A Great Day

Morning!

I hope everyone's yesterdays were fantastic. Mine sure was! J and I went to our big mall in town and shopped till our hearts content. We both walked away with some fantastic purchases. Before the mall, we went to the gym. It was an awesome workout. I wish J lived here! She pushes me so hard. We did 30 minutes of cardio, and just under an hour of an arm and ab workout. Faaaantastic.

When we got back from the workout we ate this AMAZING lunch.

This was my plate.

I made the smoothie that's in that bowl.

• 1 cup berries
• 1 cup water
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• 1 T cocoa powder

(serves 2)

It was so good! I've been making all my smoothies in the food processor lately; it makes them so frothy! I might never go back to a blender. 

J made the salad. 

• lots of spinach
• red bell pepper
• mushroom
• tomato
• cucumber 
• leftover turkey sausages from last night
• balsamic dressing

It was just as good as the smoothie! Such a great lunch. 

We hit up the mall till around 6 pm. We were starving by the time we left! We went and picked up take out for dinner. 

J and I got the same thing - chicken teriyaki with sauce on the side, no rice, and extra veg. We picked D up a beef and chicken dish (similar looking to this one), and california rolls. 

Now, to this morning. 

(sorry the pick is so dark)

Pumpkin Oat Bran with "Baked" Apples

Pumpkin Oat Bran

• 30 grams oat bran (about 1/4 cup)
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup pumpkin
• 2 egg whites
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• cloves

Baked Apples 

• 92 grams (half an) apple
• cinnamon

Place the ingredients in a bowl and microwave for about 40 seconds. 

It was so yummy. It fixed my grumbling tummy problems. 

I have two classes today. One is Intro to Lit, the other is Intro to Rhetoric. I love rhetoric! 

I'll chat with you all soon :)

A New Recipe for Pizza Crust

Morning gang,

We've been bussssy over here.

Let me quickly recap the eats from yesterday.

This was J and mine's lunch.

Check out how big it is! I named them veggie mountains instead of pizzas!

I made their crusts using this recipe. J cut up all those veggies, and we topped the pizzas with nutritional yeast and goat cheese.

I ate all the veg and cheese, but could only get through half of the crust. It was filling! 


The crust was more like a pancake. I don't know if I'll be repeating it, even though it is low carb.

Dinner was just as filling last night.

• 1/4 head of cabbage steamed with water, and sprinkled furiously with pepper
• red bell pepper
• onions
• tons of garlic
• chicken sausages 
• pickled veggie salad (I picked this up at the deli department in my grocery store)

This dinner had tons of spice. I'm so happy to have company over who loves spicy food as much (if not more) than I do. 

Last night I taught J how to make breakfast cookies. She's not out of bed yet, but I can't wait to see if she likes it! 

How could you not like this? I mean really... I'll let you know how it goes. 

Have a great morning folks! I'll try to get my updates coming in sooner.  

Pumpkin Delight

Hi folks,

Sorry I've been gone so long. I've been entertaining our company. D's cousin is back! She's staying with us for a week now. Exciting stuff! Plus my camera died. So I couldn't take photos for a good portion of the day yesterday, so I decided to take the day off from my camera!

J (that's what we'll call D's cousin) and I had an awesome workout yesterday. I brought my study notes, since I have a test today. We both spent about 45-50 minutes on the elliptical. My incline got to 20(!) and my resistance got to 15(!). Then I ran for just under a mile on the treadmill, but by then, my legs were already so tired. Awesome, awesome, awesome workout. 

Here's my breaky this morning.

Pumpkin Oat Bran 

• 50 grams oat bran (1/3 cup)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 egg whites
• packet of stevia
• cinnamon
• cloves
• nutmeg  
• 1 T natural PB

and... COFFEE - much needed on a Monday. 

I gotta start studying. Talk to you all sooner than later I'm hoping! 

I Need to Cheat

Hey friends,

Hows your Saturday?

I can't stop thinking about cheat foods... gahhh! I might have to have one (besides the mac and cheese you're gonna see) soon. I'm thinking a burger... 


I waited for that oil change I mentioned earlier for 2 hours! ugh.... not my favorite way to spend a Saturday morning. I did finish my paper while I waited though! :)

I came home and cooked up this yummy bowl of goodness (by cooking I mean I turned on the microwave).

- not exactly low carb, high protein. But it sure was delish.

This was Amy's frozen mac and cheese. I added nutritional yeast for more protein and paprika for spice.

Then I enjoyed a lovely carb induced two hour nap. I don't like napping because I always end up sleepier after, but I decided I'd just make a pot of coffee - does the trick for me!

Chocolate Blueberry Smoothie (umm... YES PLEASE!)

• 1 cup UVAB
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1/4 cup frozen blueberries
• 5 ice cubes 

I'm taking a day off from the gym today. I think this is a good plan since tomorrow I'm supposed to run 6 miles - we'll see how that goes. 

I Don't Wanna

Hi everyone,

I hope your Saturday has been going really well thus far. If you're like me, you've just had a chance to eat breakfast.

Chocolate Breakfast Cookie

• 40 grams oats
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1 T natural PB
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• 1/4 banana 

It was good stuff. If you still haven't tried one of Gina's breakfast cookies, I implore you! Try one! 

I gotta go get ready to go to my oil change, across THE OTHER END OF THE CITY! I hate driving far... 

Have a great day gang :)

I Need a Rest

Evening to all,

Today has been quietly productive. By that I mean, I've checked off about half of the things that were on my to do list. I still have that horrible paper to finish.

One of the things I checked off my list, was my workout. About an hour after my breaky I headed to the gym for light cardio, abs and lower back.

My cardio was 20 minutes of the stairstepper. It got my legs burnin!

Then I hit the mat for abs and lower back.

• long arm crunches 
• reverse crunches
• supermans
• crunches on stability ball
• knee tucks 
• russian twists 

2 sets of 20 

Not bad... but I didn't get through all of the exercises I wanted to, and I wanted to do 3 sets of 20. I think my day off is really needed. I need to get back some energy!

Food

Post workout was the usual. 

• 1 cup UVAB (unsweetened vanilla almond breeze) 
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 4 ice cubes

See that red make on my wrist. That's a burn. I ALWAYS burn myself when I make quesadillas. I have a few other burns on my right arm. I might start wearing oven mitts for all cooking techniques! 

In a few hours it was time for lunch. 

Ingredients sauteed together:

• 4 oz chicken breast
• 3 brussels sprouts
• 3 oz mushrooms
• 1/3 cup brown rice 

Vinaigrette to pour over everything:

• 1 tsp mustard
• 1/2 T olive oil
• 1/2 T white wine vinegar 
• stevia
• pepper 

Nestle everything over 2 cups of spinach and enjoy!

So yummy, and so good for me. 

I decided to try a new recipe as a snack. 

This is April's recipe. It was so good! Moist and rich. Mmmmmmmmmm...

Here's dinner. 

I can't believe it was just a few days ago that I wasn't eating meat! I love not having that restriction over my head. 

This was a canned tuna dish. 

• Chop of 1/4 green bell pepper and 1 clove of garlic. Saute them in 1 tsp of olive oil. 
• In a medium size bowl add 1 drained can of tuna (packed in water), 1/2 T mustard, 1 tsp capers, 1/4 lemon's worth of juice, and pepper. Mix these ingredients well. 
• Add the cooked bell pepper and garlic into the tuna. 
• Add the whole mixture back to the pan. Cook till it's all heated through. 

I served asparagus on the side. In my opinion this was the perfect side dish. It was still crunchy, which added a needed textural element to this dish. 

Now, I really need to get this paper down. Tired of hearing that yet? I'm tired of saying it... 

Pumpkin Power

Hey gang,

How was your night? I had the strangest dream. In it, my sister had a helicopter that she kept parked on my balcony at out parents house. Weird, right?

This is the pumpkin power breaky.

In the pot:

• 40 grams oats (1/2 cup)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 banana
• 1/3 pumpkin puree
• 2 egg whites
• cinnamon 
• cloves
• nutmeg 

Topping:

• 1/4 cup 1% cottage cheese 

I'm going to hit the gym in about an hour. My arms (and legs - I have no idea why) are sore. So I'm just gonna do some cardio, and maybe concentrate a little on the abs. Until then, I have a paper to finish. Yippy! 

See ya soon :)