All About Class

For my Clinical Nutrition class, we had to keep a 2-day food record with our calories, fat, carbohydrates, and protein. Now I normally don’t mind (or even kind of – dare I say it – like) assignments such as this. However I realized a few things the past couple days:

1. I eat way more calories than I thought. I’ve been trying to lose a couple pounds that I’ve gained lately (just 2-3!) in order to fit comfortably back into my pants. I won’t weigh myself – just go by how my clothes fit.  But I’ve been frustrated with the fact that my pants don’t seem to be getting any loser! Looking at my food record really shows me how all the little things add up (2 T coffee creamer, handful of cereal, those few bites of whatever…).

Lesson learned – BLT’s (bites licks and tastes) really do add up. And food journaling is pretty necessary for weight loss, in my opinion. Especially when you only have a teeny bit to lose and your body doesn’t want to let go.

2. I’m eating more than I thought, and while I’m not losing, I’m also not gaining. Goes to show that your body needs more to sustain you than you might think!

3. Calorie counting sucks. Simple as that. I just can’t fall back into that trap. In just two days, I saw myself slipping back – thinking about my food constantly, stressing about the fact that I’m already at X calories in the middle of the day and I haven’t even had snack or dinner yet?! If I went too “high”, I’d feel guilty and worrisome the rest of the night. It consumes me and I’ve been so free since I stopped obsessive calorie counting.

As much as I think it might be necessary to calorie-count for these few stubborn pounds that have crept back on me, there’s no way I want to go back to that lifestyle. No way Jose! And I’m so glad my 2-day homework assignment is over 🙂

I really slacked on pictures today folks. Forgive me?

Guess what!

It’s Waffle overnight oats Wednesday!

I finally got around to trying banana date overnight oats that I’ve seen on Christina and Mary’s blog so many times!

Rather than muesli, I just used normal oats. Definitely like muesli better. Anyways I combined:

• 1/3 cup multigrain oats
• 2/3 cup almond milk
• Couple spoonfuls vanilla chobani
• Cinnamon
• 1/2 mashed naner
• 2 chopped dates
• Earth balance PB

In the morning I topped it with

• 1 diced peach
• Handful Nature’s Path pecan crunch cereal
• Scoop of Sunbutter

Mmm. I loved how mushy the dates got overnight.

This fueled me for my 2-hour class, 45 minute gym sesh, and another hour of class. But then I got starving in my 12-2 class, and whipped out a Cinnamon Roll Larabar. Unfortunately it was in the middle of class and I have enough class (woah I completely just said the word ‘class’ way too many times) not to snap a photo while the teacher is lecturing.

But I’m 99.9% sure that my lara looked something like this:

And I’m .1% sure that I might have fallen asleep in class and dreamt about eating this. But shhh. Don’t tell.

My thoughts: “Hmm.  A bit bland?  No distinct taste really.  Just…well…cinnamony.  Well duh – maybe that’s why they call it Cinnamon Roll.”

On Tuesday I went with 2 snacks eaten in 3 parts throughout my classes. Today I went with 1 snack, and I could tell the difference. I was starving.

Wolfed down my lunch of homemade TJ’s black bean & corn enchiladas during the 20 minutes I had between school and work.

With guac & FF sour cream.

Love these.

The rest of the day’s eats went unpictured (tons of fruit, and then dinner). But whatever. My apologies if you’re thatupset about it.

Now to finish my lab write up for tomorrow.  G’nighty.

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It’s a Crime…

It’s a crime…to go so long without micro-ing my oats. Seriously – saved me a nasty stuck on pot to scrub. And much faster.

• 1/3 Coach’s steel cut oats
• 1/3 cup water + 1/3 cup almond milk
• Cinnamon
• 1/2 sliced ‘naner
• 1/4 cup Nature’s path vanilla granola
• Handful of Banana Nut Cheerios
• Earth Balance peanut butter

And a scoop of Sunbutter on my spoon for good measure.

It’s a crime…to spend more than the 30 minute time-limit on the treadmill. But no one was waiting.

• 2.5 miles running
• .25 walk
• 1 mile run

Total: 3.5 running; 4.5 with warm-up & cool-down walking

Not bad, not bad. Also used the foam roller for the first time today on my outer thigh. Not sure if that’s helping my knee issue though.

…to call this a pizza, but pizza is what I tried to create with all my free time in my 10 minute rush before work.

WW english muffin with pizza sauce, nutritional yeast & parmesan cheese.

With some sweet sweet pineapple.

It’s a crime…to have such an early and light lunch so you’re hungry all afternoon.

+ unpictured cauliflower and coffee

It’s a crime…to use up the last of my TJ’s Poppyseed salad dressing.

TJ’s pesto turkey burger on a salad with pinapple, sauteed onions, cranberry sauce & TJ’s poppyseed dressing.

It’s a crime…to never enjoy delicious chocolate such as dark chocolate Twix’s.

It’s a crime…to go a day without anything pumpkin. 😦

It’s a crime…to skimp on commenting on blogs because I’ve been at school/work all day these past few days.  I’m trying!

It’s a crime…to blog & run. But I’m sorry – I have mucho reading to do.

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Holiday Dinner

You all knew this was coming.

LOVE

I only wish I had smaller clear bowls so you could see it in all it’s glory. I may have to invest.

Let’s see how many posts I can start with something pumpkin related shall I?

Breakfast was on the run as I was late for the bus.

~3/4 of this Pinapple Chobani. People weren’t kidding when they said this stuff was amazing. And guys, I’m not kidding either. I don’t kid.

Rudi’s whole wheat english muffin. 1/2 with honey almond cream cheese + pumpkin butter. 1/2 with Sunbutter and banana.

The pumpkin butter side felt left out and wanted some banana lovin’. I let him have 1 piece.

I have to figure out my school eating schedule. I have class 11:00-2:00 with a 10 minute break on each hour. I have 3 options:

1. Eat multiple mini-meals/larger snacks during the day (kind of like today – I had more snacks than normal, and a smaller lunch after classes)

2. Eat a boring quick lunch during my 10 minute break/in class (something super easy to eat quickly and that won’t interrupt lecture, like a PB&J)

3. Starve until 2:30 who are you taking to?

Today I chose the snacky route and ate multiple times.

Half of this Clif bar at 10:30, and the other half at 12:00.

Cocoa almonds at 1:00

And the other half of my turkey avocado sandwich from the other day. Grabbed between class and work – eaten at 3:00

So the bread was soggy and bland. I’m not one to waste food and it still tasted good.

And my new obsession.

With my homemade SF pumpkin pie creamer.

Snackage at work.

And a Thanksgiving Yom Kippur dinner. (No – I’m not Jewish, I just saw that today is Yom Kippur. So Happy Yom Kippur to one and all!)

Roasted zucchini and cauliflower with garlic salt, olive oil, and pepper. Mashed potatoes with FF sour cream & garlic salt. Homemade cranberry sauce.

Sorry for the blur/bad quality – I was too lazy to go upstairs (bad blogger – hand slap!) and get my normal camera. Iphone pics have to do.

That is my plate of bland colored mush and globs of ketchup.

Naw just kidding. Okay, so maybe I do kid (but never about Pineapple Chobani).

I had the dream to use up some of my $0.89 5-lb potoato bag to make mashed potatoes. So I had potatoes!  I had boxed gravy! (Expired in July – whoops!) I had frozen cranberries! I had turkey! Well I desperately searched for protein to add to this dish and finally said screw it. The sour cream in the mashed potatoes adds some protein, right?  And I would get some protein from dessert…

Gossip Girl

+

Pumpkin ice cream + micro’d cinnamon banana + pumpkin butta + whipped cream

=

Happy Tay-Tay’s tum tum 😀

Pumpkin “pie” for dessert?  It really is Thanksgiving!

PS: My recipe page is a work in progress, but I did add the pumpkin pancakes I made yesterday to it. I just followed the recipe on my oatmeal bag, and added it about 1/2 cup pumpkin & cinnamon. Easy peasy!

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Pumpkin Discoveries

I found it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But more on that in a bit.

As my last day to really make something for breakfast for the week, I decided on homemade pancakes! This might sound crazy, but I’ve never made pancakes from scratch before. I’ve always used a mix. But this was super easy and delicious!

Pumpkin oatmeal whole wheat pancakes.

You can’t see them, but I also cooked banana slices into them to carmelize when cooked.

Each pancake was topped with something different.

• Vanilla chobani “frosting”
• Pumpkin butter & cream cheese
• Sunbutter & cream cheese

I like cream cheese on my waffles/pancakes/french toast.

And all drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with Banana Nut Cheerios.

These were sooooo good. I never want to use boxed again!

When I finally got around to going to the gym, I ran into a problem. I left my keys in my roommate’s locked car, who had just gone out of town for the day! Ugh. Guess I’ll take the bus. What college town bus doesn’t operate on a Sunday? Oh – apparently mine! Sunday is #1 homework/study day (hello procrastination?). What’s going on bus schedule?

Eventually my other roommate offered to give me a ride there. Where I went:

• 1.5 mile run (5.8-6 mph)
• .25 mile walk
• 1.5 mile run (6 mph)
• Cooldown

3 miles running
4 miles total

Followed by some lower body strength moves for the knees.

I gave my knee 4 days rest after it was more sore than normal last Monday & Tuesday. It felt okay today, but I plan to reduce my mileage and stick to the treadmill dreadmill (rather than the track) for now.

I had a mini-breakdown talking to my dad afterwards. He commented how I need to work with my knee and just find something else that doesn’t bother it as much or just run on the treadmill forever. He said that my body just can’t seem to handle running outside. As he was “lecturing” me, tears definitely started falling. Obviously I know my body isn’t able to overtrain, and go far distances day after day (which is how I injured myself in the first place). But I’m 22 years old! I should at least be able to run short distances outside for crying out loud! I know everyone’s body is different, and not everyone can handle the pounding of long distance, and maybe my long marathon distances are over. But what’s wrong my knee is not normal. It’s been over 5 months now. Grr.

Okay rant over.

After the gym I was starving and whipped up this salad.

• Bed of spinach
• 2 sauteed zuchinis and onion
• Sunshine falafel patty
• Tons of sunbutter hummus (5-6+ servings – no joke)
• Poppyseed salad dressing

I loved the contrast of the sweet dressing with the veggies and patty!

I loaded on the dressing and hummus, so along with the patty, it was quite fat laden – although healthy fats.

Finished off with a pumpkin pie saltwater taffy.

Once I was finally able to retrieve my keys, it was grocery time! Since I’m sticking to my freezer/pantry stock, I really didn’t need much – just some fruit, veggies, milk, and eggs…oh and something my roommate texted to me:

“They have pumpkin ice cream at Ralphs hahahah this is an epic day.”

Pumpkin ice cream!!!! I had all my roommates on the lookout at every grocery store they shopped at 🙂 I’ve been searching for it since the beginning of September! I really wanted the double-churned, but Ralph’s didn’t have it. So I settled for the regular. Better than nothing!

I came home with this loot:

How did these guys sneak out of the picture?

More expensive than I was expecting – $28, especially considering everything I got was on sale (except those dang ‘naners). I guess I did splurge on the ice cream and whipped cream (a must for pumpkin flavored things!) so that upped it a bit.

I was still stuffed from my late salad lunch so I didn’t think I’d be very hungry for dinner. But hunger randomly hit so unexpectedly that I chowed down too much, too fast. I went straight for my leftover Kashi pizza.

(+ 1 other slice that I wolfed down straight from the fridge)

While this re-heated up, I chose the fruit side-dish route, rather than veggies (I’d had my fair share at lunch!)

1 peach + 6 strawberries + 1/4 a super un-ripe pear flavorless crunchy green thing.

Guess I need to let those pears ripen just a bit…

Now onto reading that I didn’t get done all weekend. Must finish that before the Desperate Housewives premiere! Anyone else watching/watched it? Megan just tweeted me that it was weird? Excited to find out!

Hopefully I’ll eventually have room for some ice cream as well. I’ll let you know tomorrow! (Who am I kidding – of course I will 😉 )

**Edited to add**

Just want you guys to make sure you’re subscribed to my posts at:

https://heyitstay.wordpress.com/feed

If you’re subscribed without the ‘feed’ at the end – my posts won’t show up in your reader!

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S’more Wienies?

Unfortunately I didn’t prepare any type of overnight oats or cookie last night, so nothing spectacular this morning.

Just one of my Banana bomb muffins (sunbutter spread in the middle)

And a small bit of TJ’s greek yogurt + cinnamon + Nature’s Path pecan crunch cereal & vanilla granola. Topped with banana slices.

I swear there’s yogurt under there. Or is there?….muahaha (not sure why that warrants an evil laugh, but I did it anyways)

Then it was beach day! Even though I had a late breakfast, I could not turn down a delicious sandwich from High St. Deli. They have a coupon out for a $4.20 sandwich (get it?  4.20 from high street? rar rar rar). It might look like a normal sandwich…

But it was oh so much more.

Turkey, lettuce, mustard (an important addition, right Janetha? I got dijon and yellow), tomato, extra onions, pickles, peppercinis, & avo on wheat bread. Although I do prefer my sandwich on rolls. I was disappointed by the lack of turkey though – it was obviously mostly lettuce. But still good! I managed half.

After 2 hours of girl talk and soaking up the sun, we came home to rest up, get changed and head back to the beach for a bonfire!  But food came first.  Priorities, you know.

1/2 bloob container + the last of my Zoe’s cinnamon raisin granola (it was a last scrapings sort of snack).

You’re saying this Kashi pizza has been in my freezer forever? Why, I could never tell from the freezer burn.

Beefing it up with toppings helped. Oh, and cooking it.

I had this + another slice. Dipped in BBQ sauce of course.

And some “fried” cinnamon plaintain while it was cooking.

I knew they’d have weinies hot dogs roasting at the bonfire, but I figured they’d be red meat. It turned out our friend got chicken franks, so I really couldn’t turn one down! Roasting wienies over a campfire? Sure thing!

(Okay, so our “bonfire” was more of a campfire. The pits were all full. So sue us.)

I wasn’t exactly hungry, but I wasn’t full either, so I had almost a whole chicken frank + half a whole wheat bun. It was good! I’ve never had chicken franks before (only turkey), and it was almost sweet?

Followed by s’mores of course 😀

I had a mini s’more made with 1/2 a graham cracker sheet + 1 marshmallow + 2 small chocolate squares. And another plain roasted marshmallow.

This is the ultimate marshmallow. I fell in love.

It didn’t look that burnt in real life. More golden.

And our friend made S’more on steroids.

7 marshmallows + 4 fun sized chocolate bars + 2 full graham cracker sheets.

Da-yumn.

Good fun, good times, good people 😀

I came home to hot chocolate & 2 mary’s crackers spread with cream cheese + pumpkin butta. Yummmm. And season premiere of SNL. Not too impressed. Meh. It needs Justin Timberlake permanently on the cast. He makes every show better.

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Old Navy steals! (my money)

Would you like to meet this?

Let me introduce you to my delicious breakfast.

First, start with overnight muesli.

• 1/4 cup muesli
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/2 mashed banana
• Cinnamon

Does this look appetizing?

In the morning add the other 1/2 of the banana, a whole 1/4 nectarine (because the rest was moldy – what is it with me and mold lately?) and Nature’s Path vanilla granola (which I swear tastes exactly like frosting).

And you get this.

Much better.

Sooooooo good.

I then had the huge debate of bussing or driving halfway/walking 20 minutes to class. I was a good girl and chose to walk.

Lunch was a toughy and I could not decide what to have. I have a 5-lb bag of potatoes which I got for $1 calling out to me (so throw potato ideas my way people!). Hmmm but look there’s pizza sauce in my cupboard. That looks good. Wait…wait…could I really? Okay. A pizza potato was born!

With a moderate glob tons of FF sour cream (I love sour cream. Can’t get enough).

I basically nuked the potato, scooped out the innards, mashed them all up with some pizza sauce & nutritional yeast (has a cheesy flavor). Mixed it with some sauteed onions & zucchini. Stuffed the stuffing back into the skin. Topped it with more pizza sauce, more veggies, and a bit of shredded cheese. Then baked it in the oven for about 10 minutes.

The stuffing was a bit too dry and bland for my taste (hence why I used 1/4 container of sour cream), so next time I’d add more pizza sauce and more seasonings.

I’d also add more protein or fats since this held me over for less than 3 hours. With a peachy dessert.

Pre-afternoon shopping I made myself an iced coffee. Totally jeal’ of my roommates awesome travel cup.

It’s like I was a legit Starbucks barista. Especially since I made my own pumpkin spice creamer.

Combine 1 cup creamer + 2-4 tbsp syrup.

This drink was more than I could’ve asked for.   And I saved mulah too.

Browsing the Old Navy sale racks (huge deal goin’ on people! I got 1 sweater, 8 shirts, and 2 dresses – the ones I already purchased – for $58!!) got my tummy growlin’. I came home to make this long time lover of mine.

Pumpkin smoothie with a teensie bit of whipped cream.

Dinner was eaten in parts since I thought I was going to a BBQ, but ended up skipping out. An apple with laughing cow and carrots with sunbutter (delicious combo by the way) at 6:00.

Note: that is not a finger mark you see in the sunbutter blog.  I repeat, that is not a finger mark.  Look away.

After my roommate and I sat on our butts for 1 1/2 hours deciding what to do with our lives (and whether or not to attend this particular BBQ), I downed a giant yogurt mess around 8:00 (after we obviously decided to forgo the BBQ).

This blurry “camera died so using phone” picture doesn’t do it justice. Trust me.

• 1 nectarine
• 1/2 banana
• 1 lb carton of strawberries (okay – I left 5 still in the carton. But it was almost 1 pound)
• 1 container bloob chobani
• Nature’s path granola (layer in the middle & on top)
• Flaxseed (layer in the middle and more on top)

I think I had enough fruit today to feed a small village.

There may also have been some snacking tonight on 4 mary’s crackers spread with the awesome honey almond cream cheese + pumpkin butta’ mixture. And 1 2 mugs of hot chocolate.  I am now out of cocoa = end of the world is to come.  Dilemna: do I head to the store tomorrow and break my “once a week” grocery goal?  Or do I stick it out?

It was one of those nights where we really wanted to go out and do something exciting, but had no desire to do any of our options (party, bars, movies, dinner, friend’s house…). So it ended up being a low-key snackage sort of night.

What’s your favorite Friday night activity? Dancing at the bars? Catching a movie in the theater? Renting one instead? Do tell!

So I’m off to catch up with a few TV shows online. Tomorrow is a beachy kinda day 🙂

PS: Thank you for all your kind words and encouragment with my last negative thoughts post. You all are super supportive 🙂 I highly recommend that exercise to anyone, and I’m continuing to do it myself!

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Donation Creation Fail

A couple blogers have recently written about “Default Thinking” and what you think about during day to day activities. And then Angela wrote yesterday about getting rid of the negative default thoughts that might occur. She recommended writing down all your negative thoughts about yourself every night and morning, and then crossing them out to replace them with positive thoughts.

Here’s a confession: I struggle with a lot of negative self talk that I’m really trying to work through. Having lost a lot of weight in the past, I think it’s still hard for me to accept my new body and trust it. I’ve come a long way, and whenever a negative comment enters my mind, I try my hardest to slap myself (in my head) for it.

I was just about to fall asleep last night, when I remembered I wanted to try out Angela’s exercise. I hopped right up and whipped out a blank page in my journal (which I haven’t written in in a couple months – whoops). This is hard for me to do, but I am going to share with you what I wrote down last night, and what I replaced each thought with.

Note: I know that none of these negaative thoughts are true statements. They are just honest thoughts that popped into my head last night and at often times. I’m just being honest here.

• My arms are fat. I have strong arms from lifting weights. We just rearranged the family room, and I could lift so many things by myself that my skinny roommate could hardly lift for a second….with help.

• My stomach is too flabby. My soft stomach shows how much weight I lost and how hard I worked at it.

• My hair is ugly. I wish I had different hair. Other people love my hair – it curls and straightens.

• I look like a balloon. I look like an athlete.

• I can’t lose weight. I look beautiful how I am. I’ve lost 60 pounds before!! Even though I’ve recently gained weight, I’m stable where I am, and don’t need to lose anything.

• I don’t have a big personality. I wish I was more comfortable to be myself around others. I’m funny and kind. Just don’t be intimidated to show it around people you don’t know well.

So there you have it. Exactly what I wrote down. It’s a process that I’m really working hard on, and I’m hoping that these little lists help. Thanks for the tip Angela 🙂

Now onto eats.

I eventually made my way to campus this morning for a gym & library sesh. Which one was I dreading most did I want to get out of the way first? I chose gym first (which was probably a bad idea because then I was pooped and just wanted to sleep in the library).

Anyways – I’m still on knee hiatus, so I stuck to weights and mat work. I did:

• 20 minutes upper body machines
• 15 minute ab work
• Some lower body PT strength moves
• 5 minutes upper body dumbells

Total: 55 minutes

Phew! Pump that iron! Feel that burn! Build those muscles! Yeah….

Off to nap study time where I snacked on a very appetizing (??) looking cranberry Heart Thrive bar.

Awww Nutrition Therapy Love.

I could barely keep my eyes open and registered….nothing. So I hopped on the next bus, made my way home, vegged on the couch with an iced coffee, Ellen, and a bowl of yum.

Not long after, my roommate and I made the exciting trip downtown to Coldstones for our free $1 donation creation! Which turned out to be a pre-made 3-bite creation. No joke. But I did eat it. In 3 bites.

That would be sweet cream ice cream + brownies + sprinkles + caramel sauce on top. Honestly, all I could taste were the sprinkles (exactly why I hate sprinkles in my ice cream). Why did I eat it again? Not sure. Oh well, what’s done is done.

Needless to say, my roommate and I were still a bit hungry starving after this so we hurried home for dinner.

Laughing cow cheese + sunbutter hummus + spinach + Sunshine falafel burger in a Rudi’s spelt wrap. Grilled on Mr. Foreman. With zucchinis on the side.

(Still not feelin’ the falafel patty.  It’s just dry to me!  Need to pick a better flavor next time).

And a small side mix of random salad gatherings that my roommate gave me. I think there was coleslaw, kideny beans, chickpeas, mushrooms, bell peppers, and olives? With some TJ’s poppyseed dressing.

I also snacked on frozen mango chunks after this. And finished off the meal with a triple chocolate mini Twix bar (those things are good good good – triple the good. Get it? God, I’m clever).

Well I spent the night with google reader and a couple TV shows – Flash Forward (did anyone else watch?? I liked it!) and Supernatural (Dean = drooool). Which means I didn’t study at all. Which also means I need to do that now…

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So much more than oats in a jar

I know you’re asking yourself what in heaven’s name could be better than oats in a jar? Pumpkin Oats in a jar…duh. (Now you’re slapping yourself on the forehead thinking “Doh. I should’ve though of that.”)

Sweet moses of the fall flavors. I thank you.

My usual oat mix of:

1/3 cup multigrain oats
1/3 cup almond milk + 1/3 cup water
2 egg whites
Loads of cinnamon & pie spice
Pumpkin (hence the name – Pumpkin oats)
Some plain greek yogurt mixed in at the end (makes it extra creamy)

Oh and peanut butter of course. Look at those swirls.

Topped off with

Zoe’s cinnamon raisin granola
Banana nut cheerios
A bit of sunbutter (because I’m a nut butter addict)

And then I died and went to oatmeal heaven.

Where he greeted me.

Psssst….head to Coldstones from 5-8 for a free creation! I’m only telling you all because I know you won’t compete with my spot in line.  Enjoy 😀

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Who invited you Mr. Mold?

You know what Wednesday morning equals, dont’cha?

If you guess waffles, you looked at my below picture guessed correctly. Last night as I was tossing and turning for another 2 hours (why can’t I fall asleep lately?), I dreamt of what I wanted to top my waffles with.

For waffle numero uno I mashed 1/2 banana, teeny bit of PB, small scoop of vanilla chobani, and a squirt of maple syrup. Then I warmed it up in the micro.

For waffle dos, I spread a bit of honey almond cream cheese. Then topped it with a pumpkin mixture of pumpkin, vanilla chobani, bit of PB, cinnamon, and maple syrup.

Then drizzled it all with a small bit of syrup.

Oh holy yum! Sooooo good. I licked the plate clean with my tongue.

Then it was hey-ho off to class I go. But not before taking a first day of school picture. Yes – I’m 8 years old. Or my mom still makes me take one.  Either way it’s sad.

There ya go Mommy. Happy?

Today’s schedule included Food Systems Management, Clinical Nutrition, and Critical Evaluation of Nutrition Research.  This quarter looks to be a lot of writing & case studies but let’s skip the class details since food is more important.

Snackage in class:

And guess what I came home to?

Apparently the dish soap looks the same as dishwasher soap. You’d think my roommates would’ve learned after last time? Either way, I spent the 20 minutes I had between school and work mopping up. Therefore, I had lots of time to take a very presentable picture of my lunch on the run.

Or not.

Kashi rustico chicken pocket. Meeehhh. It was okay.  The doughy bread part was delicious though.  But I love bread.  So that’s probably why.

And grabbed these for work.

Chocolate was sitting out at work and what girl can turn down the best milk chocolate chips in the world? Okay, maybe you can, but not me.

Something special was waiting for me upon my return home from work!

Whit sent me a goodie box for being her 3000th commenter! Sa-weet 😀 Thanks girl!!

Of course I had to unwrap and try out one of these banana zucchini breads ASAP. But look what I found instead.

Is that mold taking residence on MY zucchini bread? How dare he! Who invited you over Mr. Mold? Fortunately one of the loaves appeared to be moldless (power to this loaf for staying strong and putting up a fight), so I immediately had a small bite and froze it for future consumption.

How cute are these mini dudes?

Delicious!! I only wish I had all 3 to enjoy 😦 But at least I have this one!

Dinner was inspired by something I saw here the other night. I cooked up some

Chopped zucchini
Onion
Mushrooms
Garlic

Mixed it with 1 egg + 3 egg whites, salt & pepper.  I then poured the egg mixture into a muffin tin. Enter mini frittatas!

My frittatas tasted just like the omelets I make, but I think they’d be better with cheese. I just didn’t have any.

I also chopped up a small potato, seasoned it with olive oil, salt & pepper, and put those in the muffin tin as well.

And leftover zucchini (I had 2 zucchinis total) that I seasoned and sprinkled with parmesan before baking in the remaining tins.

A very filling (if not too filling – especially when combined with some zucchini bread and 2 cups of cranberry juice) din. I loved this idea, but not sure if I’ll do it again. As well as I “Pammed” my muffin tin, the egg mixture would not come off. It’s soaking now overnight.

In other new, my knee is really sore today/tonight. I really hope I didn’t re-injure/make it worse lately. Debating on if I should even do the stairmaster tomorrow.

Well goodnight all Good morning since you all are probably reading this on Thursday anyways!

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Bad boys, Bad boys

Not meant to be a dirty title at all, but to the tune of “Bad boys…whatcha gonna do?  Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?”  Shame on your if your mind went dirty.

After my giant bowl of heaven oats, I hit up the gym for 2.75 mile run on the dreadmill. I finished with about 10 minutes of upper body weight machines before I had to hurry and catch the bus.

Unfortunately, my knee has been bothering me more the past few days. Yesterday it was achy all day, which wasn’t a good sign after 3 days of rest. And today it was more sore than usual. Even though I hadn’t done anything different or more strenuous, I know from the past (and when I first injured it) not to push through the pain. It doesn’t hurt bad enough to keep me from running or doing daily activities, but I cannot risk injuring it further. While it is in no way healed at all, it’s about 50% better than it felt at the peak of my pain. And I can’t start all over again. No way. So I’m pretty sure I’m taking the next week or so off from running. I might do another short one on the treadmill, but hopefully I can restrain myself. No more track for a bit though, since that’s harder on my knees.

My hunger definitely caught up with me today. I was starving after the gym (even though it was only about 3 hours post-breakkie), and whipped up a breakfast lunch burrito type of deal.

1 egg + 1 egg white scrambled with cilantro and avocado wrapped in a Rudi’s whole spelt tortilla.

I searched high and low for some shredded cheese with no success.  So imagine some melted cheese in there.

With 1/4 honeydew melon that I directly scooped and ate with a spoon. My favorite way to eat melon.

And a delicious Montanna Whopper for dessert. Contrary to my original review of them being semi-tastelss, these definitely got better after the first day I made them. Can’t wait to make them next time with the correct ingredients 🙂

I then got to work on my grocery goals.

First, I went through all my food and typed up what I have on hand so I can easily go through and meal plan in the future.

Next, I jotted down lunch and dinner ideas for the next week.

Lastly, I made a shopping list with staples that I’m out of (such as bananas) or additions to pick up in order to make my meals this week (such as a tomato or onion).

Then I hit up Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Albertsons where I knew some good deals were!

Samples consumed at Costco got me excited because I’ve been curious to try these.  Nature’s Path toaster pastries.

Completely disliked the strawberry (or whatever type of berry) one, but loved the brown sugar cinnamon.  Yumm.

Apparently Old Navy must have been in the fine print on my list too, since I wandered in there on my way to Costco. I had seen this comfy dress on a couple blogs lately, and wanted to check it out for myself!  Then…I walked out of there with two. Yes – I cannot make decisions. While they were cheap, I probably won’t keep both, so you tell me.  Which color should I keep? Ignore my gross unshowered gym hair.

Gray/teal?

or White/gray?

(There also was a white/camely-brown one that I spent roughly an hour debating between as well)

Awkward poses where I had no idea how to stand and where to put my hands. Hence the “make use of the pockets and bend the knee” stance.

K – so looking at these pics now, I definitely like the gray/teal better. Or should I keep both? (I know I’m ca-razy). Only $15 and super comfy! 🙂

Besides my Old Navy purchases, I only made one extra purchase – Einstein’s honey almond cream cheese. Could have done without that one, but I’m still proud of myself for sticking to my list 😀 I even set a couple things down that were originally on my list, but too expensive/not completely necessary (such as teh $5 tub of paremsan cheese.  Really?).

My lunch kept me full for, oh…about 2 hours (yes – told you I was hungry). So I whipped out the new Tropical Larabar to snack on.

Please avert your eyes if you’re easily grossed out. What you’re looking at there is literally spit out lara (although honestly, it doesn’t look much different than the original bar, does it?)

I’m sorry Tropical fans, but I found it N-A-S-T-Y (which spells nasty for anyone who cares). So bad that I would’ve stuffed anything in my mouth (hopefully that’s not what she said) to get rid of the flavor, but unfortunately had nothing within reach. Blech. So sad. So sad.  PB&J – you win.

Sorry Miss Lara, but this bad boy won me over when I got home. Chocolate fig vitatop with earth balance PB.

I’ve always had a thing for the bad boys. This one in particular:

Rory was totally supposed to end up with Jess. What the hell happened there?

Then my roommate and I got cookin’ with our new old cast aside rice cooker that a friend gave us. Good thing fajita salad was on my meal list, and cilantro lime rice went perfectly!

Sauteed garlic & lime chicken patty (cut up) with onions, cilantro lime brown rice, homemade guac, FF sour cream, & tomatoes. Poor suffocating spinach lay underneith it all.

This bowl was massive. And then I inhaled a large bowl of strawberries + a peach. Followed by some way too liquidy banana/mango whip topped with sunbutter (eaten a few hours later):

K, I think I’m finally full. Holy moly, guess my appetite received my letter in full force, no?

So tomorrow I actually have classes (only 11-12 and 12-2 though). Unlike today where school technically started, but I had none. Yeah I’m pretty legit and know how to work the system like that.

Edited to add more midnight snackage:

3 Mary’s carraway crackers (1 entered the mouth before photo sesh) topped with honey almond cream cheese & a smear of pumpkin butta.

This combo will be repeated again very soon.  You can bet your life on it.

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