Thoughts on nutrition bars

Another Monday in the books!

Another Greek Yogurt delight served in ever-so-classy gladware and eaten at my desk.  To me, eating at home is time that could be spent sleeping.  I know you can’t really see what else is in there because I got a little too excited and went to town with mixing before I could take a picture–but there is blueberries, granola and chia seeds. So good!

AM Snack:

I needed something pre-run and this did the trick.  Today I finally finished off the never-ending bag of cuties that I have been plowing through working on.

Lunch was a veggie/hummus wrap and apple which was delicious but left me hungry about an hour later… so I broke into snack #2 to hold me over through internship and work at the gym.

Thus, the title of the post.  I usually try to avoid these processed bars but this was a free sample from yoga last night, so of course–being the unpaid intern that I am–I threw it in my purse without a second thought.

I have to say, it really was pretty good.  Almost too good… kind of like a chocolate bar but fortified I suppose!  Which was perfect timing because I then realized my multi-vitamin was sitting on the kitchen table at home. Whoops!  That being said, I think this is a better choice than a real chocolate bar or other notoriously bad afternoon snacks (pastry, bag of chips, etc).

apple + pb > luna bar protein > vending machine mystery food

thoughts?

My leftover curry dinner sure was convenient to heat up after a long day.  And much more satisfying than a lazy dinner!

Tomorrow is salad pot luck day at work.  Everyone brings 1-2 fixings and the entire office gets a fabulous and veggie-filled lunch.  A great idea for a special occasion that doesn’t involve cake!

Good night!

 

 

POM Wonderful

Look what I got in the mail!

I was SO thrilled when Kristin from POM Wonderful offered to send me some of their pomegranate juice to sample.  I stare this stuff down almost every time I go grocery shopping but the steep price tag scares me off.  In addition to a nice supply of the product, Kristin also sent me some great educational information on the benefits.

Some great things about the company and/or juice:

• No added sugar, preservatives, colors or cheap filler juices. I like this because usually when you buy pomegranate ANYTHING, the first ingredient is apple or pear juice.  Not that these are bad, but they lack the nutritional punch that pom does so you’re definitely getting a sub-par product with a fancy name.  Check your labels!
• From tree to bottle, POM Wonderful grows their own fruit, pick it by hand, squeeze it and manufacture their own bottles.  Impressive!
• WONDERFUL Variety.  There are actually  many different varieties of the fruit itself, but the “wonderful” variety is the one with proven health benefits.  POM juice uses this variation only.
• A symbol of health, fertility and rebirth. Super interesting that this fruit has been around for centuries because it seems like the hype has just started in past few years or so.  It’s definitely not a “fad” food by any means.  It has been proven through research-based studies to have positive effects on prostate cancer, erectile function, and of course is a fabulous source of antioxidants.

I tasted the juice immediately upon arrival of my package and it tastes FABULOUS!  I’m so sad that my supply is already half gone.  Although the price is high, it’s obviously for good reason and since the flavor is so intense, you could easily get away with diluting to stretch it out a little further.

Recipes involving the use of POM, coming soon!  Thanks a bunch, Kristin!

Foodbuzz Health Section

Check out the heavenly Mango Avocado salad I ate for lunch yesterday:

I saw this on the back of a sausage label and we had everything on the list so I gave it a whirl.  Remember the jambalaya?  The sausage we used was this kind. The leftovers were chopped up and thrown in with:

• Spinach
• Diced mango
• Diced avocado
• Honey Mustard
• GOAT CHEESE (this was my own addition…)

Dinner was at our Student Dietetics “banquet” which was potluck style and insanely good.  No pictures, but just think about the types of things a room full of future Dietitians would bring to a potluck… So good!

ALSO, has anyone heard of the new Foodbuzz Health Section?  I’ve been chosen as a Contributing Editor which means I’ll be doing some more detailed and structured posts relating to a different topic each month.  Thanks Foodbuzz, should be interesting!

My breakfast was supposed to be oatmeal until I realized we were fresh out of milk of all kinds… GAH! So I settled for this instead:

Ezekial cinn. raisin with white chocolate wonderful pb/banana and simply orange.  Lot’s of name-dropping in that one little sentence…

I’m so happy it’s already Thursday!  This is my last week of school before finals and I have another fun weekend coming up here.  The only thing that’s dampening my mood is the apparent allergies that I’ve acquired since moving to Colorado.  Not for sure that this is what’s going on, but my head feels like it’s going to explode at any moment and I can’t breathe through my nose or TASTE FOOD!  I know, right?  Tragic…

Does anyone know of a hollistic/natural way to relieve allergy symptoms?  I’m not into taking over-the-counter meds but I really would like some air here.  Let me know guys!

Prenatal class tonight, I’ll be sure to do a recap later on!  Have a great day.

Goat cheese makes everything better

Um yeah. You know that giant log of goat cheese I told you I bought after the Whole Foods trip last weekend?  Or maybe I didn’t… but regardless, it’s almost gone.  Seriously, I can’t find one thing that this stuff doesn’t taste good on!  The picture above is today’s lunch—my all time favorite veggie burger topped with goat cheese on a bed of spring mix with yogurt honey mustard dressing.

Lunch was pretty light due to my mid-morning Vivanno… Tried the Strawberry one today and it was pretty good.  Doesn’t hold up to my tried and true Chocolate Banana, but it’s definitely tasty and filling.  It’s gotta be the added protein powder!

Breakfast:

Sub-par at best.  Waffles just don’t do it for me but we are out of EVERYTHING in this apartment right now.  I’m headed to Colorado Springs for work tonight until Sunday so there’s no sense in going grocery shopping.  No milk or eggs in sight so I had to resort to the freezer. Blah.

I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve blogged… 2 whole days YIKES!  I promise to take some sweet photos this weekend because I’m going to a really cool event that I don’t know many details about.  Looking forward to getting a long weekend and having a legit excuse to leave town for a couple of days.

Have you guys tried this LARABAR?

If you love dark chocolate and coconut it’s probably going to be you’re new favorite thing in the world.  I ate it a few days ago but it was just too good to overlook…

Speaking of chocolate I think I’ll go find some… and then finish my Nutrition Through the Life Cycle case study so I can hand it in and be DONE for the week.

I’m also observing a Teen Prenatal Nutrition class tonight because I’ll be helping out with it over the summer so it should be pretty interesting.

And UNC’s STRONGMAN/STRONGWOMAN competition is tonight!!!!!! Weather permitting of course… let’s hope these clouds hold off until tomorrow when I’m out of town:-)

Have a great weekend!

Whole Foods Shop, Pizza + Beer

Yesterday was a fantastic day!!!!

The 5k race went well, I got some good relaxation time in, we made a trip to Ft. Collins to try out a new gym a.k.a. sit in the steam room for awhile, made a stop at Whole Foods, received some FABULOUS news from the fam, and spent the evening eating pizza and hanging out with good friends.

How can it get any better than that?!

A WF trip means that many of our favorite items get re-stocked.

My favorite Greek yogurt.

Bar stash replenished.

GRASS.  In packets for convenience factor–but I’ll probably buy a new container soon.  Pricey, but well worth the investment.

Best. salad dressings. ever. I’m a huge fan of the honey mustard, but we haven’t tried the blue cheese yet and I have the feeling it may be my new favorite.  There are LOTS of salads in my future due to this purchase.  Probably didn’t need all 3, but hey we can’t find these anywhere else and they’re that good.

2 small bags of organic goodies and$86.00 later…. Yowza!  I’m sitting in the car, buckling my seatbelt, thinking about how much good stuff I’ll be feasting on this week when I suddenly get a picture message sent to my phone from my brother’s girlfriend Julie.  Subject: I’m engaged, Picture: hand with diamond ring on finger.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! My big bro is getting married! Lot’s of screeching ensued… Yes, we are 12 years old. CONGRATS to 2 of my favorite people in the world! Love you guys!

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This morning’s breakfast was deeeeeeelicious.  Fage with some vanilla almond granola and peanut butter, plus some iced coffee and grass on the side.

I’m cleaning up my food intake and kicking up my exercise for the last month of school.  More of the good stuff, less of the bad, more running, more lifting, hopefully some Bikram, and lot’s of laughing—shouldn’t be a problem.

Check out this flight I had at Old Chicago last night.

I love having the option of trying 4 different mini beers instead of just sticking to one pint that I might not even like that much.  This was the “Staff Choice” and included Modelo Especial, Negra Modelo, Black Fox Saison, and Dos XX Amber.  All very good, minus the semi-flatness of the Dos XX.

There was also some amazing pizza consumed.  I’ve been CRAVING pizza like no other lately so this definitely hit the spot.

I can’t remember the name of it, but it had pepperoni and sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, black olives and red onions. And lot’s of cheesy goodness.

Hmm…So I guess pizza and beer isn’t the best way to “clean up my food intake” but I’m pretty sure that there is no better-tasting food combination in existence.  Any one care to dispute me on this one?

I’m currently finishing up a homemade iced coffee and contemplating a second so I can be extra productive with my school work.  Other plans for the day include cleaning, co-ed softball, a long run (I’m thinking a 6 miler), and a dodgeball championship game.

Lot’s of exciting things coming up in the next couple of weeks!

The perfect pre-workout meal.

Fridaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!! I had a really good day today.  Nothing super out of the ordinary happened—I just felt happy from the moment I woke from my deep sleep at 5:30am.  Started my day off with a nice little workout sesh which always seems to improve my mood by 100… ate this before I left the house:

This is pretty much the perfect pre-workout meal.  Filling, but not so much that I feel weighed down, easily digestible, good ratio of carbs fat and protein.  It’s easy to modify based on the intensity and duration of exercise too.  Example: If I’m doing a long run (6+) I eat the whole bagel instead of just half, and have a banana instead of the OJ.

And it’s also yummy.

Workout:

• 5 min treadmill warm-up
• BOSU squat and press
• Switch Lunge
• Stability ball wall squat
• Chest press, flies, push
• Step-ups
• Seated row
• Bicep curl w/pulse
• Bench hops
• Tricep dips
• Hamstring cable kickbacks
• Upright row to shoulder press
• BOSU crunches, side-to-sides, oblique twists, toe tappers
• Swimmers

Remember when I used to post workouts all of the time?  Maybe I need to start that up again…

Moving forward, Lunch was a new favorite Amy’s variety that I came across at the organic food store last week:  Lentil Vegetable.

Veggies make everything better. This was a great find.  I’ll definitely be buying it again!

The perfect pre-happy hour snack:

Not really sure why… I suppose any food is the perfect pre-happy hour snack!

Time to go beautify myself for the evening.  Have a fantastic weekend!

Extreme link love

Fantastic dinner tonight!  More on that near the bottom…

I love days when I eat lot’s of small meals as opposed to 3 bigger ones because I hate the feeling of being stuffed.  Usually it’s not that convenient for me though because I’m always on-the-go.  Today was a different story and here’s what I snacked on:

A whole bunch of my faves!  Oh and by the way, I think you know you and your roommate have a hummus problem when you finish 2 containers of Sabra in less than a week.  Yikes!

Did everyone get their Starbucks today??  They did some kind of environmental promotion so that if you brought in a reusable mug, you could get a free coffee—very cool in my opinion.  I definitely cashed in and it was extra delicious because the weather was gorgeous today!  Those kind people even gave me free soy because they’re classy like that.  Yes, I did indeed have the bux twice today.  So sue me!

Dinner

We had originally planned on grilling out, but it seemed a little silly to fire up the grill for two sausages so we cooked inside instead.

These were fantastic!  They were Saag’s brand and you can find the flavor I had here.  I could really taste the maple flavor and it was a nice switch from the traditional style.  Ingredients list is acceptable as well:

Chicken, Apple Juice From Concentrate, Dried Apple, Parsley, Sea Salt, Lemon Concentrate, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Vinegar, Spices, Brown Sugar In Natural Pork Casing

I like to see all whole foods.  Those sweet potato fries are Alexia Organic. They’re a new chipotle seasoned kind and have the perfect amount of heat. Holy linkage in this post!

I think I might try to take it easy tonight and get some studying done so I can workout in the wee hours of tomorrow morning.  Another fun and busy weekend ahead.  I’m volunteering at a 5K race on Saturday morning for Student Dietetics Association and playing intramural softball and dodgeball on Sunday.  Plus I have a ridiculous amount of school work to get going on because finals are creeping up quick.  Oh school.

Let’s hope the weather is warm so I can get some vitamin D this weekend too.  See you in the morning…breakfast will be something fun!

Bora Bora

TGIF!!!!!!!!! I can’t believe this day has finally arrived.  How relieved am I that I’m one class away from being on Spring Break for an entire week.  Life is good folks, life is good.

I just had a pretty spectacular lunch so thought I would drop in to show it off:

Cold couscous salad:

• Leftover couscous from the other night
• Chopped bell pepper, red onion, spinach, cucumber, tomato
• Raisins
• Goddess dressing

This was really good!  I basically wanted to get rid of some stuff in our fridge because we’re not going to be around much this weekend, and it turned out to be something I would definitely make again.  These grain-based salads always remind me of summer so that probably made it taste a little better too:-)

I had this fruit cup too because I was starving by lunch and I knew that I needed something else to hold me over

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Has anyone ever heard of/seen these bars before?

Because if you haven’t, you should definitely give them a try!  Bora Bora Organic Foods offered to send me a package of goodies to try out and after taking a look at the website, I was more than happy to accept a tasting kit.

Not only did they send me a ton of bars, I got a mug and a T-shirt too!  Pretty sweet deal…

So far I’ve only tried the Wild Pomegranate Pecan flavor (pictured above), but I have to say that I’m already a huge fan!  They’re flavorful and filling (lot’s of healthy fats from nuts) with minimal and REAL ingredients.  The basis of the company is pretty interesting as well and the flavors are all unique.

If I had to state a negative to these, it would be that they’re a tad sweeter than they need to be… but not to the point where I don’t want to eat it, I suppose.

Anyways, a huge thanks to the company for sending me all of this loot!  My roommate has already dug into the supply as well and I’m pretty sure the bars will be gone in the next day or two.

Stay on the lookout for these!

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I’m really excited for tonight because it’s my friend Amanda’s birthday so we’re going to do some late-afternoon shopping and have some much needed girl time.

Tomorrow we’re going out to dinner to formally celebrate with a big group of people and we’re eating at a really great restaurant!  I’ve been there once before and was in love with the atmosphere (umm…and sweet potato chips).  I’ll be sure to order something interesting to show case for you all!

I better get moving on the rest of my day so I have time to get a short run in.  Enjoy the remainder of Friday!

How to Jazz-up a boring meal.

Best canned soup ever:

I love everything Amy’s, but this is by far my favorite item she makes.  Buy it now!!!! I lugged my can opener from home so I could make this for lunch in between clients at work.  YES, I definitely will carry a can opener in my backpack all day if need-be.

Had this on the side…

And a slice of Ezekial w/laughing cow too (no picture because it was grabbed on impulse when I was on my way out the door).

Mid-morning library snack:

Dinner was salmon, sweet potato fries, and broccoli–all jazzed up of course.

We’ve been on a serious roll in the kitchen lately because this was another great meal.  Here’s how to make a boring meal flavorful without adding tons of junk…

Salmon—Marinate it in something before baking.  I used a mixture of balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, and maple syrup tonight.  It was the perfect mix of sweet and savory and the fish was really moist.  Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes and broil for a few more minutes at the very end to get a nice crust.

Broccoli—Ahhh yes, broccoli.  That vegetable that everyone loves to hate.  That’s because usually when it’s served, it’s an overcooked and mushy mess of a side dish with no seasoning.  Try adding lemon juice and cream cheese for an extra kick.  We used spinach and artichoke flavored cream cheese because we had it on hand and it was pretty amazing.

Sweet potatoes—I’ll admit that we cheated a little bit on this one because we used store-bought Alexia brand fries.  BUT, it’s really easy to create these on  your own for way less $$$.  Slice potatoes into fries, microwave for 5-6 minutes and coat with oil, salt and pepper, and chili powder.  Stick them under the broiler for about 5 minutes on each side and you’ve got fries in 15 minutes.  Not so hard, hm?

Coffee is brewing and I’m getting ready to do some major studying for the rest of the evening.  I was at work for 7 hours straight today!!! And even after being in a gym for that long, my only “formal exercise” was an abs class led by my friend Jon.  It was TOUGH.  And I’m actually beat just from being on my feet all day.

Gah! I wish I could just lay on the couch all night but I need to finish some stats homework instead.  Yay.  I’m ready for a hardcore nutrition schedule…  I’m so over lib eds.

Wish me luck on staying productive.  I’ll need it!

Playing catch-up.

It sure is tough to get back into the swing of things after taking a long weekend and missing 2 days of school… I think I’m finally almost there.  I’m taking a short break from the books to recap some things from the last couple of days.  First off, check out the new kicks! Saucony Pro-Grid Triumph 7.

Yeahhhhhh boy.

These are ones I’ve been wearing for the last 2 or so years, but the newer model and a flashy new color scheme.  I’m in love.

I got in a decent 5-miler today but for some reason my achille’s has been bugging me lately so I didn’t take it very fast and I definitely took a couple of walk/stretch breaks because I didn’t want to push it.  Blah.  I’ll admit, I feel really slackerish on days like these but I know it’s the safe thing to do.  Slow and steady, right?  I can’t believe I just said that….

Anyways, here’s what I had for food yesterday and today:

Tuesday

Cinnamon puffins, pumpkin granola, vanilla soy, a banana and the star of the show, this new find from TJ’s.

Yum.

Lunch was a veg sandwich stand-by.  I rarely go home for lunch, so when I actually have the time, I make sure to utilize the toaster oven (melted cheese makes everything better!).

Sabra roasted garlic hummus (the best), muenster cheese, spinach, sun-dried tomato, bell peppers, and cholula on ezekial bread.

And this salmon that I threw together for Tuesday’s dinner may just have to end up on the recipe page because it turned out pretty amazing…

I used my new peanut butter from Hell’s Kitchen.  So moist and flavorful!

Wednesday

I don’t know what it is about greek yogurt, but when I have it for breakfast it seriously holds me over better than anything else–even oatmeal I think.  This morning was no different… I ate at 6:00am and didn’t even thinking about lunch until 12:30ish when I had my first break.  That’s some serious staying power.  Check it out:

Fage is the best greek yogurt there is.  I’m not sure why they haven’t jumped on the organic train yet, but it’s as creamy as frosting and has 20 g of protein and 25% of your daily value of calcium in just one serving.  I would imagine that this is a weight-loss patient’s dream food.

I like it with granola, fruit, melted peanut butter and some agave nectar for just a little bit of added sweetness.  Yogurt and granola may possibly be the best food combination there is.  Onward!

Lunch was a veggie wrap, and some dried mango but my picture is nowhere to be found.  I know I took one!!!!! Strange…

And last but not least, this homemade Chicken Fiesta Soup.

Jessica’s mom made this for us when her family came to Colorado for Thanksgiving and we raved about it so she gave us the recipe (simplest soup recipe ever!).  We finally decided this was the week we were going to make it.  Ingredients?

• can of black beans
• can of refried beans
• jar of salsa
• frozen corn
• whatever broth you have on hand
• shredded cooked chicken breast
• 1/2 box spanish rice + seasoning packet

That’s all!  Love this recipe.

Time for me to get ready for a phone interview that I have tomorrow afternoon.  Hmmmm should be interesting.  Night!