What I Ate This Week: Day Six.

Ahhhh, sleeping in. It is so amazing. By sleeping in, I really mean staying in bed 'till like 8 or 9, since I'm usually up at 6, but it's still pretty awesome.

This lovely morning, I slept in, lazed around for a bit, then did an easy pace 2-mile run to loosen up for my race tomorrow!

I planned on eating a light breakfast a bit earlier, but it really ended up being around 11. Oops. I wanted to do avocado toast again, because it was amazing yesterday, so I made an egg, fruit, and a handful of sauteed spinach with a bit of chopped garlic and EVOO to go with it.

Breakfast, 11:00: Avocado Toast (on Ezekiel Sprouted Grain and Seed Bread), Egg, Berry and Banana Fruit Salad, Sauteed Spinach

I met a good friend for lunch in Palo Alto today, and we tried Sliderbar. I decided to go with one bunless veggie burger slider (homemade black bean patty, yummm), which had aioli, red pepper, and cucumber, and one spicy chicken slider (appropriately named "Hot Chick," lol!). We also shared sweet potato fries!

I stopped by Whole Foods on the way home - they had a wine-tasting there, but as I had to drive home, sadly I did not partake. I did, however, pick up lots of stuff for the coming week's recipes, and a pint of this local ice cream from Petaluma: Straus Creamery. I tasted it (for quality assurance, of course!) this afternoon, and it's as good as it sounds!

I decided to make kale chips today as well, as I had some leftover kale from this week. I used Oh She Glows' All Dressed Kale Chips recipe!

I wasn't hungry, so I stored the kale chips in some baggies to use for this week. The leaves and stems that I didn't use went into a baggie into the freezer to put in green smoothies.


Enjoyed some iced coffee on a hot afternoon while making the kale chips :)

Salad Course, 6:30: Lettuce and carrots with cauliflower/chickpeas, sunflower seeds, raisins, blue cheese, and lemon vinaigrette

For dinner, I got slightly lazy, and used a Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce to cook some chicken breast. But, paired with the lentils from this week, it was an AWESOME Indian dinner combo. I made some brown rice in order to add some extra carbs for fuel for tomorrow!

Dinner, 7:30: Chicken Tikka, Lentil Coconut Curry, Butternut Squash Puree, Brown Rice, Plain Greek Yogurt Topping

Finally, I made the best yummiest dessert ever. I took the extra baked apple half from last night, added chopped dates, and re-warmed it. I topped it with some caramel ice cream and oat granola, and YUM. It was like an apple crisp!

Okay, got my stuff laid out for the race in the morning - see you tomorrow for the last day of this little project!

What I Ate This Week: Day Five.

I made myself a proper green smoothie today! I wasted no time in using my "The Oh She Glows Cookbook," and made myself the Original Green Monster smoothie! I was going to have some Paleo bread, but was really full after my smoothie, so brought the bread to work instead.

Breakfast, 7:10: Original Green Monster Smoothie from Oh She Glows!

Snack, 9:55: Paleo Bread with Laughing Cow Strawberry Cream Cheese, Berries

Lunch, 12:00: Coconut Lentil Curry Soup (from last night), Butternut Squash Puree (also from last night), Cocoroon Cookie, Tangerine, LAST SLICE of Delicious g/f Leftover Pizza!

Snack, 3:30: Veggies, Kale Chips, Chocolate Chickpea Snacks

I was SO excited to pick up my packet for my half marathon this Sunday after work today! It's a St. Patrick's Day themed run, and the tech shirt (which I will not wear to run, because as we Californians say, it will be hella hot on Sunday) is super cute. I can't wait!

Had a diet coke craving. DIET COKE SELFIE! (Yep, my hair is straight today - just got my hairs did.)

For dinner, I was going to make chicken... then I realized I had forgotten to take it out of the freezer to thaw the night before. Blerrrgh.

But! It ended up being a great thing, because what I made was SO. GOOD.

Remembering flipping through the breakfast section of my new cookbook last night and seeing sweet potato home fries, and as I'm stepping up the carbs a little today and tomorrow, I decided to go with a variation on the Oh She Glows Cookbook's Sunrise Scramble with Roasted Home Fries and Avocado Toast.

I was hungry when I got home around 7:00, so I had a quick salad with vinaigrette, raisins, and sunflower seeds.

So I started off by dicing the sweet potato (which I had bought a few days ago and had no idea what to do with - win!) and adding the ingredients to make home fries, as well as some red peppers, because yum.

Instead of the tofu scramble suggested in my cookbook, I made a two-egg omelette with spinach, mushrooms, and blue cheese. Finally, for my avocado toast, I used the recipe from my Goop Cookbook which was super easy and delicious - I used Ezekiel Bread, Vegenaise, and avocado.

All together, it was a super easy, colorful, and delicious dinner!

WINE SELFIE!

Finally, I decided to make a baked apple (from Goop's It's All Good cookbook again). Super easy. Wash apple. Take out core. Mix chopped walnuts, raisins, 1 Tbsp or so maple syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg, put in apple, bake. YUM.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

What I Ate This Week: Day Four.

Happy Thursday! Is it Friday yet?

Breakfast, 7:05: Paleo Bread with Almond Butter and Drizzle of Honey and Banana; Nonfat Greek Yogurt with Maple, Berries, Banana (and coffee, duh)

Snack, 9:25: Kale Chips, Almonds

Lunch, Part 1, 11:40: Leftovers Salad (Chickpeas and Cauliflower, Salmon, Spinach, Lettuce, Carrots, Beets, Hard Boiled Egg, Mushrooms, Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette)

Sometimes I like to throw leftover meat and veggies on a salad, if I get sick of eating them by themselves. Since, as I mentioned yesterday, I've been eating the same salmon and cauliflower several days now, it was nice to have it appear in a different context!

A note: I was just super hungry this morning - not sure if my breakfast was less filling or smaller than I thought it was (I was pretty full when I was done), or if I'm just hungrier today than usual, but I decided to respect my body's hunger signals and eat some snack and lunch a little early.


Lunch, Part 2, 12:30: Leftover Pizza, Trader Joe's 70% Dark Chocolate Wedges with Caramel

(There was another piece of pizza there but I ate it before I remembered to take a picture, ooooops. P.S. I put extra fresh garlic and red pepper flakes on the leftover pizza - highly recommend.)


Snack, 3:15: Apple, Half Lara Bar (PB&J Flavor), Veggies (Carrots, Peppers) with Hummus

More snacks pre-workout: Veggie Chips, Cashews


Activity: Track Workout with a Friend!


Then I was ravenous when I was cooking dinner, so I ate some raisins and a tangerine.


So I finally made the Vegan Coconut Curry Lentil Soup (except my version was non-vegan, since I used chicken broth oops). Delicious! I omitted the diced tomato, and used black lentils rather than red, as that's what I had in my cabinet. Also threw in a handful of kale at the end.

I also had bought some butternut squash at the farmer's market on Sunday, so I boiled and pureed it.

Served the lentils with a dollop of nonfat greek yogurt, and the butternut squash puree with a bit of maple syrup and nutmeg.

Yum! Such a delicious dinner!

Dinner, 8:00 (way late, but it took awhile to cook the lentils...): Coconut Curry Lentil Soup from Vegangela, Butternut Squash with Maple and Nutmeg

I was also super excited to get a care package from my momma today! There are always a bunch of random seasonal things in a package from my mom, but the most exciting thing in this care package was the "The Oh She Glows Cookbook" from Angela Liddon. And actually, I might make the kale chips from the Oh She Glows website tomorrow! (A will be so excited... the one time I tried to make him try kale chips, he smelled them and I was immediately denied. Sigh, the life of dating a picky eater.)

Contents of care package:

Finally, dessert at 9:15: Berry Tea and A Little Ice Cream :)

TGIF!

What I Ate This Week: Day Three

Today is going to be boring. As I'm a person who lives by herself and doesn't have anyone else that eats her food (except when her boyfriend so nobly volunteers to assist her in eating the Ben & Jerry's in the freezer...), today will be a lot of leftovers.

Breakfast, 7:05: Leftover Oatmeal with Chia Seeds + Maple Syrup, Raisins, and Chopped Walnuts; One Egg + One Egg White w/Mushrooms

Snack, 10:20: Trader Joe's Teriyaki Turkey Jerky

Lunch, 12:10: The same stuff I've been eating for the past two days... Salmon, Chickpeas and Cauliflower, Beet Salad.

Snack(s) 2:45-3:45: Trader Joe's "Inner Peas," Plain Greek Yogurt with Berries, Banana, Raw Honey, and Ola! Vanilla Granola

Kept me going through an afternoon of back-to-back meetings!


No workout today! My body hurts from the last couple days - I needed a break!


So I stuck around the area where I work after I finished, as I have an extra choir rehearsal today. Now usually, I'd go find a little restaurant I want to try somewhere close to rehearsal, or at least go grab something at the grocery store, but I could just not justify spending more $$ on food after spending approximately ten million dollars at Whole Foods, and then the expensive pizza on Monday. So, I brown-bagged it and headed to Starbucks (I have since resolved my Starbucks card balance mystery, by the by.)I packed a bunch of stuff, and figured I'd eat what I felt like eating.

Dinner, 6:05: Turkey Breast, Carrots/Cucumbers with Hummus, Leftover Pizza, String Cheese, Hard Boiled Egg, Piece of Dark Chocolate Bark

P.S. There may or may not be a guy smoking one of those electric cigarrettes, like, in the Starbucks that I am sitting in. Um, awkward and certainly illegal in CA, right?

Yeah no, that was definitely just actual smoke coming out of his mouth. This is so questionable.

I'm excited that I picked up a few things tonight in preparation for making a vegan lentil curry from the Vegangela blog tomorrow! (Except I might make it non-vegan with chicken broth... because I am not a vegan.) My sister made it earlier in the week and said it was great, and I 1) have lentils and kale in the house already, and 2) am getting sick of the recipes that I made earlier in the week. That tends to happen, but if I have tons of servings of something I make and lots of leftovers, I conveniently keep serving-size tupperwares and stick stuff in the freezer.

"Dessert", 9:00: Smoked Gouda and Crackers (similar to these) were served at one of my fellow choir-members' houses, and unfortunately, though I have no pictures, let me assure you - smoked gouda is the best, ever.

K. Bedtime. Just finished watching the Bachelor finale from earlier this week, and BOY was that UNcomfortable.

I mean... I don't watch the Bachelor, what?

K gnight all.

What I Ate This Week: Day Two.

It was just one of those mornings today. One of those mornings in which you're running late already, then they insist at Starbucks that your card has no balance although you DEFINTIELY reloaded it with $20 last week. You then spill said Starbucks drink on your shirt upon getting into your car, and a minute later, promptly have to slam on the brakes because someone else is being stupid at driving, spilling more of your coffee and the contents of your bag(s) across the car floor.

One of those.

Anyway.

Breakfast, 7:05am: One egg, Smoothie with Nonfat Plain Greek Yogurt, Banana, Spinach, Kale, Berries, Almond Milk, Vanilla Protein Powder, and Stevia

For a "green" smoothie, it's not alllll that green.


I LOVE my Magic Bullet blender. The name "Magic Bullet" sounds like a sex toy or something, but it is not. It is a blender. I promise. I just got it for my birthday, and it's totally genius. You just put everything in a cup, screw on the top with the blade in it, press down on the base that has power to move the blades, and voila! Smoothie. The best part is that you use the cup that the smoothie gets mixed in for drinking/eating it... way less mess, which I really appreciate, being that my kitchen is the size of a large closet. (Or if we're talking the giant walk in closet that my parents have at their house in the master bedroom, smaller than a closet.)

Starbucks: Tall nonfat cappuccino. Worth the extra $3 that I had to pay because my card "had no balance" (see above)... although you'd better believe I'ma call Starbucks and get my money back and some free stuff from this bizness.

Snack, 11:05: Kale Chips and a few Chocolate Chickpea Snacks

Lunch, 12:20pm: Salad with Leftovers/Everything (blue cheese crumbles, lettuce, mushrooms, shredded carrots, avocado, leftover lamb and turkey breast, golden raisins, sunflower seeds, vinaigrette), Paleo Bread Sandwich with Almond Butter, Banana, and Honey

Dessert: Tangerine and Vanilla Maple Cocoroon Cookie. These macaroons, which are raw and made with maple syrup, are DELICIOUS! (I find them at TJMaxx when they have them, since these and similar cookies, like everything else, are super expensive at Whole Foods.)


Snack, 3:30: A few more Chickpea snacks (The Good Bean brand, also find these at TJ Maxx sometimes), Veggies with Hummus and Black Bean Dip, Green Tea

This is what happens when I'm left alone in my office at the end of the day: selfies with veggies and tea. I promise nobody else was around.

Workout: 2 mile run around the neighborhood, then TRX class at the Y

Snack, 5:30 in between workouts: Half a PB&J Lara Bar, Half Banana

Dinner was leftovers from yesterday: Beet salad (with lemon, olive oil, avocado, raisins, and chia seeds), Salmon, Leftover Pizza (nommmm) and cauliflower and chickpeas.

Aaaaand we're about to enjoy a little Ben & Jerry's. Goodnight everyone!