How-to not eat tuna helper

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese.  When I was in middle school I was seriously obsessed with those boxed tuna helper meals.  The one where all you have to do is boil the noodles, add the sauce and 1 can of tuna fish and you’re left with creamy carb goodness.

Although I’m sure they’re still good once in a great while, I just don’t really do the whole meal-in-a-box thing anymore.  Not only are they loaded with funky additives and salt, I always have the opinion that you can recreate the meal with wholesome ingredients and make it taste just as good (if not better) than the processed version.

How to make tuna-noodle casserole:

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Voila! I know most of you reading this probably don’t have a problem with tuna helper or boxed meals in general, but I feel like this is a great swap for kids who are hooked on the saltiness of pre-packaged food.  I realize that Annie’s mac is still not exactly a “whole” food, but it’s a heck of a lot better than the alternative.

Have a wonderful day! Just 2 more short days of class and I’m a FREE BIRD for the summer!!!!!!

Catch-up

Good morning!

Here’s a little catch-up on what I’ve been chowing.  I’ve been sticking to the basics, but jazzing things up in my own way…

Monday night dinner:

Doesn’t get much more basic than that! Whole wheat angel hair with red sauce.  I wasn’t feelin’ any sides.

Tuesday breakfast:

Finished off the Golden Grahams, Sue!!! haha

These were left over from the Copper trip a couple weekends back and for some reason they sounded perfect on Tuesday.  I know this cereal doesn’t offer much nutritionally, but gosh I forgot how good they tasted…

Tuesday lunch:

Tuna, colby jack and spinach wrap—heated up so the cheese was all gooey.  This was fabulous!  I had chips and salsa (my addiction) and  a pickle on the side and it reminded me of a lunch my mom would make for me.  Hi mom!

Tuesday dinner (we had a guest!):

My favorite salmon recipe with some roasted veggies and couscous.  If yo haven’t tried this recipe before—TRY IT!  I swear you guys, this is my go-to salmon recipe and it turns out great every time.  Also it’s incredibly simple and you probably have all of the ingredients for the marinade on hand.

For the veggies, I chopped them up ahead of time and soacked them in  balsamic/olive oil/dried oregano.

Then let them cook for about an hour at 400.  These turned out really good!

We also had some wine…

Highly recommmend this one!  It had a strong almost chocolatey taste that was really delicious.  I think it was a zinfandel, merlot, syrah blend.  I’ll definitely be looking for this in the future!

Last but not least, this morning’s breakfast:

Oats in the TJ’s Almond butter jar.  Need I say more?

I’m off for another day of madness.  I can’t believe I only have 2 more days of school before spring break starts.  The week pretty much flew by! Yesterday I went for a pain-free 3-miler that felt really good so I’m super excited for my race.  I think I’ll do another short run today and my friend Jon told me I should at least do a mile on Saturday to keep the legs fresh.  I guess I’ll just play it by ear…

Happy Thursday!

Need some serious “me time”

Afternoon post??? Yes I did.

Here’s what I snacked on mid-morning:

and

And some green ginger tea because it’s FREEZING today!  The weather is starting to remind me of back home in Michigan.  We’re actually getting a decent amount of snow.  Winter does happen here after all…

Lunch

I packed both my own and Jessica’s lunch today… I’m such a good wifey! Ended up having enough time to come home to eat which explains the plate.  I made tuna wraps with spinach, sundried tomato, avocado, and dijon mustard.  Pretty delicious combo if you ask me.  Oh, and a pink lady (the best!) apple too.

I’ve decided that me having to work tomorrow is a blessing in disguise. It forces me to stay in G-town for the WHOLE weekend (no skiing, no roadtrips to Denver or Boulder…nada).  I am in NEED of some “me time”. Seriously.  I’ve been pushing certain things to the side in favor of school/work/fun for awhile so I can’t wait to just chill for a couple of days.

And because I’m semi-obsessed with lists (don’t judge):

5 ME things to do this weekend:

1. Wake up without an alarm on Saturday morning and make a really good breakfast.
2. Bake something
3. Manicure and Facial (no need to pay someone, these I’m doing myself!)
4. Long run (9 miler)
5. See Valentine’s Day!

5 “not-so-ME, but important nonetheless” things to do this weekend:

1. Study biochem like it’s my job
2. Clean the apartment—really, really well.  We have 3 different out-of-town guests that will be in and out of our place next week!!
3. Hit up Target for some necessities (and consequently, spend money on things I don’t need)
4. Laundry
5. Catch up phone calls.  I’ve been bad about this lately!

I heart my job.

Lunch:

Tuna wrap w/olives, spring mix, laughing cow cheese.

Jazz apple

Today was a faaaaaaabulous day!! Classes were interesting, played a really good game of racquetball, taught boot camp, and gave some tours of the rec center to a group who is interested in starting to work out. Can I just say that I really love my job?  Like a lot.   There were a ton of great questions asked tonight both nutrition and fitness related and I swear I could have went on and on with this group… Wonderful bunch of ladies!

And I’m eating this lovely plate of  goodies as I type:

Leftover taco dip from the superbowl party (I think it’s finally gone, which is a good thing), rice and beans, peach salsa, olives and blue chips.  The salsa that we’ve been buying lately is this brand:

It. is. amazing.

I’m off to Starbucks to study the rest of the night.  Lot’s of things to get done!!

Best bowl of oats, ever.

1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup soy milk, 1/3 cup water. Combine and microwave for 2 minutes on high.

Top with:

• grape nuts
• flax meal
• coconut
• pom
• 1 scoop of White Chocolate Wonderful PB (SOOOO good!)

Delicious and kept me full all morning…

Lunch

Quick, easy, healthy, tasty.  Tuna melt with produce. YUM.

Gotta go train, workout, and get ready for a night on the town.  The weekend is fast approaching, folks!

I heart Friday.

So I definitely slept in this morning and had about 10 minutes to get ready for class/eat breakfast… It may or may not have had something to do with being up until 4:00am.  Thirsty Thursday anyone? No? I know, I know beer isn’t the healthiest thing in the world, but I had great time hanging out with some new friends at Old Chicago.  Totally worth it.  Anyways…

I threw a smoothie together so I could take it with me to class #1 and it was really delicious!  No picture, but it had frozen strawberries, 1 overripe banana, sweetened coconut, almond butter, & organic skim.  I was double-fisting it with an iced coffee that tasted heavenly today.

Lunch-

I was craving a huge sandwich for lunch and that’s exactly what I created…  This is tuna, lettuce, cuke, sundried tomato, and LC cheese.  Pretty much demolished this.  In a few more hours, I’ll be done with class for the week and ready for some fun!

Back home… ready to make some moo-lah

Hellooooooo peeps!

So it was pretty sad to come back home after such a wonderful vacation, but I’m more motivated than ever to work hard this summer so I can afford to take advantage of all of the amazing things in Colorado when I move.

I’m not quite sure when I start work yet, but I’m waitressing at a really nice restaurant about 30 minutes from my parents house and I love waitressing so I’m excited!

Other things I’m looking forward to right now:

• I’m going to be “Auntie Leanne” ANY DAY now.  The due date is May 14th!
• My BFF/future roomie’s graduation on Memorial Day weekend
• The 4th of July (and K‘s birthday of course!)
• Camping for 2 weeks with the family at the end of July.  I’ve never missed a summer since I was born!
• Hopefully the Chicago 1/2 marathon on August 2.  I haven’t signed up yet, but I started my official training yesterday!
• My brother’s wedding is August 15
• Moving day is August 17!

Some food pics from the last few days (I’m in the process of converting my parent’s food stash hahaha…)

PB oats w/fresh strawberries

Tuna on an Arnold’s sandwich thin + fruit salad

Salad w/Annie‘s Woodstock (Amazing!), roast, corn on the cob

Lemon LARABAR… one of my new favorites!

Chicken, brown rice, fresh green beans seasoned with dill.  Can you tell the difference between my college student dinners and my parent’s? LOL

Vanilla ice cream w/fresh strawberries and dark choco chips!

There’s ALWAYS ice cream in this house, so it could get dangerous! I’m livin’ large! LOL

I’m hoping to get my training plan up soon, so stay tuned for that.  Since the internet at my house is incredibly slow, I’m blogging from a coffee shop in town and I think I’ll try to do this every couple days or so.  It’s way to hard to upload pics otherwise.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

What things are YOU looking forward to this summer?

The best french toast ever.

Hey everyone! I’m in a great mood tonight because I got a ton of stuff accomplished today, had a great workout and some great food.  I think I finally have my class schedule figured out for Fall semester.  What are all of you students taking next year?

My day started nice and early with this fantastic breakfast of french toast with fruit on the side.

I know this looks like pancakes, but the homemade oatmeal bread is a round loaf… This bread definitely contributed to the BEST french toast I’ve ever made.  I think it’s because of the dense texture.  Not sure, but I used 1 egg, vanilla soymilk and cinnamon for the batter and it turned out perfect!

Mid-morning study fuel was an apple with PB.

And lunch was this mix of flavors that I have seen in blog land before many times… Black beans + sweet potato! I tried the combo in quesadilla form (Ezekial tortilla), and added my own twist with arugula and avocado. I just read that Miss Tyler from Raspberry Runner had a similar lunch today… we didn’t plan it, I swear!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Yum! This was super good! The sweet potato adds just a hint of sweetness. I had a banana on the side, but I’m sure you all know what that looks like:-)

Between lunch and dinner I attended a “Skill Builder” on sushi rolling because the woman I intern for was giving the presentation.  Very interesting! I learned some new things and got some free twig tea that I’ll be testing out tomorrow.  I’ll definitely do a review because it’s a pretty unique flavor!

Three pieces of sushi ended up being my pre-workout snack… I did a 3-miler as fast as I could and I finished in right around 26 minutes. After doing some back, shoulder, and abs which included:

• Bent over rows
• Boat shoulder presses
• Back hyperextension w/hand weights
• Stability ball push-ups
• Crunches, ceiling pulses, bicycles

I came home and made this quick dinner:

Tuna + pepperjack (toasted) on more oatmeal bread, steamed brocc w/oregano, strawberries! I think I’m fiber’d out for the day…

Chemistry time. Have a great night!

Early start

Goooooood Monday morning all!

I’m up earlier than normal today because my practical final (submax test) is in a couple of hours and I want to get there nice and early to set up.  AHHH I can’t wait to get this over with!  I’m fueling up with with this delicious breakfast cookie as we speak:

I figured that these were pretty darn close to homemade clif bars, no?  I’m going to do some experimenting to try replicating the flavors for before workouts… This one had 1/2 cup oats, blackberries, applesauce, AB, mini choco chips, and walnuts.  “Nutty Chocolate Blackberry”

Yesterday before my run (about 4 hours after breakfast) I actually had 1/2 of a real Clif bar because I was starting to get slightly hungry and I wanted to move fast!  This flavor was AMAZING!

It was exactly what I needed and despite the crappy weather, I felt like I had tons of energy.  You’ll be seeing a couple more of these as well because I got some coupons to try out new flavors.

When I got home from my run I wasn’t really super hungry, so I stretched and showered, had a big glass of water and made this late lunch of an open face tuna melt, salad and pineapple.

This was perfect! I ended up studying chemistry for most of the afternoon and had a group meeting to go to at 5:00, so I ate an apple with almond butter beforehand and made this Lentil Soup when I got home.  There’s almost an Indian-like flavor to it, which I love!  It turned out really good, but warning, the recipe makes a TON!  I’ll be eating this stuff for a few days even though I already froze some…

One more thing… I have set a goal for myself to step it up a notch in Chemistry for the rest of the semester. I didn’t do as well as I had hoped on my last exam and I REALLY want to get an A in the class because I know how competitive Dietetics is.  From now on, I’m studying after every lecture, and spending extra time on quiz days.  Don’t let me slack! LOL

Have a great Monday!

Random eats

So I’ve had a crazy day today and I’m going to do a super quick post so I can watch the Biggest Loser and do “research” for my class.  Thanks for all of the great opinions on the show!  I really appreciate the ideas… I basically agree with what everyone said, so we’ll see if anything crazy happens tonight.

FOOD TIME
Super early breakfast of PB and Banana oats:

Throughout the morning, I had a snack from our National Nutrition Month table (which I helped set up for my internship).  You may remember this item from the first week of my blog!  We served this dish at our health fair back in February and it went over so well, we had it again:

Flavored tofu wraps with mango salsa.  SO DELICIOUS!!  I had 2 of these plus an apple for a snack to hold me over until lunch, which I unfortunately couldn’t get a photo of today because it was consumed during Human Disease!  I had a great new sandwich though which included tuna, Sarah’s guac, and raisins.  If you haven’t tried raisins mixed with tuna, I highly recommend it!  I had a blueberry Oikos as well.

Moving on to random eats, I snacked on a few piece of banana bread (recipe from Veganomicon, my favorite!)  for study fuel …

… and made a smoothie before lab which was soooooooo green today.  My favorite combo yet!

This guy contained:

• The rest of my mango (YUM)
  
• 1/2 frozen banana ( I see a banana theme today??)
  
• Handful of spinach
• Vanilla soy milk
• Flax
  

Since I didn’t end up getting home from lab until after 8:00 and since I’m not super hungry, I’m chomping on a mug of the Optimum Bound cereal right now and I think after TBL I’ll just call it a night.

Tomorrow I’ll have something more exciting, I promise!!!!!!