to check for these things?!  I flip through until I find the pages and essentially find out that if I don't feel like cooking my own dough (which I certainly do not want to do) then it's just a matter of finding pre-made whole wheat dough and putting whatever topics I like on it.  The cookbook also comes with a website for more pizza ideas.  I'm excited and check out the website they've given me.  And, the link doesn't work.  You go ahead and try it and tell me - www.cleaneatingmag.com/pizzacombos.  No go.  @#%$!$.  Seriously?  Seriously.  Edit this sh!t.  You are editors, after all.  


Apparently my grocery store doesn't have any whole wheat pizza dough.  We compared calories for our other options and picked the next best thing, and then bought a can of diced tomatoes (better than a jar of sauce), mushrooms and peppers for topping, part-skim mozzarella cheese and lots of spices.   Delicious!

Also I had a glass of wine.  Red wine.  

DAY 58

My goal today was to do a meal from week 4 meal plan.  I even went to the grocery store to buy everything last night.  But I woke up late and had 20 minutes to get dressed and get out the door, so if it wasn't already wrapped (i.e. bananas and granola bars) it wasn't coming with me. 

I started my day with a banana and a very large coffee.  My first snack was a Health Valley Double Chococlate Chip Granola Bar.  It was pretty good for a healthy granola bar. 


Lunch

As I said before, I didn't have time to pack a lunch.  I ventured into Mexican place by my office.  But remember, I vowed never to eat a ridiculous taco again. I saw that they had a special "tofu fajita."  Call me crazy, but I tried it.  Crazy!  Essentially they were 2 small tortillas with grilled onions, peppers, tofu and some cheese.  They were..... eh. ok.  Just ok.  I would never order them again but I didn't keel over and die.

When I got home I found out that those muffins I made went bad.  Guess failed didn't pass my "last a long time" test.   

My sister in law, Bethany, had been telling me about these things called VitaMuffins, so I finally looked for them in the grocery store.  I could read all the ingredients so I bought a box of VitaMuffin Deep Chocolate Muffin Tops.  I opened up the box and threw one in the microwave for a few seconds.  It was pure deliciousness.  Enough so that I made Michael Jordan try one when he got home.  Okay half of one - I ate the other half.  With a big glass of skim milk.  Delicious Delicious Delicious!!!

Dinner

For dinner I made another salad - spinach, grilled chicken, pistachios, craisins, blueberries, blue cheese, raspberry walnut dressing.  Yum! 

DAY 59 (Week 4, Thursday/Friday)

Today I really did make an attempt to follow the meal plan.  After all, I'm so close to finishing and bought all the foods to Thursday and Friday!  But, I accidentally switched what I was doing half way though the day, so I created a little Thursday/Friday mutant baby.  Oh well.

Breakfast: 1 hardboiled egg; 1 apple, 1 slice whole-grain bread, 2 tbls natural almond butter (Friday)

I liked having so many things for breakfast.  I ate the egg at home and then spaced out the rest of the breakfast during the morning.  I prefer snacking to having a large meal.

Snack 1: make ahead watermelon freeze (purée 2 cups watermelon chunks with 1/2 tsp fresh lime juice; freeze in a small cup with stick to make freeze pop); 1 cup low fat milk (Thursday)

This sounded way too complicated for a morning snack, and I wasn't about to try to bring a frozen watermelon freeze pop to work.  So I just ate watermelon.  Just plain old water melon.  No need to complicate things.  Skipped the milk.  I don't bring milk to work.

Lunch: 3 oz grilled chicken, 1/2 cup spinach, 1/4 cup each green and red bell pepper, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1/2 tsp fresh ground blakc pepper on 1 whole wheat tortilla; 1 cup low-fat milk (Friday)

I simplified this lunch: threw some chicken, cut up peppers, and lettuce onto a wrap and sprinkled some red wine vinegar on it.  Wrapped it in some tin foil and threw it in my bag.  Super fast because we had left over peppers cut up from our pizza the night before.  This didn't taste like anything really.  Just a different way to eat a boring salad.  Skipped the milk.  I don't bring milk to work.  Still.

Snack 2: 1 cup blackberries, 2 oz goat cheese, 4 multigrain flaxseed crackers (Thursday)

I obviously replaced the blackberries with blueberries.  For the goat cheese and crackers, I bought this flavored goat cheese (olive and... something) that was low cal and spread it one some crackers.  Didn't really love it.  Ok didn't really like it, but I survived the 4 crackers.  I'll probably let that one expire... quickly


Dinner: Meh (Neither)
 
My dinner plans were spoiled because I got held up at work.  While I was stuck at work, I had an apple and another health valley granola bar.  

When I finally got home I was exhausted and decided I was only patient enough to make some eggs.  I whipped up some eggwhites with mushrooms, orange peppers and part-skim mozzarella cheese.  

Then I passed out from exhaustion.

 

DAY 60 (Week 4, Thursday/Friday)

I was a little discouraged today because most of the things I needed to complete the Thursday/Friday mutant child day are gone now.  I made do with what I had and ad-libbed the rest. 

Breakfast was supposed to be: 1 banana with 1.5 tablespoons natural almond butter; 4 hardboiled egg whites (Thursday)


This breakfast failed because we had no bananas or hardboiled eggs left.  I made a "go to" almond butter bread slice and called it a day.

I think we've seen this before...

Snack 1 was supposed to be: 1 pear, 1 oz goat cheese (Friday)
 
This snack failed because I didn't have a pear and didn't want to eat goat cheese without crackers.  So I replaced the pear with an apple and ate a mini twix bar.  A mini one I swear!!

Lunch: 2 cups torn Boston lettuce, 3 ox tuna, 1/4 cup each chopped carrots, celery, cucumber, scallions and basil with 2 tbsp red wine vinegar and 1 tsp evoo; 1/2 cup brown basmati rice

This lunch failed because I didn't have time to make rice.  I ate the rest of it, and it was horrible.  Just tasted like soggy red wine vinegar leaves.  Horrible.  I ate some of the tuna threw it out.  

I had a few cubes of cheese and crackers instead.  And 2 mini milky way bars.  Mini ones, I promise!!!

Snack 2: 2 tbsp hummus, 10 carrot sticks, 4 multigrain flaxseed crackers (Friday)


This snack actually didn't fail, per se, but I did upgrade it.  I ate hummus with snap peas and carrot sticks.  No crackers. 



Dinner: Nope (Neither Thursday or Friday)

MJ and I decided that since we actually had time to sit down together and eat dinner and watch some March Madness, neither of us wanted to cook.  We ordered in some thai food.  I had 2 steamed veggie dumplings, some Chicken Pad Thai and some Chicken Pad See Ew.  Mr. Jordan consumed twice as much as I did.  Good lord, why can't he gain weight???

For dessert I had a nice glass of white wine and split a vitamuffin top with MJ.  Perfect dessert after a not so perfect day.   

Sorry it's been so long between posts.  I promise to do better.

Lollygagging & Menu Planning

Even though my last blog post was very underwhelming, I'm pleased to send you a link to my friend Sophia's newest blog post - all about tips and tricks for healthy snacking.

http://notimeforlollygagging.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/motivation-monday-plan-ahead/


Also, the Orgjunkie.com website features weekly meal plans and tips for organizing your life.

http://orgjunkie.com/2011/03/menu-plan-monday-march-14th.html

Day 56

Boring alert!!!


For breakfast I had a muffin and a coffee.
For lunch I had leftover salad from Chop't.  My pita chips were soggy.
For snack I had a cheese stick and some cocoa almonds.
For dinner I went out to eat.  


We went to the same restaurant we went to the same restaurant we went to on Day 10 for Dinner, and I ordered essentially the same thing.




Worst post ever.  Not even worth tweeting.


Weigh in tomorrow!  8 week mark!

Days 53, 54 and 55

In order to fight off my problem with leftovers getting lost in my fridge, I interrupted week 4 for a few days of leftovers.  Brace yourself for the boredom (but at least there are pictures!!):

DAY 53

For breakfast I had about a cup of Nature's Path Optimum Blueberry Cereal... or whatever it's called.  


For lunch I had leftovers from Day 50's Lunch.


During the day, I snacked on:

• cheese stick
• 2 whole wheat crackers with peanut butter
• cocoa almonds
• 1 apple

For dinner, I used the leftover chicken (4.5 oz) and made a salad with spinach, grapes, strawberries, pistachios, and some blue cheese.  I topped it off with a little raspberry walnut dressing, which is not very healthy but I used a very minimal amount. 

After dinner I tried out a new healthy breakfast muffin recipe, that I will post about another time.  I know, talk about cliff hanger, right?!?  Just like the girl with the dragon tattoo trilogy - which I highly recommend!!!  

DAY 54

Today for breakfast I had 2 healthy muffins - post coming soon.  


For lunch I made a "healthy taco" using a whole wheat tortilla wrap, veggie burger, black beans, part-skim mozzarella cheese, chopped tomatoes and chopped onions.  It was pretty good, and a nice variety to the usual veggie burger meal.


My snacks today were:

• 1 chewy mocha brownie cookie
• 2 mini muffins
• 1 cheese stick
• cocoa almonds
• handful of grapes

For dinner I decided to re-make Lunch from Day 50 and upgrade it.  This time, I replaced the tofu with shrimp and the green onion with red onions.  Those little changes made a HUGE difference.  I would highly recommend this version of the meal - and it took no time to make!

DAY 55

Sorry for the lack of postings.  I've been unbelievably busy with work and just had a half second to sit down and finish up this post so you can read all about my lovely meals.

Today for breakfast I had a VERY LARGE cup of coffee and 2 healthy muffins.  I think.  I'm so tired I can't even remember what I ate for breakfast.  That is horrible.  I bet I'll find 3000 typos in this post when I re-read it.  Sorry for the severe sleep deprivation.

I snacked on an apple, cheese stick, and cocoa almonds in the morning.  

I ate a really late lunch from Chop't - a salad place that makes yummy salads. I had a salad with shrimp, tomatoes, avocado, pita chips, chick peas and a spa asian dressing (on the side - barely used it).  The nutritional info is the most complicated thing I've ever seen, but I think my salad was about 400 calories.  Which is amazing because I didn't even eat half of it.  Chop't = winner.  Or I = horrible at figuring out their nutritional info and I'm totally wrong and just too tired to figure it out.

I was exhausted all day and my friend Aimee and I were working overtime on this ridiculous project we have for work.  I was dreading when dinner time approached.

But then guess what happened for dinner?!?!!  

You will never believe it!!!

MJ COOKED DINNER!!!!

This is a rare occurrence in this household, so praise, thanks, and compliments must be given so that MJ will continue this new trend.

Chef Jordan prepared an feast for us, comprised of scrumptious morsels of chicken mixed with a medley of greens served over steaming brown rice a topped with a glazed orange soy.  

AKA he made asian stir fry.  Chicken.  Veggies.  Rice.  Asian flavoring.

But hey, I didn't have to make dinner so major props to you Michael Jordan!!

After dinner I had some low fat chocolate frozen yogurt and low fat cookie dough ice cream for dessert.  

And a large glass of wine to make the work seem less painful.

Now I think I need to get some sleep, since I'll be losing an hour anyway for daylight savings.  Sigh.  This may call for some more wine.

Also, I'm officially at 2,000 blog views!!  Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable for my clean eating life style.

Breakfast Muffins

I've been on a hunt to find a breakfast muffin that's meets the following criteria:


1) healthy
2) easy to make
3) takes good
4) keeps well (either fresh or frozen)
5) filling


As I search for the perfect breakfast muffin, I will keep you updated with the contenders and candidates that I try.


First up, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins from the Cook Yourself Thin Cookbook.  


Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 Tbls vegetable oil
• 2 large organic eggs
• 1.25 cups reduced-fat buttermilk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons chocolate chips

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 400º, line muffin tray with paper liners
2. Mix both flours, oats, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt and mashed banana.  Blend on low speed for 2 minutes.  
3. Add the walnuts, brown sugar, oil, eggs, and buttermilk.  Blend on medium speed for 2 minutes.  
4. Add vanilla, mix until well combined.
5. Scoop into the muffin tray.  Top with 3 or 4 chocolate chips.
6. Bake for 15 minutes.  Cool.  Serve.

I would probably give these muffins a 3/5.
Pros: easy to make, lasted a few days, pretty filling
Cons: not extremely tasty (unless you got a chocolate chip bite), 200 calories per muffin, grainy consistency.


If I were to make these again, I would probably add more chocolate chips, which kinda defeats the purpose of a healthy muffin.


Feel free to post comments with healthy muffin recipes, and I'll try them out!