Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Ooops! and some foggy pictures.

So I was busy all day with baby siting my niece and going to Jackie's (my sister's best friend) bridal shower, she is getting married tomorrow at the Biltmore!!! The most beautiful hotel in LA for sure! I was on diaper duty most of the day but I don't mind she is and angel and the most perfect little babe, I'm sure I'm biased! I stared my day with a pre-run snack of a Granny Smith apple with Almond Butter
After my 15 min (only I had no time:() run I came home to have a rushed bfast of 1 cup Kashi Go Lean, 1 cup Quaker Oat Squares, 1.5 cup skim milk, 1 sliced banana, a shot of Almonds, 1/2 shot of raisins, and a sprinkle of frozen blueberries- very satisfying

I thought the cereal bowl would be enough but I was wrong and right before I left to go to the shower I had a Fage 0% to hold me til lunch.

At the shower it was more of a brunch so there were assorted bagels:

I had 1 onion bagel with a tad of cream cheese and not pictured another half of a bagel with a slice of Cheddar. I mean it was lunch time after all and I am used to a big 3 food group meal at that time so I needed the extra carbs to hold me. I fully enjoyed eating white flour and full fat cheeses!

and Susie Cakes cupcakes!!!!!!! But I knew better and steered clear, I thought I would show you just for fun though! Ya you can thank me later- food porn!

There was a Bellini bar and Mimosa bar but I stuck to plain Perseco with a splash of Peach White Grape juice- that stuff is so good! I had 2 glasses:)

The girls went for a Mani Pedi after the shower and I was on baby siting duty so I could not get one but that's all good. I was starving by 3pm so I split a Mint Chocolate Chip Cliff bar with my sis.

We went to the rehearsal at the hotel and I was then supposed to go home with baby but I ended up staying with my sis and niece and tagged along to the rehearsal dinner, lucky me cause I got yummy salmon with green beans and pureed potatoes. I ate the salmon but left the rest and had 2 small pieces of bread and 2 glasses of white wine. Hey I mean it was a long day and I needed a break!

Overall it was a good day, oops I didn't post earlier and oops I had more wine again, and oops I didn't eat 3 square meals at all, but I feel fine and it's late so I should go to bed to wake and run before the big wedding day! I am sure I will eat lots of yummy food and drink lots of champagne! I mean it's New Years Eve tomorrow!!!

My New Years Resolution: Sign up for a 1/2 marathon, eat healthy and get good grades!

Well Gnight ya'll!!!! And If I don't post tomorrow by midnight HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 BABY!!!!

C

Monday, December 29, 2008

Family fun and pork tenderloin

Tonight I made Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Grapes, Green Beans, and brown rice for my family and friends. We watched The Curious Case of Benjermain Button on MY TV! So much fun to snuggle in the comfort of your own home and watch a movie only out in theaters! The dinner turned out perfect! But a bit hectic at the end because the recipe said the pork should be 145 degrees when it's ready to take out of the oven and I didn't have a meat thermometer so Sean ran to the store, luckily I live near an awesome kitchen supply store, to buy one just in time to check it. It read 153 degrees, a bit too high but it wasn't dry so I was very pleased.

Here I already broke my unofficial vow to my self to not have wine for a while, I had 2 glasses like this-

This is my plate




The dish of yummy pork and grapes in a shallot and wine sauce! The recipe was from Cooking Light and it was just Divine!

The lovely and simple sides:

The Extreme Close Up:
And of course we busted out the Coconut Date rolls! They were tooo good!!!!!!

I'm off to bed to wake and run because today was too busy too and Sean has already done the dishes for me! Goon night everyone!

C

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Thai food and the finished dinning table!

Good evening everyone,
Today went just as planned; I cleaned the house (with Sean's help! He is such a good boyfriend) Sean finished one of the tables and it looks so pretty! I can't wait to eat at it! Here are the before and afters:
Before:

After:

Isn't it nice!?!
Here is my mid cleaning snack around 2pm

And another snack around 4pm. I had dinner plans with my parents, sister and niece- I love having my sister in town I never see her!!! I knew dinner would be a little late so I made sure to not get grumpy before they came to pick me up.

We decided on Thai food, there is a wonderful place near my house that is accommodating for the baby and we all love Thai food. We had a Chicken Satay appetizer.
I had the Larb Tofu, my favorite Thai dish, spicy and tangy from the lime and cilantro. I just adore Cilantro! I also had a scoop of brown rice, and a taste of my sisters curry chicken- yummmm

And I had a second helping of rice with Larb it was just so good!
We ordered a plate of Pad Thai for Sean to take home and I had one bite.
Another fortune for the week, how lucky am I! I had a bite of the almond cookie but left the rest.
Now at home and ready to watch Dexter (we didn't actually watch it the other night) and have my glass of Shiraz. I am on a bit of a wine kick! And to tell you the truth I gained 3 pounds so I had better call this my last glass for a while:) Too much Holiday cheer for me:)
G Night sleep tight yall!
C

sunday's are for cleaning

Sunday is my usual cleaning day. Today I am doing laundry, dishes, moping the floor, cleaning the bathroom, and dusting. Lots to do! Sean is refurbishing the tables we inherited from a movie he worked on. I will show you the before and after pics when they are all done. He likes to do handy work, it's nice to have a Handy man around! I went for a run this mid-morning and increased my time by 7 min. making it a 30 min run. My avg HR was 149 and max HR was176 burning a total of 265 cal. Before my run I had my second Jam Frakas bar in Peanut Butter Blisscrisp. I am still not too happy with the texture of these bars, but the flavor was good. I also had an apple- I am craving fruit so much lately!

For lunch I made a hummus, lite Havarti cheese, lettuce, and black bean WW pita and I tried the WW spinach cheese tortellini. For the sauce I had some canned diced tomatoes in the fridge so I heated them with dash of white pepper, oregano, Italian seasoning, black pepper, salt, and parsley and tossed it with the pasta and sprinkled on some Parmesan cheese. It was delicious and very very filling, kind of a carb fest! I used the left over sauce in the pot on top of my pita.

I'm back to cleaning check in later. Hope you all are having a productive day too!

C

yesterday, run, birthday, and breakfast

This morning I was able to sleep in until 7:30! My schedule has been out of walk and I have been waking up at 4:30 and every hour after for the last week so this was a real treat! For bfast I had 2 Kashi 7 grain waffles with a bit of butter, sliced pear and an orange and fat free raspberry yogurt on the side with coffee! Sean bought a big bag of oranges so I have been trying to eat them up so they don't go bad you will probably see another later today!

Yesterday was my Moms birthday. We spent the day at my parents house with my niece and sister. I forgot to bring my camera cord so I was unable to blog so I will catch you up on my days eats:
nougat with almonds from Spain for dessert
and a chocolate mint cookie!
For dinner my sister made Coq Au Vin, Chicken with wine basically, but very tasty and the chicken was so moist it just fell of the bone! I made a salad with ice berg, baby spinach, a satsuma, tomato, carrot, and red onion with balsamic dressing. I am obsessed with citrus in my salads! And I baked a sweet potato and topped it with the veggies from the chicken!
I had 2 or 3 glasses like this of really good wine from 1998!
I had 3 pieces of cheese, one of each.
before dinner I snacked on leftover salsa they had in the fridge and a carrot
My Sister, niece and I took a stroll for about 30 min and I had this lovely apple before we left. In the picture- Moms birthday flowers, her favorite color is Yellow.
I can never resist some candied ginger I popped these in my mouth when I arrived at the house.
For my Moms birthday lunch we went to PF Changs. For dessert we had fortune cookies, my mom had a birthday candle in a little piece of chocolate cake, but I didn't have any. I like my fortune, perfect cause I am going back to school. A BIG chance!!
My vegetarian lettuce cup all wrapped up for me to eat!
Whats on the inside
My full plate of tastes included- vegetarian lettuce cups ( my fave at PF Changs) salad, shrimp in lobster sauce, a salt and pepper prawn, a little fired rice, a piece of Ahi Tuna, and a crispy green bean. Totally greasy but I never have Chinese food so I think it's OK to indulge a bit.
On my way to my parents house I snacked on these rye toasts and almonds from by emergency snacks. I packed too many!
My waffle sandwich from bfast For bfast I had and orange, 2 blueberry Kashi waffles with a 1/2 tbsp of Peanut butter and a chopped banana. On the side a half container of nonfat strawberry yogurt and coffee!
Before my bfast I went on my first run since back from Spain! I could only go 23 min but I ran the whole time and I will be increasing my time by five min each day. My avg HR was 141, max HR 172, and I burned 170 cal. Before my run I had a Honey Gram flavored Z Bar, I should have just had half because my work out was not very long but oh well. Sorry no pic.

Friday, December 26, 2008

My way back home-

It is so nice to come home to a clean house greeted by my Ella boo face! The weather here is crazy cold and I actually needed to turn on the heater! A first this winter. So my day consisted mostly of driving back from Sonoma so my food was not my usual 3 meals. I started it off well with oats like yesterdays at my sisters early this morning. 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup reduced fat milk, 1/2 cup water, and a spoon full of peanut butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon with coffee, and I also had an orange.Then Sean and I hit the road to head home. I made some ham sandwiches with WW 7 grain bread, a slice of Munster cheese, Dijon Mustard and left over Honey baked Ham-yummmmm! And I had some emergency snacks left over from the drive up so I snacked on those a bit before and a bit after the sandwich. I ended up eating the sandwich in 2 sessions because I was really hungry around 10:30 and didn't want to snack too much so I got a head start on lunch and finished the other half around 12:30.
I forgot to rate these Mini rye toasts so I'll let you all know now that they are scrumptious! If you like rye toast with butter as much as I do then you will surely enjoy these little morsels of goodness! They taste just like the real thing! Also in the pictures above are my road trip essentials: my camera (taking this picture), Ipod (this one is Sean's, mine is a nano and is in a pink case:)), and my blackberry also in a pink case! yes I do!
Not much snow on the way back :( but it was very windy!

I tried the Larabar Jam Frakas bar and my opinion is this: good, not great, a bit too sweet with a funny texture. I'm not sure if the texture thing was from having it sit in the cold car for 3 days or if that is how they come, but it was very hard. I would probably get them again for a small snack pre exercise but in a different flavor and they didn't hold me as long as the reg Larabars.

Do two apples a day keep the doctors EXTRA away?!?
When we arrived in the city we stopped to get some essentials for the week and dinner because our fridge was EMPTY man! I can't wait for these:
I haven't had Kefir in a while, since my Greek yogurt kick, and I forgot how good this stuff is!

Haven't had this flavor I usually drink unsweetened soy or almond milk but his was just so festive and on sale!

After settling in I started on dinner with my "chef juice" as my dad calls it. The menu tonight was simple and very satisfying! Annie's WW shells with a salad made with romain, 1 orange, 1 tomato, 1/2 can drained black beans, 1/2 cup sweet yellow corn and a red wine vinaigrette topped with BBQ chicken. I find that the sweetness of the orange and the tangy BBQ sauce melds so well together!
Here is the recipe for Oven Baked BBQ Chicken:
-1.5-2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast cut into strips or just buy the tenders
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup salsa or add 1 tbs to 1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tbs Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tbs chili powder
- 1/2 tbs ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp worcshitster sauce
preheat oven to 400 degrees. add ingredients to big zip lock bag, add chicken pieces close bag and shake and mix until chicken is all coated. lay coated chicken in one layer in a Pyrex pan and bake for 30 min turning once. remove from oven and enjoy hot or cold!

Dessert tonight was Marzapan- a treat I brought back from Spain! I just love it!


I went back for more dessert- 2 dates, also from Spain

So that's my day! I am now going to watch Dexter with Sean we are behind on our Net flicks! GNight Everyone!

C