Weekend Wrap Up
Posted: May 31, 2009 Filed under: annabelle lee, weekend Leave a comment »This weather is weekend was stellar!
After a disappointing breakfast on Sat I went to Giant and Trader Joe’s. By the time I got to TJs I was feeling a little hungry, thankfully they always have fresh samples! I had a mini chocolate chip cookie and a small amount of gnocchi.
Focusing was an issue…..
When I got home I wanted something light and easy. I decided on a small oatmeal pancake with nutella (missed this stuff) and a berry yogi smoothie. I could have eaten the whole jar of nutella and need to seriously watch myself around it! My pancake is a little messy but it was delicious!
Nick and I had dinner at 6:30 at Annabel Lee, but enjoyed a glass of Malbac on the roof deck before walking over.
The tavern is a local spot that my roommate suggested that is about 6 blocks away. We were able to sit outside and I was really craving a dark and stormy and I was just in luck. They had their own version as a drink special. Nick got the Raven. Anything that has to do with the Ravens he enjoys. My drink was pretty strong and I sipped it through dinner. Nick said his was good til he got to the end and it just tasted like a melted snowball aka shaved ice to those not from Baltimore.
I really wanted their Greek salad, but I also wanted to try something else on the menu…to solve this problem I found the rosemary beef tenderloin gyro that came with Greek salad. This was really good! The salad had fresh feta mixed with herbs and the gyro had homemade tatzikki. Delicious and I ate it all! Nick had rack of lamb with risotto, which he said was amazing and wanted to eat another plate right then and there.
I love being able to find out about little local neighborhood places to eat. The food is usually really good and very well priced. They use ordinary plates like one would have in their own kitchen set! After dinner we planned to take the water taxi over to federal hill. We walked through the center of town and picked up some gelato on the way. Here again I wanted two things, gelato and Italian cookies so I got Italian cookies and cream, perfect! The goods at this place are really good authentic Italian pasties and desserts.
We decided to walk to the water taxi stop that was a bit further because it was such and nice night and to work off the gelato! On the way I was able to snap a shot of the fish kill I previously had mentioned.
Gross and really depressing 
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Over in federal hill we hung out with friends and I had two tequila sunrises and about one natural light in ruit.
Bed late…but it was a night well done!
SUNDAY
I got to sleep in this morning 10:30!!! woooohoooo!!! When I woke up I made some iced coffee, french toast, scramble and 1/2 a pear. French toast had almond butter and nutella!
Nick and I spent the afternoon on the roof deck reading and soaking up some rays! Sunblock was there also!!! Look at the beautiful Baltimore afternoon.
I had a snack at about 3 I had the last skinny cow mint ice cream sami and a ginger green iced tea.
Now I am off for a run in the SUN!!!
ABOUT 5 HOURS LATER…..
I didn’t feel like creating a new post considering tonight WAS part of the weekend…
I had enjoyable 5 mile run along the water followed by core abs.
Dinner theme: Light and Fresh
Whole wheat wrap with an LC light swiss triangle spread over it, rest of my chickpea mash from Friday, spinach and two thin slices of tofu. I made a press/wrap in the George. I also had the rest of my spinach as a side salad with mini red peppers, cucs and sauteed mushrooms. I had another glass of the Malbac to finish it out.
For a sweet treat I finally had some pumpkin pudding with half a cut up naner and cinnamon. This pudding really is not sweet enough to me to be called pudding. Next time I will have to add honey or something to make it not taste the same as the pure pumpkin puree.
Off to finish watching Twister (one of my favorite movies, made me want to be a meteorologist as a kid) and go to Sleeeeep:)
Not a Fan of Eggs and Oats
Posted: May 30, 2009 Filed under: breakfast, coffee, eggs Leave a comment »So I have read a bunch of posts about combining eggs and oats. I have been neglecting one of my favorite breakfast foods, the egg, lately so I thought I would give it a shot. I went with a poached egg over oat bran with some hot sauce and salsa verde. Blech. I added some of my chickpea mash from last nights dinner to make it a little better but still did not enjoy very much. I ate the whole thing. I can’t stand wasting food. I chased it down with 1/2 orange a coffee with skim.
Off to watch Nick play some football and then run a bunch of errands out in the county. The Sun is out and beaming!!! Yippee!!!
Whieters…0-4
Posted: May 29, 2009 Filed under: Orioles Leave a comment »The Orioles brought up a new catcher tonight, Matt Whieters. He is the new “it” guy…I don’t really know much about him except we had to go to the game and there were tons of people there! We had to leave at 6 so that gave me an hour to get home change and make dinner to go. I went for Italian Quesadilla???
Italian Quesadillas - two servings
- 4 whole wheat tortillas
- 2 chicken thins (flattened chicken breasts)
- 8 ct chopped cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 cup feta cheese
- 2 cups fresh baby spinach
- 1 small bunch parsley – garden
- 1 small bunch basil – garden
- 6 ct sun dried tomatoes
- 1/2 can garbanzo beans
- S&P
- EVOO
Blend EVOO, S&P, sun dried tomatoes, parsley and basil in a food processor to paste. Spread onto two tortilla. Cook chicken to preference (I use a George Forman), split 1/2 feta, spinach and tomatoes between two tortillas. Dice chicken and split evenly between tortillas and place top tortilla on. bake 15min at 375. You can also do them as a panini.
Yes that is me eating in the car on the way to the game but it was delicious and Nick also enjoyed.
While at the game I had a few peanuts, 1/2 an apple and almost a whole piece of WW pecan-cran-raz bread (I was going to split it with Nick but he didn’t like it and I couldn’t let it go to waste!).
The Orioles won 7-2 WOOOHOOOOO! And Matt Whieters was the only one on the team without a hit! I guess he was a bit nervous.
It’s Orioles Magic!!! and Good night All!!!
Crazy Friday
Posted: May 29, 2009 Filed under: almond butter, fruit salad, lunch, pumpkin, yogurt Leave a comment »Do you ever feel like everyone asks you for something on Friday every week? OR maybe it just seems that way to me because I can smell the weekend. Today was especially busy thanks to good old stimulus creating trouble again. My morning snack of a 1/4 cup of prunes, almond and dark choco raisins held me while I worked towards a later lunch. Almost the same layout as yesterday…tempeh, almond butter and pumpkin butter on sprouted grain bread. Vanilla yogurt with cinnamon, half a mango, apple and orange.
Back to the Crazzzzzzy!
Pumpkin: Attempt Dos
Posted: May 29, 2009 Filed under: breakfast, pumpkin Leave a comment »I still have the can of pumpkin in the fridge AND have yet to sit down and really enjoy my pudding! Tonight maybe? I woke up feeling a little sick…maybe it is from lack of 8 hours of sleep for the past two nights. At least that is what I am telling myself because I am NOT getting strep throat like my roommate! No thank you! For my pumpkin oat bran this morning I used:
- 1/4 cup oat bran
- 1/4 cup h20
- 1/4 unsweetened almond breeze
- 1/2 naner mashed
- ~1/3 cup of pumpkin
- 1/4 cup Uncle Sam
- large dash of cinnamon
- sprinkle of flax
Today’s pumpkin oat bran receives higher reviews then yesterday…I think it was the large amount of cinnamon! Yum! Yay Friday!!!! Lets hope for no thunderstorms, outside activity planned for tonight 
Season’s Over
Posted: May 28, 2009 Filed under: chesapeake bay, dinner, environment, fitness, jillian michaels, mac and cheese Leave a comment »Today on my run I came across something rather disturbing, a rather large amount of dead fish. When I left the house and headed down to the water I noticed that the harbor smelled a little bit more then usual but I thought it might just be low tide and warm weather. I then started seeing dead fish in large numbers along the sea wall. It was actually really depressing to see this obvious display of Eutrofication in the harbor. The algea bloom caused the water to become anoxic (no more oxygen – see the mouth of the Mississippi) and the young fish to suffocate. Apparently the large bloom happened two days ago but dead fish were still popping up – Dead Fish. What the article doesn’t talk about is how this is directly caused by human activity around the harbor. The increased nutrient coming into the harbor are causing these blooms along with seasonal temperature changes in the water. I hope that at least someone saw the fish and thought, “what happened, did I do this?”, but most likely people were just concerned with the smell. At least I saw a Great Blue Heron and a Night Heron along with the usual Mallards.
I ended my workout with phase one with Jillian…it was interesting, but I think I could have gone through it twice and been fine.
OK enough of the depressing stuff for now…DINNER…I said I was in the mood for Mac and Cheese with hot sauce and that this exactly what I had along with some sauted veggies in balsamic and salad fixins.
After dinner we had the first round of kickball playoffs. We had a little team bonding and I ended up drinking a beer that I didn’t even want, ick. All for nothing because we lost in aweful fashion…don’t want to talk about…sooo sleepy.
End Note: Remember the Bay next time you liter!
Pumpkin Feelin’
Posted: May 28, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Pumpkin continued into the lunch today. I had some leftover tempeh from last night (not sure how long the stuff lasts once out of the package) so I decided to make a tempeh sandwich a la KERF special. Sprouted grain bread, almond butter, PUMPKINbutter and tempeh right in between. Along side was 1 cheek of mango and 1/2 and naner which I dipped into my chocolate TJs yogurt. I still was not impressed with the tempeh taste alone but with the spreads you couldn’t really tell it was there.
Earlier I had another flat banana doughnut and planning a repeat of the homemade larabar later. I love these! I cannot wait to make different flavors. There seem to be tons of new variations popping up every day!
I’ve got kickball tonight so I am trying to squeeze in a short run with level one of Jillian’s 30 day shred I found on demand. I also have to make dinner and be out the door by 7…this cook be a mac and cheese night.
I’ve Got a Pumpkin Feeling
Posted: May 28, 2009 Filed under: breakfast, oat bran Leave a comment »Last night Ihad to take my roommate to Patient First because she couldn’t get her fever to break. She is fine and ended up having a bad reaction to the meds she was mixing. Note: Do not take a Z pack and musanex at the same time! Needless to say I didn’t get to bed until about two hours after I had hoped and I am def feeling it this AM…keep that coffee coming! I did manage to make pumpkin pudding before being called to duty (pics of that tonight) and now I had a can of pumpkin in the fridge. Hmmm I had seen some recipes for pumpkin oats!
Pumpkin Oat Bran:
- 1/4 cup oat bran
- 1/4 cup unsweetened almond breeze
- 1/4 cup skim
- 1/2 naner mashed into hot oat bran
- 1 large spoonful of pumpkin
- sprinkle of rainforest granola
- 1 tbs ground flax
The pumpkin got kind of lost in the mix…I think I am treating it like pumpkin pie filling instead of just its base, which is actually a very mild flavor. Maybe two spoonfuls next time???
Here’s to hoping today run smoothly!!!!! I hate running on less sleep then planned
No Joy in The Joy of Cooking
Posted: May 27, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Forgot the camera for lunch time today. Must have been the morning rush. Anyway I made a delicious mahi white bean salad.
Mahi White Bean Salad
- 4oz grilled mahi mahi
- 1/2 cup white beans
- 1 tbs dill
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 cucumber sliced
- EVOO
- S&P
Along with my bean salad I had a strawberry greek yogurt and 1/2 pear, 1/2 white peach. You could also use tuna from a can for the salad if you don’t have mahi. This really super filled me up and I was super full for most of the day. This was also due to my large breakfast and two snack choices. Snack 1 = banana flat doughnut Snack 2 = homemade larabar.
Due to the large amount of food eaten earlier in the day I wanted to make sure I got in an extra large workout at the gym. Unfortunately when I got there I had forgotten my sneaks! yikes! I did have my spin shoes, hmmm. Well I knew the treadmill was out of the question so I went for the Arc Trainer. I am sure everyone was like who is this girl wearing her spin shoes around the gym? I didn’t care I didn’t want to take the time to go all the way home…it worked out and I got a 20min jog in with abs. Spin was great tonight, straight and to the point. The time flew by!
I was still pretty full from the day so I wanted something light and tasty. I opted for some peanut tempeh. I sauteed up some shallots and mushrooms while I cut up 1/2 a three grain piece of tempeh and placed it on a tray with some broccoli in the broiler. I added some fresh mango to the saute pan and mixed up the sauce: all natural PB, soy sauce, chill powder, chili pepper flakes, grated ginger root, lemon juice and some crushed cashews. The finished product!
Tempeh is sort of like tofu with a little nutty taste. Def needs a flavor added to it, so the peanut sauce was perfect! It filled me up fast.
Sooooo the reason for the post name: I was reading the new Health Magazine and saw that the new edition of the Joy of Cooking has 63% more calories per serving then the old addition. This is attributed to the increase in portion size in the recipes. Kind of sad to see a staple book in cooking take a dive.
I think I am going to try and make some pumpkin pudding tonight and FINISH In Defense of Food. Night!
Running Late
Posted: May 27, 2009 Filed under: oat bran Leave a comment »I had a late start this morning given that I forgot to reset my alarm. 20min late waking up on my own was not to shabby in my book! It did make my rush through my morning routine, which I hate, and caused a late breakfast post. Grrrr. I did get two lunches made, snacks and breakfast before 7 so even though I was a little more stressed then I like I was back on track.
Because the Oat Bran held me so well yesterday I wanted to use it again, but I also wanted some more WW cran-raz-pecan bread. I sliced up two pieces to toast, and made about 1/4 serving of oat bran. I spread the bread with about 1/2 tbs of almond butter for both slices and then topped it with the bran. I sliced up 2 dried figs for a fruit topping.
I probably could have just had one slice and an orange because by the end of the second piece I was stuffed! At least it was delicious!
