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!

How to Make the best grilled cheese ever

5 steps to making the best Grilled Cheese Sandwich ever:

1. Spread 2 pieces of bread with butter on the outsides, and a Laughing cow wedge on the insides.
2. Add 1 slice of colby jack cheese, dijon mustard, spinach leaves and hot sauce to the inside.
3. Place in a buttered skillet, and press with a spatula.
4. Heat up some Amy’s Chunky Tomato Bisque.
5. Dip Grilled Cheese in soup.

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!

A veggie kind of day

I’m thinking about a gazillion things right now, so bear with me if I’m a little all over the place.  I’m just SO EXCITED for my trip tomorrow I can’t even stop smiling!!! I’ll back up to lunch/dinner…

The Cheba Hut was SO GOOD. I had to take a picture of this sign above the register because the place was hilarious… everything followed this same relaxed theme.

Once we got inside we found out that there’s actually a party going on there tomorrow night and they’re having a ranch chugging contest.  Can you imagine???? The first one to down 24 oz wins $100 and free subs for a year.  I don’t think I could ruin my taste for ranch though.  It’s just too good!  I would totally be up for going to watch if I was going to be in town though because all New Belgium beer is on special for $1 ALL DAY.  I’m not sure if any of of you have tasted the deliciousness that Fat Tire is, but let me tell you, it’s pretty darn good.

Anyways, I decided to go with the Magic Mushroom sub and I was really happy with what I got:

The mushrooms were marinated in some sort of teryaki sauce that was really good, and it also had pineapple, green pepper and pepper jack  cheese on toasted wheat bread.  The bread was great too!

After it came out of the toaster, I was given the option of lettuce, tomato, sprouts, cucumber, pickles, black olives, jalapenos, honey mustard and parm cheese.  I told him to throw it all on there.  Hey, when it comes to sandwiches, I don’t mess around. It’s all about the veggie love.

Dinner was this canned Amy’s soup because we don’t have much for food in our apartment right now.  This is what happens when you’re getting ready to leave town…

The whole “No” chicken noodle thing holds true to Amy’s all-vegetarian line of food products.  I never thought to buy this flavor before because I figured it would be just broth and noodles (boring), but was happy when I read the ingredients list:

Tofu and leeks? Nice…  It honestly didn’t have that much flavor but was just what I needed to warm me up without leaving me feel stuffed.  I’m still a little empty so I may need some ice cream cereal or something a little later.

But I should probably get to packing.  We’re leaving bright and early tomorrow morning, and I will have one heck of a long day after that.

I’m hoping I can find something decent for breakfast… slim pickings in this place.  Goodnight!

Thank you legs.

I can’t believe it’s almost 10:00… What a day!  As expected I was ravenous but I’ll try to recall everything.  I caved and went to SBucks mid-morning because I needed something to hold me over until lunch.

Enter, tall skim latte:

It’s been so long since I’ve had one of these and it was A-mazing.

Lunch was one of my favorite soups from Amy’s Organic, Lentil.

Yes I take a can of soup and a can opener to school with me sometimes, because I’m classy–as you can see by my choice of gladware.  

I also had my friend Jon snag me some veggies and ranch from the salad bar because he’s on the meal plan.

He also gave me some homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that he baked this weekend.   And they are delicious!  He wins the friend award for this week I think.  Love that kid!

I got a short and sweaty gym sesh on the stat bike right after lunch until I had to get to my next class… exactly the mid-day energy boost I needed to keep me going for the rest of the day.  Read the new issue of Fitness magazine and zoned out for a bit.  Sometimes thinking about all of the things I need to do just gives me a headache, which is when exercise does wonders for me.  Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuu legs for allowing me to stay active.  I love you.

After 12 hours on campus, I finally made it home ready to eat  my entire kitchen!  It was a (veggie) burger and (sweet potato) fries type of night.  This time the southwest flavor.

OK, but it’s no Garden Herb.  Love having these on hand for quick meals like tonight.  They’re a little pricey, but it seems like they go on sale quite a bit so I guess that’s the time to stock up!

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So boot camp was pretty awesome tonight. We went outside on the track and had them run stairs, do tons of push-ups and sit-ups, squats, lunges, planks… basically the stuff we all have a love/hate relationship with.  At the end we had them run the mile.

These people were SOOOO scared of the mile you guys.  The weird thing is, I remember feeling like that back in the day before I started running a lot, and it was daunting.  Everyone finished and it was so great to see the motivation in their eyes.  I feel blessed to be able to teach this class.  They’re a great group and I love seeing them get so excited to learn new things and make improvements every week.

Enjoy your evening and I’ll be back for bfast!

Convenience foods

Happy Thursday!

Last night, I relied on some delicious go-to items for a quick and filling dinner.  Amy’s soup (Lentil) and a salad with Annie‘s gingerly dressing.  My two favorite foodie ladies!

For breakfast today, I went with a smoothie because I didn’t have a ton of time to get ready and coldness just sounded SO good…

I went with:

• 1 banana
• vanilla soy milk and skim (about 1 1/2 cups total)
• 1 scoop AB
• 1 scoop Mocha Hot Cocoa powder (Ghiardelli)
• cinnamon

Off to BIO lab… Have a nice day!

Snack-a-licious

Hey everyone!

Soooooo let me just start by saying that you’ll have to excuse my eats for the next week or so because I am really trying hard to use up my freezer/pantry foods and my goal is to not waste ANYTHING when I move out of my apartment a week from Saturday.

It will tough, I know, but it really bothers me to waste food so get ready for some “creativity.”  Today looked like this:

V-con banana bread that I whipped up yesterday because I was in a baking mood… By baking I mean “didn’t feel like studying“.

I also had some Stonyfield plain with blueberries, flax and cinnamon. YUMMY!

Whenever I eat yogurt in the morning, it seems to keep me extra full.  I needed this to keep me going for about 5 hours and it definitely worked breakfast magic!

From this point on in the day I pretty much snacked my way along because I was busy and sometimes I just feel like eating lot’s of little things instead of a meal. Orange, cheerios, string cheese before my workout…

…and then I proceeded to go to town on dates when I got home (so good!!!!), plus some chicken breast deli meat and a small bowl of grape nuts.

For dinner, my “friend” Amy cooked me up one of my favorite convenience foods:

These were on sale last week and I was SO happy because they are really delicious and so quick.  Check out the ingredients list.

The tortilla that these are wrapped up in is the best that I’ve ever had.  It’s hard to find a good tortilla that isn’t loaded with weird additives and tastes good.  I love my Ezekial ones, but those are hearty with a nutty taste and I like a soft and smooth one for burritos.

I had a salad (lettuce, cabbage, avocado) on the side and this was a really satisfying dinner.

What are your favorite “dinner-in-a-pinch” products? I love these burritos, Amy’s soups, or sometimes just cereal with fruit!

I love cheese.

T minus 4 days until VACAY! Monday is officially dunzo, which puts me in a great mood for some reason??

Maybe because my lunch today was unexpectedly delicious!  Since I’ll be out of my apartment Friday through the following Sunday, I didn’t go grocery shopping yesterday like I usually do on Sunday, so I was thinking my food would be pretty boring this week.

I heated up some leftover Amy’s Cream of Tomato Soup (love this!) and had a toasty cheese/hot sauce pita and a really juicy orange.  The pita looks pretty blah in this first picture:

But once I took a bite, the cheesiness exploded and it turned into THIS!

This lunch definitely hit the spot for me.  I love soup/sammie combos because of the dipping factor.  But as satisfying as this was, I was still hungry after I finished so I thought it was a good time to try…

The 3rd Z-Bar! The Chocolate Brownie flavor is definitely my new favorite (out of choc. chip & honey graham)… These just keep getting better! ha ha… If things keep going in this direction, I’m guessing that the Blueberry will be out of this world!

The only thing I’m not too sure about with these, is that it really seems like just a fortified baked good.  Portion controlled and organic, yes, but this was a brownie none-the-less.  Instead of using them for a snack, I think they will be occasional treats for when I need just a little something extra to tide me over and I’m craving something sweet.

So far the only bar that I really use as a substantial snack, is the beloved Lara Bar… and stop hatin’ on Cherry Pie everyone, it’s one of my faves! Seems like I’m the only one who likes that flavor! lol

The Pure Bar I have in my drawer may just be added to that list, because I hear good things… Only time will tell!

Indian Lunch

So I’m so happy to say that my Chem exam is over and done with! I can now take a little bit of a break from it, at least until next week… I think it went well, but I’ll have to wait and see…

Food review time!  After my internship office hours this morning, I came home and studied a little bit before I broke open a new can of soup that was on sale this week, plus one that I’ve never tried.

This was REALLY good!  Very comforting and warm which is just what I was craving.  The flavors were spot on and I also liked the fact that it was really filling! I had 1/2 the can, threw in a piece of buttered whole grain toast and some grapefruit to add some variety and the meal was really satisfying

Sadly we don’t have any authentic Indian restaurants in my neck of the woods, but this cuisine has a big place in my heart because I actually went to India last year at this time (actually it was this week exactly! Weird coincidence??).  It was one of the greatest experiences in my life for sure.  I wish I could post some pictures, but I don’t have any on my laptop so I will have to do that another time.

Anyways, I always grab a few cans of Amy’s soup when I see that it’s on sale and this is definitely a flavor that I will repeat.

My other favorites include:

• Chunky Tomato Bisque
• Cream of  Tomato
• Lentil
• Butternut Squash

I’ve tried the reduced sodium version of one before (can’t recall which) and I didn’t care for it.  Now I usually just stick with the regular versions and keep processed foods to a minimum for the rest of the day.

What are your favorite cuisines? Besides Indian, I also really like Asian foods (SUSHI!).

Tomorrow is Thursday and one step closer to the weekend!!
See you in the AM:)