Big Food Day

I’m full.  As in my body feels full…as it should.  But funny enough, I’m still hungry.  I think my early latte followed by late smoothie buggered up my eating schedule today.  My body doesn’t know how to react!

Lunch today was leftovers…well, mostly leftovers…I steamed up some more carrots and baby bok choy to mix in with last night’s stirfry and noodles.

 

For dessert I couldn’t wait to jump into my fresh container of Liberte Coconut yogurt.  Heaven!!

Mixed with 1/2 banana.  It’s a creamy tropical treat!!

During my weekly conference call I always like to have a snack…so I grabbed the remaining bakery bites from last night’s dessert.  That peanut butter bar bit melted in my mouth! nom!

Dinner’s meaty protein was from the Pete’s Frootique meat counter.  We had such luck with that stuffed pork tenderloin that I decided to grab a couple more prepared items to try.

For me, the Chicken Bouquet…a chicken breast rolled up with asparagus, mozzarella, and I think roasted red peppers…

FH doesn’t care for chicken with the skin on (I peeled the skin off mine anyway, but still…) so I got him a stuffed pork pinwheel.  Not entirely sure what it was stuffed with but it was different than the tenderloin stuffing.

 

And for something completely different…polenta! 

I saw the tube of prepared polenta in the deli and decided on a whim to buy it.  After surfing around the internet looking for recipes I opted to go the simple route and just season and crisp it up in a frying pan.

1/2” slices…

Brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with s&p…

Cooked in a hot pan with a dab of melted butter.  3 minutes per side, until slightly brown and crisp…

Sprinkled with parmesan when plating…

All served up with steamed brussel sprouts…

Verdict:  chicken was kind of bland (maybe because I removed the skin?), pork was yummy (some kind of cheese in the stuffing), and I thought the polenta was pretty tasty while FH thought it was tasteless (booooo).  Fine…more for me! ha!

Now…I don’t need dessert…however I think more yogurt might be in my future.  I am making myself sit through Mercy and a cup of tea first, and if I’m still hungry after that then I can have my snack before bed.  :)

Does anyone have a great polenta recipe they want to share?

Ready for Structure

Made a green smoothie for my afternoon snack to make up for the lack of produce this morning.  Breakfast was very late and quite hearty so no full lunch was needed.

(Do you see my Boxing Day purchase hiding in there?  hmmmm?)

In the KA (Kitchen Aid) today:

• 1/2 frozen banana
• flax meal
• 1/4 cup whole oats
• 2 cups organic baby spinach
• squirt honey
• unsweetened Almond Breeze

Turns out the Almond Breeze I opened yesterday is Original, not Vanilla…

I also finished off the last serving of the Trader Joe’s peanut butter pretzels.  I saved the last few for after Christmas and it was sad to see them all gone now.  :(

So a trip out to Running Room ended in disappointment.  No new shoes pour moi.  :(  Sad. 

First, there was only one girl working.  What the hell?  And she wasn’t a good multi-tasker at all.  Serving one customer at a time, and not offering to get shoes for the other three of us waiting while the first customer tried on several pairs and hummed and hawed.  Then, when she did get to me they didn’t have either of the shoes I wanted in my size.  Blah.  So, she is ordering a pair in from either Newfoundland or Ontario…and they “should” be here within a week “or so”.  Hopefully they fit when they finally get here!

I would have tried looking somewhere else but I have birthday gift cards to use.  Lucky for Running Room.

Shopping just wasn’t meant to be I guess.  We tried again to run our errands at Wal-Mart and holy Hannah was it ever busy.  Like backed up down the main aisle busy.  We expected busy, but this was insane.  Immediately turned around and headed back out the door.

However…our shopping was not totally in vain.  Dinner was crazy yum!!  While out in Bedford, we decided to make a pit stop at Pete’s Frootique.  FH had never been!  I showed him their beautiful meat counter…so we just had to chose something for dinner.

We chose the Stuffed Pork Tenderloin.  Filled with a mix of fresh bread crumbs, ham, mozza, spinach and herbs…and rubbed with a flavorful marinade.

Seared on the stove top and baked at 350 for 20 minutes…

(could have cooked maybe 5 minutes more, but it was super moist and tasty!)

With roasted baby red potatoes.  Halved and tossed with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, Italian seasoning, s&p, and fresh garlic which I grated on my new Microplane!

Roasted on a foil lined sheet at 450 for 20 minutes…turning at the half way point.  Crispy and deeeeelish!  Grating the garlic like that makes it almost pasty and the juice tosses right in to the rest of the ingredients.

Steamed green beans on the side…tossed with a tiny smidge of real butter and big squeeze of lemon.  Yum.

I went heavy on the beans, and light on the potatoes…

  

No gym trip today, but I did fight with some of the leftover snow and ice in the driveway today so still got my sweat on.  My “snow shoveling muscles” are mad at me!  I won’t need an upper body workout tomorrow that’s for sure!!

This evening will involve possibly taking down the Christmas tree and preparing for “back to work”.  I’m totally looking forward to sitting at my own desk again after working from my laptop on various couches, etc for the last couple of weeks.  A regular work day means structure and boy do I need it!!

A few Hershey’s Kisses for dessert and then time to get at it.  Night all. And welcome to the “actual” beginning of 2010!  :)

Not Quite Shaping Up the Way I Thought

Gah, it’s 2:20pm and I’m still drowning in a sea of work…haven’t gone for my run…have fallen off my eating schedule…and there’s no end in sight.

I can see Zumba class slipping through my fingers.  *cries*

Yes, I could be working instead of blogging…but sometimes a girl needs a break!  I chowed back lunch while sitting here, so now I need a moment of “me time”.

Because I skipped breakfast yet again (what is wrong with me?!) I had a bigger than planned lunch.  Deli treats I picked up at Pete’s Frootique yesterday…

Greek salad…tasty yet completely lacking in the feta cheese department…

Macaroni salad…so yum, glad I only got a half order!

Hummus and crackers.  Their hummus is whipped…it’s OK, but I like the Summer Fresh brand better…

Glad to finally have some veggies back in my system!

Before that there was egg nog misto of course!!

Today I wised up and mixed half light egg nog with half skim milk to knock down the calories even more!  Deeeeeeelish.

I guess it’s the thicker than usual coffee that is distracting me from breakfast.  Gonna have to do something about that.  Duh.

So ya…no run thus far which leads me to believe that I might have to do it tonight.  Which means going to the gym.  But I’m supposed to go to Zumba tonight.  Dilemna!  I guess it all depends on what time I finish work…it was 9pm last night and I don’t plan to work that late today…but I need to get caught up so my 6:00 arrival for Zumba is looking seriously compromised at the moment.  Sad.  :(

Veggie Love

That title totally reminds me of a song by a band that a guy I used to work with was in.  Totally hippie song about Vegetable Love.  Too funny.

But it fits.  Today was veggie-rific.

Vegan for a Day continued into lunchtime…obviously…

I was happy to figure out that my leftover couscous was indeed vegan so I was able to incorporate it into my meal.

I pan-steamed some baby spinach, added tomatoes, and threw in the leftover couscous to reheat.

With it I served a veggie pattie.  Note:  I DO NOT recommend these, but we have a box in the freezer that I refuse to waste.  I checked the crappy ingredient list and they are vegan so I used one to get some protein on my plate. 

I schmeared it in hummus to make it taste a little less like cardboard.

All in all a pretty tasty combo actually!!

After work I had a run planned with Lynn, Angie and Tasha so I snacked on a Tropical Fruit Larabar in the car.  This was my second one and I enjoyed it a lot more this time.  Pineappley good!

Then the girls (poor Angie had to work late…bummer) and I hit the pavement for our 30 minute run.  I have no idea how far we ran but we used part of Tasha’s 5km route, so I’d say close to 4km maybe.  We did do walking intervals, but I definitely ran more than I thought I could.  I just have to keep the chatting to a minimum!!  :)

After our run, Lynn and I stopped into Pete’s Frootique so I could pick up my bigass salad for dinner.  I’ve never been to their salad bar so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  It has a pretty good selection and you get a lot in that little box!! 

I didn’t even eat it all.  Leftovers…wooT!

In the mix:  romaine, carrots, beets, red cabbage, broccoli, cucumber, tomato, kidney beans, chickpeas, mandarin oranges and a fat-free roast peach and something-or-other vinaigrette.

 

I will say that I totally wanted CHEEEEEESE.  :)  But I didn’t.  Cuz I’m a good little vegan today. 

I was hoping for some sort of topper for protein…like a falafel ball or something but they didn’t have that so I was a little low on the protein side.  Next time I’d probably get twice as many beans.

It was super deeeeelish though.  Loved the dressing.

Here’s the kicker.  FH and his buddy were enjoying a FEAST of homemade spaghetti dinner with FH’s world-famous meat sauce and meatballs…while I ate salad!  I may have cried a little inside.

(Don’t worry there is a vat of leftovers!!)

My carby vice was these organic rods (*snicker*)…aka pretzels.  Yum, but kinda dried me out.

So I had a half glass of yummy Shiraz.  :)

Now the boys are enjoying some extra bevvies and I think I’m going to be anti-social and curl up in the bedroom with some Thursday night TV.  I did buy some vegan ice cream for dessert but it’s late so I’m not sure I’ll bother.

Coconut and chocolatey-mint.  Can you say droooool?

Thanks to Katy and Michelle for throwing this idea out there and for really tackling the vegan diet and offering up some insightful education.  I’ll never be a vegan myself but I can sure see why people would and am glad to have learned a little more about it!  It’s good to walk in someone else’s shoes for a day.

Night kids.