Work Lessons

Things I’ve learned at work (the Foodie edition):

1. Take advantage of going out to lunch.  If someone’s paying for your meal (and they really don’t care what you order), order what you want!

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For example, an expensive salad that I got to add chicken to at California Pizza Kitchen.  Roasted Vegetable Salad + chicken. 

(Moroccan Chicken Salad is 1 million times better, by the way).

 

2. Get creative in the kitchen while the baby is sleeping.  Instead of a plain old sandwich (PB&J for instance)…

Make a pulled BBQ chicken sandwich with rotisserie chicken! 

 

3. Holiday seasons will do you in.  Hello candy and treats galore!

**Insert peppermint mocha brownie here**

(Source)

4. Sometimes it worth it to eat red meat.  Such as in this Monte Cristo sandwich: French toast bread sandwich with cheese & ham, deep fried, and then drizzled with homemade strawberry syrup.

I about gagged when I heard about it.  But look at this beast!  I was this close to trying a piece (ham and all!), but I ended up picking out the ham.  Wow.  The strawberry sauce actually went very very well!

(Made by one of the chefs at work)

 

5. I better get to work and make myself up in the world to have a view like this:

(Bad lighting – that’s the ocean in the background).

Or marry an anesthesiologist.  Either one.

 

6. Take food if your boss gives is going to throw it away.  For example: She mentions these odd “Vita-top muffins” her mom bought her that have been in the freezer forever. 

You say: “Oh!  I love Vita-top muffins!”  Hope and cross fingers she’ll offer you them

Yay.  Ignore fact that they expired in April and are slightly freezer burnt. 

 

7. Babies are adorable.

Toddlers are hilarious.

Adults  grown-ups  Early 20-year olds can’t pull it off.

(I guess babies seem to find me hilarious?  Hence the baby’s face in the background)

 

8. Babies are also good birth control.

 

Anything great that work has taught you?  How do you take advantage of your “work perks?”

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Who stole the onions?

…from the onion jar?

Who me? Not me! I would’ve if I had an onion jar.

Aren’t these flowers so pretty?  I saw them on a walk – my favorite colors!!

I really wasn’t feeling too hot yesterday due to the fact that Tuesday night was pint night downtown.  Heh.  Whoops.

Anyways, I hadn’t eaten much all day (think toast & cookie dough), and knew I needed some sort of nutrition before my afternoon hospital shift.  I also happened to be downtown near a deli I’ve always wanted to try.  I never eat out anymore – this was such a splurge!!

Smoked turkey, brie, & cranberry pecan relish (which I later found out they charged me an extra $2 for!?!  Ridiculous).

Mmmmm brie.  Huge chunks of brie (would’ve been better melted).

Hold the phone!!  Where are my onions??  If you’re gonna overcharge me for my relish, at least remember the onions!

Add avocado and this could easily have been the best sandwich of my life.

Would you believe me when I say this morning was my first time trying full-fat yogurt?  WOW – look how thick & creamy (do I even need to say it?  Really?  Fine.  TWSS).

I actually didn’t even realize this was full-fat until I took my first bite and moaned.  Mmmm.

With cereal of course.

I rarely buy sugary flavored yogurts, and never buy expensive brands such as Brown Cow.  But when it was on sale at Vons for 10 cents more than my Safeway brand yogurt (55 cents!!) I knew I had to try it!

In non-food-random-thoughts/news-bullet-form-ramblings:

• I worked 11 hours today
• Watched Inception last night (which was awesome, but I was slightly confused on the point – such as why they were going into that man’s dream?? Maybe I missed the whole point of the movie.  Probably)
• Am excited to go to the gym tomorrow.
• Ate way too much crap today – babysitting does that to me.  Boredom eating? Most likely.
• Have a canker sore on my tongue.  The tip of it.  So I keep rubbing it on my teeth making it worse.  Figures.
• TV Guide says “Back to the Future Part 2” is on TV right now, but really it’s part 1. How dare they.  They should know better.

 

PS: Word to the wise – this is what happens when you make popcorn after a night out and leave the container next to your bed.  I definitely didn’t realize it was there when I got up in the morning.

Now if only our vacuum was working.  That would make my life so much easier.

 

Winner of the Fiber One giveaway is……

#18:
kbwood 

id love to try their pancake mix!!

 

Congrats girl!  Email me your info

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Cheesus

Want to know something gross?

Yesterday I did something to make me sweat.  A lot.

What I’m trying to say is, that I exercised for the first time in 5 weeks.  I went to the gym.  And it felt awesome slightly painful.  But good.

My side pain is still there.  And it hurts (like an dull aching muscle type of hurt) when I contract my abs, twist to the side, etc.  As much as it’s improved, it’s now stayed the same for the past 1 1/2 weeks or so.  I figured I would try out the stairmaster (you know – that revolving staircase of death?).  Because your torso tends to stay straight and still while your legs do all the work. 

Well….it went fine!  Except for the sweating buckets part.  I sweat buckets gallons (I’m basing this on the fact that buckets are smaller than a gallon) on that thing.  I also did some incline walking on the treadmill (which did in fact hurt my abs – since you contract your abs while walking uphill.  Duh Taylor).  Some lower body machine work was thrown in there as well.  I’m taking it easy and slow for now.  It just felt good to do something active. 

Breakfast was waffles:

Taking a bath in peanut flour syrup, no less.

Multiple cups of this:

RIP super duper good creamer that I can’t buy more of because you’re not included in my “allowable grocery list.”

Lunch was a burnt flavorful grilled cheesus:

And dinner was at work.  Which consisted of:

• 2 Morningstar veggie patties
• Rotisserie chicken & BBQ sauce
• 3 JoJo oreos (which I have to say are better than real Oreos)
• 2 Diet Cokes

Super healthy, huh?  And super photogenic which is exactly why you don’t see a picture of it here right now.

 

Now I’m about to set off for the gym and see how it goes!  I need to take advantage of this gym membership I’m treating myself to.  Even though I get the month of December free. 

So I need to take advantage of this FREE gym membership that they’re treating me to this month before I hand over my money for the next 6 months.

 

I’m also hoping and crossing my fingers that my roommate is well enough and that my friends are all going out tonight.  With the recent stress, tons of work, and exhaustion, I seriously feel like I have no life.  I miss the party scene social scene involving alcohol.  It’ll be fun to get out there.

 

What are your plans on this fine Saturday evening?

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2 hour intervals

If I thought I was hungry the day of my half, I was possibly even more hungry the day after!  I literally ate every 2 hours, if not more. 

9:45 (luckily my job let me sleep in!) – whole wheat waffles topped with syrup & pumpkin cream cheese.

Mmmm cream cheese.  Who says it’s just for bagels?

With a small bit of Voskos Greek yogurt with pumpkin butter swirled in.

11:30 rolled around, and my appetite was high!  I had a small bit of a pesto turkey sandwich at work.  About half of a half…so pretty much a 1/4.

And then made my real lunch at 12:30 – Trader Joe’s black bean and corn enchiladas. 

There was no sour cream in the house, so instead I sprinkled it with feta cheese.  Which was a brilliant idea.

See the Diet Coke there in the background? 

Okay – let’s just pretend you didn’t.

Oh heyyyy.  Whats up.

My, what attractive bling you’re sporting.

I actually wasn’t super hungry come 2:30, but I needed a snack pre-work.

Bagel thin with strawberry jam

and pumpkin cream cheese.

But of course I was starving at work about 4:30.  I snagged some trail mix and chowed it down fast.

At 6:30, we breaked for dinner.  Nothing too appetizing on the hot foods bar, I stuck with a salad.  As my co-workers said “the mother of all salads.”.  Hey – I like ‘em big. (mixed greens, blue cheese, kidney beans, beets, pickles, sunflower seeds, raspberry dressing).

And a ton of rice.  I said I wanted a lot.  And they listened.  (Full size plate, btw)

8:30 rolled around, and 2 hours post-dinner I was hungry…right on schedule!

Apple (2x what’s shown – I already ate a few slices!) with laughing cow cheese, and peanut flour dip.

And around 11:30 I got out of bed after trying to fall asleep on an empty tummy.  It wasn’t working.

Cereal to the rescue!!

 

And then I was out like a light.  I assume we’re talking a burnt out light here.

 

Official race photos are in!  If I had known the color theme of the race was going to be hot pink, I’m not quite sure I would’ve worn it.  I definitely blend in!  not too many great pics – I’m rather small in a lot of them.

Front and center:

Raise the roof!

Right in the middle:

Almost done!  Holding onto my Ghiradelli chocolate as well.  That’s what’s important.

Right under the clock…clapping? haha

So hardcore…she told me to pose this way…not quite sure why.

More natural.  If you call standing stiffly with a fake smile natural.

 

I’m going to be honest here – as I was looking at these today, I wasn’t all too happy.  I said to myself that they weren’t “very flattering” and I found myself getting down on how I looked in these pictures.  (I’ve mentioned how I’ve recently had a good amount of weight gain, and how I’m dealing with that).  I was kind of put off by these.  I knew it wasn’t good of me to think these thoughts, but I couldn’t help it.

Later I realized how incredibly awful I was for critiquing myself the way I did.  These pictures demonstrate me running 13 miles for crying out loud.  And here I was critiquing my body.  These pictures prove the strength and stamina that my body has to offer.  How dare I think poorly of it? 

Just a little something I realized this afternoon…

Tell me one (or more!) thing your proud of your body recently accomplishing

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Running This Flashback

I had PB&J for breakfast the past 2 days. 

One in yogurt-mess form:

• Peanut butter yogurt (peanut flour mixed with yogurt)
• Cereal
• Raspberries
• Pumpkin butter

Yes, there was yogurt under there

The juicy berries mixed into the yogurt like PB&J!

This morning in overnight oats form:

• Peanut butter overnight oats
• 1/2 a nectarine
• Raspberries
• Sprinkle of granola
• Jam

Mmm pretty much like fresh raspberry jam

 

I also was quite the fashion statement:

Running shoes + cute dress = oh shush it, I have a sore foot.

 

Today I worked a bit, then hit the road home!  Grabbed a sandwich at a local deli on the way.

Sooooo good.  Seriously – big ol’ sourdough rolls make deli sandwiches.  I used to get plain sliced wheat.  But the sandwich is 3097532085032 million times better with this bread.

 

I drove straight to my orthotics appointment, where I was refitted.  And told I need new orthotics.  SUPER DEEEE DUPER.  Apparently, my arches have stretched out and are now over-riding my current orthotics.  Causing my ankles to roll slightly inward.  She was also in shock how tight my ankles are.  Even though I stretch after each run – it’s not enough!!  Most likely the cause of my recent foot pain.  I really need to focus on like hour long stretching or something if I want to keep running.

 

Then to Target.

 

And guess what was right next door across the street?

I can’t turn down the fact that they have pumpkin pie flavor.  If I see Yogurtland, I must buy.

 

This then welcomed me home when I walked in the door:

Except someone seems to have been picking at it!

 

I thought the yogurt and trail mix would ruin my appetite for dinner, but I still felt munchy.  I rummaged around, and found some tomato soup in the cupboard.  Eaten with a quesadilla made with a flatout wrap and cheddar cheese.

 

And then I was soooooo full.

 

I haven’t done a Flashback Friday in so long, but I figured this race weekend would be perfect to flashback to my previous times running this race!  I actually flashbacked to it last year as well, but I’ll re-flashback

 

In 2007, I ran the full Nike Women’s Marathon in SF.  It was my first marathon, and actually one of my first serious races!

I spent the day before with my sister, mom, and cousin hanging out at the hotel and exploring the Expo!

…and getting attacked in Macy’s.  No big deal.

The next morning, we were up bright and early!  (My mom and cousin walked the half)

 

I was wandering the streets, when I ran into my dad and siblings!  Seriously, out of all the people in the crowds, and out of all the places they could have been.  Talk about coincidence!  It really made me excited.

It really meant a lot that my whole family came out to support me.  I love you guys!!!  During the last 3 miles, I randomly saw a huge sign that read “DO IT FOR ZIMMER!!” (Zimmer was our dog who died of lymphoma, what this race benefits).  I cracked up, and my brother started to run alongside with me.  I challenged him to beat me But he dropped off behind me.  HA!

Sprinting to the finish!

Done

Finishers!!

 

In 2008, I ran the half! 

Enjoying the day with mom and her friends:

My hand always looks like it’s hanging dead when I have my Garmin on haha.

The weather was freeeeeezing this year!!  I ran the half, and everyone else walked, so I hung around for a good 2 hours afterwards waiting.  So cold!!

 

I can’t wait to make new memories this year!!

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Pumpkin Rehab

Wussup bloggie friends? 

I never understood the huge hype on those commercials.

Someone made an appearance this morning.

Overnight oats!  Pumpkin ones of course.

I love cream cheese on overnight oats. 

This meal was either super filling, or I just wasn’t plain hungry this morning.  As I didn’t get hungry for 4 hours.  That’s crazy and unheard of for me.

I ran a few errands for work, and picked up a few goodies at TJ Maxx along the way.  Including these Pumpkin Spice almond cookies.  I had 4 while driving between errands.

SO GOOD!

 

I also had a few bites (which probably equaled out to a whole slice) of cherry pie (cobbler?) they had at work.

SO GOOD.

 

So you wanna see me goodies, do ya?

(I accidentally typed ‘me’, meant to type ‘my.’ But ‘me goodies’ makes me sound like a legit pirate so I’m cool with that).

I’m wondering what went through the cashier’s mind when I purchased all pumpkin delights.  (And yes – those would be pumpkin spice jelly bellies).

Not all pumpkin – I did find that beauty of a deal:

SWEET.

I keep running out of time to make a good lunch.  I really need to cook up big and tasty recipes to grab and go during the week.  Unfortunately today, this is what I was stuck with:

No, not a cardboard box. I actually did eat the meal inside the box (surprise!).  Actually, I picked out all the chicken (I’m kinda grossed out by frozen meal processed chicken), and cooked up a chicken sausage link which I added to the mix. 

Even though my chicken sausage was probably just as processed.

 

Dinner was probably the best salad I’ve made so far at the salad bar.

SALAD BEAST.

+ a side of parmesan crusted potatoes.  Fried chunks of yummy potatoes.

SO GOOD.

You know what else I found today?  Pumpkin cream cheese at Trader Joe’s. 

Yes. 

Seriously.

I stopped.  I stared.  I did a little dance. 

I pondered.  I thought.  I just bought 2 containers of cream cheese this weekend at Einsteins.

I bought it.  I had to.  Besides, now I can taste test!

Here we have Trader Joe’s on the left, Einstein’s on the right.

(I took pictures of my apples dipped in them, but they turned out awful quality, so I won’t torture you with them.  And yes, I had apples dipped in cream cheese.  I told you – I love cream cheese.  Especially when it’s artificially dyed orange and flavored pumpkin).

I’ll compare the 2 in another post, but know this: it’s awesome.  So good.  Buy it!  Along with peanut flour.  Seriously.  Trader Joe’s?  I’m proud of you.

 

In other news, anyone know of a rehab program designed for pumpkin addicts?

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Blurbs

I rrrrreally want to catch you up on the past few days of my life. But I just have so much mumbo jumbo to talk about, that I’m worried I’ll bore you.

Meh. Deal. But I am quite tired so I’ll split it up and make it quick.

Wednesday’s bad-quality oats in a jar.

Road-trip yumminess.

Road-trip nastiness.

Concert fun.

Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, Justin Moore, Easton Corbin, Steel Magnolia…

Amaze.

Concert eats.

Ooozing cranberry sauce.

Morning eats.

Mommy knows I love fruit 🙂

Pumpkin pie yogurt at Yogurtland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pre-long run fuel.

Adorable cake made by sister.

Best peanut butter ever in the entire world infinity and beyond.

1/2 the jar gone in 1 day? Yes it’s possible.

10.25 miles in 1:36:33.

Not a great run. Hard.

Sign of being lazy? Or just color blind?

Post-run lunch.

Shredded BBQ chicken & whole wheat wrap.

Hungry 2 hours later.  More PB duh.

Pre-drive snack.

Favorite part.

Traffic + 10 mile run = must stop for food.

$5 dolla footlong (I really hope you sang it in that tone).

Veggies galore. But no guac apparently.

Still starving. No food in the car…except…..

It happens.

Roommates making gordita crunch quesadillas at 8:30. Me likey.

It’s pumpkin season!

Well that covered Wednesday-Friday.

I’ll catch you up on my whirlwind of a weekend tomorrow 😉

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Quickie

Time for a quickie. No – that that type of quickie, you dirty mind.

A quickie post! I’ve decided last minute to go out on the town with my temporary roommates. Guess that means no long run for me tomorrow 😉 Such is life!

Breakfast was a yogurt mess!

Up close and personal.

I actually mixed some yogurt with cottage cheese becaue I didn’t have quite enough yogurt for my liking.

I picked up some lunch at Vons while out gocery shopping for my boss (nannying boss).

I got a small taster of butternut squash soup. Which was so so good. But so so bad for you!

And a sandwich. Rustic Italian bread, turkey, mustard, avocado, lettuce, tomato, onions, peppercinis, pickles.

Vons/Safeway sandwiches are BOMB and only $4.99.

Along with a beverage.

I was all of a sudden feeling super sweaty, lightheaded, and awful at work around 6:00. I was either all of a sudden very sick, or super hungry. I snagged some graham crackers and sneakily ate those in the elevator when I could. It helped. But dinner helped more.

Giant salad beast with black beans, kidney beans, cottage cheese, pineapple, olives, sunflower seeds, & honey mustard dressing.

With chocolate applesauce cake for dessert. I am not a cake person at all, but this was good!!

Monayyy.

I then came home, snacked on some cereal from the box, zucchini & hummus, and am now about to get ready to go outttt.

I’m leaving tomorrow late morning to head home for a few days! I have a surprise concert tomorrow night to go to. Anyone wanna take a guess at the concert?! 😉

PS: My grandma sent me this in an email, and being the US history buff that I am, thought it was hilarious.

PPS: I did promise you pictures of the cookies I snacked on last night. First up, the amazing chocolate white chocolate chip cookie.

These cookies are so doughy!

And the peanut butter one.

My work has some dang good cookies!!

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So long. Farewell

Adios 12 hour crazy work day. May I crash now?

Let’s see. Today was:

9:00-1:30 – Nannying job. During which we walked the 1 1/2 miles to the library and 1 1/2 miles back.

Got called into work early. So I raced home, threw on my uniform, grabbed a snack, and sped to work.

2:00-8:45 – crazy crazy hospital day. It was jam packed today and super busy.  Which = me running around like crazy.

Boom. That was me falling on the couch.

But you want to see some food, now do ya’?

I woke up not hungry at all (thank you late night snack literally 15 minutes before I went to bed). So I kept it light with cereal – Kashi Golean, banana slices, & almond milk. Plus a 2-egg white puff on the side for some protein.

❤

Almonds while walking from the library (repeat picture).

Rando sandwich thrown together at work. Basil, hummus, pickles, blue cheese on whole wheat. And mustard.

Super random. But it’s what they had. I wanted to use feta, but the container wasn’t open. And I felt weird opening it.

+ a peach. Juicy. And probaby organic. Not that that matters.  But it was good.

Scarfed down some cocoa almonds in between jobs. Not hungry. But I didn’t want a 7 hour break between lunch and dinner.

I was literally running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off (is that true? Do they really run around after? Ugh. Please don’t tell me), and didn’t get a chance to eat dinner until after the cafeteria closed. Luckily the chef grabbed me some leftover food right before it was washed away. So I took what I could get. And it looks like I’m on the Atkins diet.

Also, luckily the meatloaf was turkey meatloaf. And it was good! I’m usually only a meatloaf fan if it’s made with a specific recipe. This one was tasty.

That fried chicken on the other hand, was nasty.

I need my comfy flip flop slippers. And a mattress. And some carbs after that dinner.

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Battle with the air mattress

Today my long day of hospital orientation definitely brought me back to the days of 2 hour long lectures taken back to back all day. As sad as I was to graduate, I do not miss those boring days. Imagine your most boring class dragged on for 7 hours, with a few 15 minute breaks sprinkled in. That was today.

I made sure to prepare breakfast last night as I knew I would be up and at it early this morning.

Overnight oats yummy yummy in my tummy.

Yay for more jam from Target!

I even chopped up my nectarine last night this morning at 1 a.m. for easy access. Yes 1 a.m. The same time I also mixed in more oil to my maple peanut butter becuase I couldn’t stop thinking about how dry and flaky it was.

I obviously have been having a hard time falling asleep. No offense air mattress.

Actually yes. You should take offense.

I felt like I was betraying this mug by drinking coffee out of it. It looks like a tea type of mug.

How quaint.

I made sure to pack snacks for my break. Am I the only person in the world to get hungry during break time? No one else brought snacks.

I’m sure they were all envious of me crunching my way through Kashi cereal and some cocoa roasted almonds. Plan ahead people.

Lunch was actually pretty awesome! They had many sandwich options, including turkey on a croissant and a roasted veggie one. I chose the veggie and ate outside.  It was so warm out today, and freeeeezing indoors!

It was kinda greasy. But oh well.

Sorry for the odd glare. I also grabbed a couple pieces of fruit (instead of chips) and stashed them in my purse for future consumption 😉 Budget planning my friends.

I went back and snagged a really good peanut butter cookie on second thought.

+ 2 sodas. Oh darn.  Does it help that I drank one 2 hours after the first?

But I did get out on a run! So happy I did 🙂 I don’t know if it was the time of day, that it was still warm out, or what – but it was hard!

Pre-run I had a couple bites of nut butter:

It was one of those runs I felt like I was going pretty fast, but when I looked down at my watch, I was barely going below 10 minute miles. What? I hadn’t even walked yet! I wanted to go 4-5 miles, but ended up stopping at 3 and decided to walk a mile rather than head home right away.

Distance: 3 run + 1 walk = 4
Time: 28:38 for the run; 46:23 for the whole thing.

I got a phone call from a friend during my walk, so I came home and decided to have a snack rather than dinner just in case my friend wanted to grab a bite to eat.

Canteloupe sprinkled with peanut flour.

This melon was super ripe and soft! I got all the way down to the rind!

But then decided to just make dinner soon after.

1 egg + 2 egg whites cooked up with the seasoned potatoes with herb butter sauce (that sounds fancy).

Tupperware the potatoes were stored in. Classy, I know. But it saves dishes.

I topped it with this mango chutney I’ve been using on almost everything.  Costco – will you marry me?

And another bite of chocolate hazelnut butter to kill my after dinner sweet tooth.

Ok ok, I know nut butters are a healthy fat. But there is such thing as too much! I’ve been going crazy with all my delicious nut butters in the cabinet (especially my new maple PB). I really think I’m going to give myself a challenge.

No, I’m not going to deny myself of nut butters completely. But I am going to measure out my portions for a week. And limit myself to 1 serving per day. That can be split up however I want – 1 Tbsp at breakfast, and 1 Tbsp at night. 2 Tbsp all at once or 1 tsp every few hours. Who knows. I’ll just total 2 Tbsp at the end of the day max. It’s expensive, and I think I need a detox from it.

Now I’m tired. Yawn. I have my long 8:30-8:30 day tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep!

Hey air mattress. Yeah, I’m lookin’ at you.

It’s on.

Once I fold my clothes, that is.

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