Don't Skip Breakfast!

Who is glad it's Friday?!! I sure am!

Except for the 6+ inches of snow here in MN...  I am working from home today to avoid hours of time spent in traffic to try to get to work. I am sitting in my "home office" at my dining room table getting ready to start my work day with CNN on....it's pretty intense.

Yesterday was a weird day, I skipped breakfast...BAD IDEA, I was in a hurry, I drank my coffee and wasn't entirely hungry. My "normal" breakfast didn't sound good so I just didn't eat anything. Before lunch time I had to go stop at my moms house to pick something up and the bonus is that she babysits my 3 year old nephew so I was going to play with him a bit too. Well my mom, love her, had all sorts of candy and snacks at her house, and by 11am I was SO HUNGRY that I ate a couple handfuls of gummy lifesavers, some mini three musketeers bars and some squares of cold leftover thin crust pizza....yeah, not really the best choices right? I already know that. After eating those things and playing with my nephew I headed home. I did not eat lunch and I did not eat anything else until dinner time. Oh man, I bet if I had eaten breakfast I might have been able to control myself a bit better, not that I went super crazy and binged or anything, but just eating candy and cold pizza isn't usually a great option for breakfast.

For dinner since it was blizzarding here in MN I knew I wanted something warm and comforting I decided to bulk up a box of Annie's white cheddar shells.

But I wanted to make it a bit more nutritious and filling so I added a bunch of veggies, some chicken and instead of milk to make the sauce I just used water. I can't really tell the difference so I make it that way.

 I cooked up the pasta, sauteed the chicken and veggies in another pan 

Took a quick microwave selfie :)

Annnd stirred it all together for a yummy dinner for 10 Points Plus and lunch for tomorrow. I put it on a plate because it all spreads out and makes me feel like I get a lot more than in a bowl lol

Oh and I am the best dog mommy and I took the brown dogs outside to play in the blizzard.

Do you like to bulk up foods with veggies and protein? 

Are you watching the live news right now?

Is there snow where you are? If not, can I come over??

Trying New Foods

Yesterday I tried two new food products! I am always interested in trying new food products, especially if they are unique or are somehow healthier or more nutritious than their counterpart. 

My best friend told me about this site Bzz Agent, and how you sign up to be an agent and take surveys and they will invite you to be a part of campaigns for new products. I think it sounds really cool so I went and signed up. I filled out some short and easy surveys, linked up some of my social media accounts and within a couple days I was invited to be a part of a campaign...where they send you FREE THINGS. Then you try the things and give honest feedback about them. I haven't received my free things yet but I will let you know when I do and give some sort of review on here.

My friend however received a free thing and came over to my house to share it with me.  She got samples of Green Giant's new veggie chips, two large bags and then some smaller snack size bags for sharing with she gave to me. I was really excited to try these because I LOVE salty crunchy snacks and let's be honest, regular chips aren't really great for you.

Obviously these are still chips, so it's not like eating vegetables, but it is somewhat better for you than your average chip and I loved the way they tasted. The ones she had in small bags were Sea Salt Sweet Potato chips. She also had a big bag of their Veggie Tortilla chips which were like a healthy version of Doritos!

My friend said these weren't her favorite chips because she felt they were sort of plain, but they were right up my alley!

Here is the nutrition, (it is 110 calories in case you can't see), and the whole bag is 3 Weight Watchers Points Plus, which is my general limit for a snack type food so that is good.

I busted these open in the afternoon when I usually crave a salty snack at work, just to get my through the last couple hours. They smelled good AND they tasted good. They had  a solid crunch, not the flakey weird texture of a lot of "healthy" chips like Baked Lays- I'm not a fan of those. These however reminded me of thinner, lighter Frito chips! With less corn flavor and more sweet/salty sweet potato flavor. I enjoyed that they were more on the salty side, but my tastes might be more sensitive now because I don't add a lot of salt to my food anymore. I also liked that the chips were small pieces...maybe they were just all broken lol but I liked that, I'd rather feel like I'm getting a lot of small chips and not 5 large chips in my serving. 

Overall, I would definitely buy these on my own, not sure if they sell these snack size bags or if they were just the sample but I like individually wrapped things so I hope they sell them or will sell them. 

The other new food I tried was with dinner, it was something I bought during my Trader Joe's Extravaganza and have been looking forward to trying. 

Beef-less strips!

I paired them with some sauteed bell peppers and mashed sweet potatoes and had a yummy, garlicy dinner!

The texture was nice, obviously not just like steak strips would be, but pretty similar and not weird at all. They just heat up quick in a pan sprayed with cooking spray or a little olive oil and voila! Dinner for one friend plus leftovers for lunch tomorrow :)

Do you like to try new products? 

Did you have a nice Tuesday?

Sometimes You Need a Grilled Cheese

I am fully aware the a grilled cheese is not the picture of nutrition. But I also know that sometimes, you just need one. Like when It is mid-April and snowy and windy outside, when your puppy is sick and keeps waking you up in the night coughing and throwing up, when you just feel like it.
So that's what I did.
But first, I worked out :)
I did Week 6 Day 1 of my C25K, which after running 20 minutes straight on Saturday seemed like a breeze. It was run 5 minutes, walk 3, run 8 minutes, walk 3, run 5 minutes. Boom! Done
Well not done, I continued to walk until I hit 45 minutes because that is my time goal.
So workout=done.

Then for lunch I just felt like a grilled cheese. We had some leftover sandwich bread from the weekend, I took some reduced fat colby jack cheese and some spinach and made that grilled cheese in my panini press...and it was delicious.

For dinner, I knew the bf was going to be gone so I planned to finish off the rest of my baked Tofu from Trader Joe's and make another stir fry. I took cooked up some egg whites in a pan, then I added broccoli slaw.

I heated up some mixed frozen veggies and a cup of that whole grain medley from Minute Rice.

I tossed in some lower sodium soy sauce. 

 Mixed the veggies, rice, and cut up tofu into the broccoli slaw and egg whites and tossed it all together.

Then I divided it in half and for 7 Points Plus had this for dinner and another servicing leftover for lunch at work tomorrow. WIN 

Lifting Weights and Orange Chicken

I guess I'm really into this whole literal blog title business, when it comes to being creative or witty I'm kinda slacking, I just title posts what I'm going to talk about...hey maybe it's will be a new trend? probably not...

Anyways!

We had a big snow storm in MN  yesterday...gross...so I worked from home, which was nice because it gave me the ability to spend a little more time preparing food and a little less time driving in traffic.

Breakfast was an apple and PB (not pictured) 

Then I got my workout in, Week 5 Day 2 of my C25K which was run for 8 minutes straight, the longest so far, walk 5 minutes, then run 8 minutes straight again! Well the plan usually gives about 30 minutes for each workout but I usually just repeat the patterns until I reach 45 minutes (the length of a tv episode...I am laaaame) but it gets in a good workout. But this time I was not really up for repeating a third run of 8 mintues straight, so I got of the treadmill after I finished and decided to do 15 minutes of free weights...I was very surprised that the whole time I did weights my heart rate stayed in my zone...I guess I figured it would drop down and it wouldn't really be a great cardio workout, but either I'm really out of shape or weightlifting is hard and good for your body. Either way I got in my 45 minutes of cardio AND my arms are a little sore today! WIN

For lunch I made egg white and spinach wraps with some feta cheese and Frank's hot sauce, I love that stuff!! This filling lunch was only 5 Points Plus!

Then, since I was home doing work, I decided I would finally try this black bean brownie  mix I picked up a while back...they sounded weird but I was really curious about how they would turn out for 3 Points Plus a brownie.

There are no pictures of the baking process because when I put all the wet ingredients in my food processor to mix they all started dripping on the counter, I guess it wasn't on the base right...anyways I got it all fixed and then did not take any pics until it was done.

They look normal, the true test will be if the bf likes them! (he did!)

For dinner I was also feeling ambitious with all my extra time at home I decided to make Orange Chicken. The bf and I both enjoy Asian food but it is often really bad for you, high in sodium and fat, deep fried or just generally mysterious as to the actual calories. I based the main recipe off of this recipe from Cupcake Diaries and added a little inspiration from this recipe from Laa Loosh. It turned out delicious and we both really enjoyed it. For 8 Points Plus it was filling and tasty. I highly recommend! 

And for dessert, I used my last Points to take a brownie, a dark chocolate sugar free pudding, a banana and some fat free cool whip for a bowl of OMG YUM.

Subway vs. Panera

So yesterday I went home and told the bf about how some of you mentioned the men in your life won't eat at Panera either, and he said "SEE  no one likes it, that's because we like SUBWAY"....and I about threw up in my mouth. 

Over the years I have tolerated Subway, when I was younger I may have even enjoyed it, before I knew what good food was, because I considered it "healthy" fast food. But I have since learned the error of my ways and just cannot understand what is so good about Subway. Besides that it might be slightly better than eating at McDonalds. 

The bf challenged me to ask ya'll what you thought was better, Subway or Panera. I thought he was being silly, but then I decided what the heck, let's see what people think out there. 

I will eat at pretty much any sandwich shop, Panera and Potbelly being some of my favorites, but I dread when the bf asks to eat at Subway, there is just nothing redeeming about it to me. Their bread is weird, not like real food, and everything is so processed to me. They do have a decent selection of veggies, I'll give 'em that, but that is about it.   

So which is it for you? Panera OR Subway?

 or

                                    Image retrieved from Source                                   Image retrieved from Source     

Also I cut up some of my tofu from Trader Joe's yesterday, tossed it with some fresh veggies, soy sauce, garlic and this new minute rice medley (it has brown rice, quinoa, barley and oats) 

and made a super yummy, easy work lunch stir fry that cooks in the microwave! All for 10 Points Plus.

Green Smoothie's and C25K

Tuesday was an exciting day for me, why? Because I made a yummy green smoothie for breakfast, I knew I wanted to make a green smoothie for breakfast because I was going out to lunch with an old co-worker who I adore and I wanted to have some extra points to eat.

I grabbed the frozen fruit I wanted to use, frozen cherries and summer harvest blend.

I put baby spinach, protein powder, a banana and some toasted almonds with a little water in the Magic Bullet.  

Then I blended it up real green :)

Added the fruit and voila! Smoothie yum

P.S. don't look at my messy desk at work...

For lunch my friend and I went to Panera, I love that place and the bf won't ever go with me so I only get it when I am with girlfriends. I checked out the menu ahead of time planning what I wanted. I got their Turkey Cafe sandwich and their Apple Chicken salad for a total of 13 WW Points Plus. Don't look at that stupid piece of bread they tried to trick me with, boooooo sneaky extra bread.

After work I stared Week 5 of my C25K, which is 5 minutes of running and 3 minutes of walking, it was actually really easy, but then I made the mistake of looking ahead to what my run will be like for Thursday. 8 minutes of running, 5 minutes of walking then 8 more minutes of running. AHHHH Luckily I'm joined up with  The Spring Training Challenge and have plenty of support!

I used leftover taco ingredients to throw together a super filling and super delicious taco salad for dinner! 

What a great Tuesday :)

 Did you enjoy your Tuesday? 

Did you wake up to snow on the ground like we did here in MN today? 

BOO SNOW 

I Love Leftovers!

Yesterday was a decent day, for a Monday. 

But this morning was my weigh in day...now I have some other complicating factors to why my weight loss has been so terribly difficult, but this morning I finally had a loss! For the last month since I started running I literally have not gained or lost anything, it's been SO frustrating that I'm working hard running 3-4 times a week for at least 45 minutes and counting my points and not seeing a change. But this morning (even after eating 6 points over last night) I lost a whole pound since last week. I know that doesn't seem like much but for me who has been stuck at the same weight for four weeks it is huge. I just needed that little bit of motivation to say "keep going and don't give up". Because let me tell you there have been plenty of times I have wanted to give up because nothing was changing. 

Yesterday I had a pre-made salad for lunch from Trader Joe's...if I could eat their food all the time I'd probably just be a happy girl.

 It was really good actually but it was very very hard to mix up and stir the dressing all around because it was all packed so tightly in the container. But it was still really good.

Now, I love leftovers...hence the title of this post. But I'm not talking about "oh here's some food I made yesterday I will just reheat it and eat it", not that kind of leftovers. And there are some foods that just shouldn't be eaten the next day at all. But what I do love, is taking leftovers from a meal and re-inventing them. Giving them a whole new life in a new way. One example is how I love taking taco leftovers and creating a yummy taco salad. Well last night I re-invented some kabob leftovers. I cut up the potatoes and browned them in a pan, then I added some broccoli and garlic and herbs, finally adding the rest of the kabob leftovers and heating them all up. 

The best part about kabob veggies is that they don't get mushy, they were still crisp even after this second reheat. I topped it with a tiny bit of parmesan cheese and it was seriously the most filling delicous plate of yummy ever. ALMOST as good as when they were just kabobs. 

Oh, and I played outside with the brown dogs, Bella girl loves frisbee she is such a great little frisbee dog.  You can see Mason in the back he just runs around with his ball in his mouth.

And since the bf is out of town I decided that Bella and I should take a selfie to send to him, becuase naturally that's what you do when you are alone with your dogs and need some entertainment.

Hope you had a great Monday!

Top Eight From My Weekend

The top things from my weekend that make my Monday Marvelous! 

1.) On Friday morning I went with my best friend down to the studio of the top 20 radio station in Minneapolis, KDWB. My friend had won into a giveaway special where the DJ was celebrating her birthday by giving us all her "favorite things". Similar to Oprah's favorite things show. It was so cool that my friend picked me to come down with her and we got all sorts of gift cards and tickets to things. Happy Friday! Oh and we got our picture with Dave Ryan who has been the main DJ on the morning show there since as long as I can remember.

2.) The bf got back into town on Friday after work (he was supposed to come home Thursday but they needed him one more day) so we went out on our Friday date night to Applebees. What I love about the 'bees is that they are a dependable friend, they will always have something I like and want to eat and I especially enjoy their WW menu letting me know exactly what to expect with their food. 

3.) On Saturday I decided I needed to go shopping..yes needed :) So I went to a bunch of stores, Maurices, Old Navy and Walmart, I got myself some new clothes, here are a few of my finds.

4.) I also stopped at Trader Joe's while I was out and picked up some more reduced guilt chunky guacamole ...and used it on egg whites for breakfast!

5.) Number 5 & 6 go together, because for the second time in my life, I grilled! I still won't turn the girll on myself (I'm a big baby) but I used the brill and cooked yummy food!!

6.)And for supper Sunday night I made kabobs! I love kabobs because it is all sorts of yummy fresh veggies all grilled and crisped on the grill. So good.

7.) The weather is finally starting to cooperate A LITTLE here in MN, although there was snow on Friday...but Sunday was nicer and I took my brown dogs out for a little walk, afterwards I google mapped my walk and realized I went almost 3 miles! Yay

8.) On Saturday morning I woke up and wanted to just lay around and do nothing...BUUUUT I didn't! I got my booty downstairs to the treadmill and did Day 3 of Week 4 of my C25K. It helped that I had a new episode of Grey's Anatomy to watch while I did it :)

Did you have a good weekend? 

What would be your top 8?