A food lover's blog focusing on achieving healthy balance with fitness.
Hi guys! Just a quick stop in to say hi and introduce you to the newest member of my Mama’s family.
This is Buster. He’s a cutie-patootie Malti-Poo. Such a little teddy bear with never ending energy and the biggest smile you’ve ever seen on a little dog.
Chibi and I spent the night chillin’ with Mom and Buster and now we are off to a fabulous afternoon with long lost high school friends.
Happy Weekend!
Thursday morning. Coffee and the most original breakfast ever. 
Actually, it seems I’ve inspired a whole bunch of you to pick up some Squirrelly Bread and get on board the PB & banana train.
After walking the pupper around the park and back I started rummaging around the fridge for lunch. Turns out I had just enough of everything to make one last salad before the weekend.
Getting Greek-ish in the big silver bowl: red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, yellow pepper, light feta, kalamata olives, EVOO and some seasoning.
Keeping with the theme I baked off a couple of frozen spanakopita and dipped it all in tzatziki.
Perrier time! (Funny: I brought the remainder of this bottle to Michael’s. It was sitting on the shelf beside the hot tub when a gust of wind blew it right into the tub. Boooo.)
Afternoon snackypoo. Bigass, juicy BC cherries.
Even though I had no idea what dinner would be all about I still maintained my list. It still helps me to pay attention to what I’m stuffing in my face.
Due to after work errands and weekend packing I was absolutely starving and knew dinner was still an hour or two away so I grabbed this Almond Snickers and enjoyed every bite!
In order to facilitate heading out of town easier on the Friday before the long weekend I opted to stay at Michael’s and work from my laptop this morning. (He lives out of downtown, which can save an hour in traffic on a busy day.)
Dinner was a reheat of a dinner his sister made for the family earlier in the week. Chicken cacciatore, spaghetti and carrots. Nothing like a heat and ignore meal!
We popped it in the oven, took the dog’s to the park, had a soak in the hot tub, then came in to enjoy dinner in our jammies. I ended up giving Michael one of my pieces of chicken so I wouldn’t be too full for dessert.
Because we all know I’m not turning down homemade pie and ice cream!
Cherries picked from right out in the yard. Rainier cherries actually. Pie made by one of Michael’s coworkers. Holy yum.
OK, I’ve been slacking all morning here working with my laptop and dogs on the comfy couch. Time to get it together and get on the road. Next stop: Mom’s house.
Hot coffee. Hot toast. At least I served it on a different plate today.
I may have to abandon bananas for the season though. The retched fruit flies are starting to make appearances. Blech.
Lunch involved a “what’s left in ma fridge” kind of salad.
In the little silver bowl: red leaf lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, chickpeas, white cheddar, EVOO and balsamic.
Crackers and Laughing Cow to complete the meal.
Finally an iced coffee kind of day!
After work Michael picked me up on the motorcycle and we headed down to the waterfront for a sunny dinner on the patio at Flying Otter Grill.
I ordered a fruity Ephemere beer while Michael opted for something a little more adventurous…a beer cocktail! It sounds weird but was quite delicious!
Espresso Brown - Van Gogh Espresso Vodka, white cacao liqueur with Sleeman Honey Brown Lager over ice.
I’m such a dork that I was totally excited when Michael suggested 1) we order a salad (!!) and 2) we share our meals. Yes please!
Blackened Salmon Wrap with fries and Mango Shrimp Salad. I’ve had the wrap before and it’s always tasty but I was pretty in love with the salad. We had to fight over the mango dressing drenched prawns for sure!
Back at my place my Creamy Citrus Tart got another thumbs up review. I had a sliver and sent the remainder home with the man to share with his bro & sis (or you know, secretly keep all for himself).
Another day sticking to plan even if dinner’s calories were damn near impossible to track. I did however miss one item on my to-do list…booking a massage appointment that Michael gifted to me. (I took care of it first thing today though!!)
Clearly he’s figuring out how to put me in a good mood. ;)
Proof that our blogging community is totally awesome?
YES. The Great Fundraising Act blew the roof off of the blog auction world this week when hundreds of people banded together and raised a whopping $26,000 for Balance Susan. Insane and amazing. I only wish I’d had the money in my bank account to bid on the year’s supply of Chobani!
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Three guesses what I had for breakfast yesterday. Hint: I could totally recycle the photo all week. :) If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
In order to keep the leftover Greek Pasta Salad pictures more interesting I used a different bowl and added red leaf lettuce to the mix.
Biggest item on today’s to-do list? Buy more grapefruity Perrier. Stat.
Afternoon snackeroo was to be an apple with cheese, but upon biting into said apple I actually spit it out. It was THAT awful. Cucumber instead.
Week’s ago Ingmarie suggested a few of us gals get together for a picnic dinner. That’s the ticket to the group of us finding coordinating time to hang out…planning ahead! So last night Ing, Tiffaney and I made our way over to Tia’s (Rose we missed you!!) for some girl talk and delicious, healthy eats.
Just enough sun and residual heat from the day made us able to actually eat outside. Nothing like a little girlie patio action.
Dinner consisted of all light, lovely, vegetarian fare! Ingmarie brought a creamy avocado dip topped with roasted baby tomatoes. Tiffaney made a gianormous leafy green salad with arugula, bocconcini and homemade balsamic dressing for drizzling. And Tia contributed her amazing quinoa salad chock full of crunchy veggies, almonds, and dried cranberries! On the side we had fresh bread, crackers and Boursin.
My offering for the night was dessert! Tiffaney demanded requested I make the same awesome Creamy Citrus Tart I took to the shrimp boil a few months ago as she has been drooling about it ever since. :) I was more than happy to oblige.
(This recipe can be a weeee bit pricey because of the condensed milk and cream cheese so I portioned it out for us gals and saved some leftovers for Michael and his fam…and you know, maybe a teensy extra piece pour moi.)
We sat and chatted about this, that and everything (Greeeeece!) for a few hours before calling it a night.
Before hopping into bed I pulled out his handy-dandy USB to AC converter that came with my Kindle (thanks for the tip Ali!) and sure enough it works for plugging my iTouch into the wall.
So curious to see what Sleep Cycle has to say about my sleep habits and patterns. Of course, last night’s might be a bit skewed because I set it to run before deciding I just HAD to watch Sunday’s Big Brother before going to sleep. Nerd alert!
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After posting my meal plan/calorie count for Monday a few of you expressed concern that I starved myself. Let me reassure you that no one was truly starving over here! I just gave myself one day of strict planning to help jumpstart me into less snacking and mindful choices. Those calories counts were totally guesstimates and in no way did I under eat.
And if you are still worried then just look at Tuesday’s numbers! I stopped counting at 880ish calories and still had that glorious dinner and dessert which I didn’t count because it would just be too hard to figure it all out. I don’t feel I over or under ate at all…I was just very mindful of everything I put in my body…which is really all I’m after at this point.
Cheers! :)
So ya. The weather was so deliciously nice this weekend that I let it convince me to buy coffee specific to the iced variety. Then come Monday morning our crap weather came back. For the record: this makes fine hot coffee too.
The worst thing a food blogger can do is fall in love with a meal and repeat it daily. Sorry kids. Squirrelly toast with PB & nanner. AGAIN.
In an effort to kickstart some semblance of a healthy diet over here I planned a very low calorie day using up some of the nutritious stuff I have on hand around here. Hence yogurt, granola and a whack of blueberries for lunch.
If you see this amazing grapefruit Perrier on sale, please email/tweet me immediately. I think I know where my daily Starbucks allowance is about to go.
Snackypoo: Rosemary & Olive Oil Triscuits (where have you been all my life?!?) with light Laughing Cow and TJ’s artichokey stuff.
What happens when you eat non-fat yogurt and blueberries for lunch? Oh yeah, you are starving by 5:15. Leftovers to the rescue.
Greek Pasta Salad bumped up with chickpeas for proteiny goodness and tzatziki for creamy deliciousness.
Evening snackeroo…fresh shucked peas (with matching napkin). They kept my hands busy the same way popcorn/gummy bears/M&Ms would, but didn’t kill my ever present evening sweet tooth.
But that’s what 70 calorie blue Creamsicles are for, right? Riiiight.
Keepin’ it real on paper, yo. Every time I try to track my menus online with MyFitnessPal or something similar I get irritated at how long it takes me to input everything. For the most part I can guesstimate calories myself and slap out a hand written meal plan in under 5 minutes.
Overestimation is my friend. Keeping it simple is my sanity.
I tried out this cool app Michael told me about when I hit the hay last night. Sleep Cycle. It helps show sleep patterns, etc and includes an alarm (which eventually will become intuitive to your natural waking time).
What I realized though is that they tell you to keep your iThing plugged in for a reason. This app killed my battery overnight. What sucks is iTouch doesn’t come with an AC adaptor…so keep it plugged in can’t happen. I may have just wasted 99 cents. Bugger.
On a bright note: my insomnia hasn’t been so bad lately. *knock wood*
