Happy New Years!!!!!

Hello 2009! Yesterday I started my day off with this pre run snack: Small Gala with 1/2 tbs of Almond Butter

Sean gets nervous when I run alone so sometimes he joins me on his bike to follow, it's nice and it changes it up a bit from my ipod. But it took a little longest to get out the door and I woke super hungry so I had this also: banana with 1/4 tbs almond butter

I ran for 30 min to TJ's and it wasn't open yet so we waited for 10 min and I tried to keep my heart rate up by jogging in place and doing knee ups -people were starting to stare but I didn't mind:) We walked back because we had grocery's to carry and my total time was 50 min and I burned 333 cal, not bad. We got back and had just 2 hours before we had to leave to check into the Hotel and help my sis with the baby, soooo I had cold cereal again: 1 cup Go Lean, 1 cup Quaker Squares, 1.5 cup skim milk, 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 shot almonds, sprinkle of raisins and a cup of coffee.

I packed for the night and got things together in the house so we could leave Ella, poor Ella she has been alone so much lately she seems a bit POed. I was still hungry so had a Fage 0%

I made this WW wrap with leftover pork and lettuce with a side of raw baby carrots to bring to the hotel for a cheaper and healthier lunch.

I also packed these emergency snacks, and a first breakfast for the first day in 2009!

I had this at the hotel

Here is our old timey hotel room and my handsome BF!!! I just love getting dressed up!

Me and my sister and my niece

The favors at the table!! I ended up eating mine shortly after dinner oops!

The first course- some kind of Sweet Potato bread with mushrooms and cheese inside and pickled veggies on the side, odd sounding but very tasty. I had 1 glass of champagne at cocktail hour and one with my dinner not pictured.

My table #10 and the beautiful flowers and my glass of Merlot to go with my dinner.

The salad with feta( I picked it out) and caramelized pears and pecans. I opted for no dressing.

My steak!!! It came with mashed potatoes, carrots and asparagus, I hate about 1/2 the steak and the veggies but left the potatoes and rest of my steak for Sean who polished it off.

Here we are at our table, my goodness the venue was just gorgeous!

The cake!!!

My slice- it was Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting! I had 2 bites, and another glass of champagne!!

Getting ready to bring in the New Year

Our noise makers and table of booze!

It was a wonderful night over all and we had a lovely kiss and then went up to bed to sleep off our hangover in our lovely king size bed!

Moving on to New Years day! I woke to my sister's phone call informing me that she and her husband were in the mood for some greasy Chinese at our favorite spot Yang Chow and since we were all in downtown it was perfect. We begrudgingly got out of bed and checked out. I had a banana that I packed and the rest of my emergency snacks as a makeshift breakfast since I ate my cereal I packed yesterday. We ordered Hot and Sour soup- my fave! A plate of Slippery Shrimp-a Yang Chow must! Shrimp fried rice, Baby Bock Choy with mushrooms, and a small brown rice for me!This is my plate, I had seconds of the brown rice and bock choy and we sipped Green Tea.

My fortune:

Now at home with Ella and Sean, the plan for today is to RELAX! We have declared today PJ day so I am super excited for that. Hope everyone had a joyous and safe New Years!!!! I can't wait to catch up and see how ya'll spent yours!

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.

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