beans beans beans

Last night we got an impromtu invite to my Sister and Brother in law's house for dinner. I love not having to worry about dinner...but this week I was really planning on utilizing my leftovers for my lunches. So, on my way home last night...I was trying to think of what I had in the pantry to turn into a nutritious lunch..... I came up with two things....Tuna and a can of Navy Beans.
Well...I had tuna on Monday. So beans it was. I know that Kath has made a sandwich spread in the past...I searched her website...but my bloodsugar was getting low..and all of her good food was making it worse. :)
So I just bit the bullet and googled "Navy Bean Dip." I found a recipe that I figured I could modify with all of the ingredients in my pantry, and to be honest..I don't even remember what website it was.

So, It was 1 can of beans (rinsed and drained). Tossed into the food processor with:
Dried Parsley flakes
Dried Rosemary
a big spoonful of minced garlic
some lemon juice
and olive oil. ( the recipe called for 1/4 of a cup!-for two cans of beans....I think I probably did more like 2 tbsps).
I've only used my food processor like 3 times...I'm a little bit intimdated by it....but after this...I'm sold. Cilantro Pesto is next!
I blended and decided it was little bland for the "meat" of a lunch. I spooned in some jalapeno slices from a jar for kick.
W
Wooowee and it has a kick, and it's delicious. I didn't measure anything either....just tossed it all in.
I ate it today for lunch with cut up veggies and a whole wheat tortilla. I probably ate 1/2 the recipe for lunch today, and I'm going to use the rest up tomorrow (we are going to dinner at friends house again tonight.)


Also look at my poppies! The previous owner must have really liked gardening...we have some great flowers!

a whole day?

Ok, it's time for the food update! So, i'm posting a breakfast, lunch and dinner....but they are all from different days. I am so clever. That was sarcasm.

This is my re-discovered love. Oatmeal with walnuts, a pinch of salt and all natural applesauce on top. My dad is pretty much anti added sugar of anykind, unless it's in the form of applesauce, so I ate whenever I had "mush" (what we called it in my family" I had applesauce on top. Applesauce was on sale this week in those cute little single serving, made for lunch sizes. I'm not a huge advocate of single serving packaging...but I couldn't resist. I think with some cinnamon on top, and this would taste like apple pie.

Ok, on to lunch. Lately I've really been enjoying red-leaf lettuce. It keeps for quite a while, and makes great salads for lunch.
Here is a salad I had just yesterday. I used lettuce, a carrot, a red bell pepper, and left over bbq chicken. And Newmans Own All Natural Cesar.

Seriously Yum.

I also had a whole wheat tortilla for some carbs. and my trusty nalgene. No..i'm not stuck in the late nineties...this used to be my brother's nalgene...till he got stationed over seas and I "stole" it from him.

I have one of those "fit n' fresh" salad containers. Really the only thing I like about it is the size, and the little built in dressing container...the "utensils" it came with were complete crap.

Dinner...Calzones! I made these last week. In college Scott and I LOVED this Calzone place, the other night we were talking about them, and I figured I would try to recreate. Let's just say I have a long way to go!

Here is Scott's calzone...it has more cheese than mine, even though I could have happily grated the whole block of mozzerella in my calzone. I also purposely made these huge. I pretty much cook for 3-4 every night. I always take leftovers for lunch, and Scott eats more than I do. Most nights.


Here is mine...I put TONS of sauce in it.

I think next time, I'll work the dough a little more, it ended up being pretty thick.

I also made stuffed bell peppers last week. As I was serving them Scott looked at me and told me " I don't like cooked bell peppers."

Oh, Something that would have been good to know YESTERDAY! Name that movie.

mmmm...now I'm hungry for my snack.

mmm coconut!

Since my lovely husband took me out to lunch yesterday, I didn't have to pack a lunch for today...

Well, I did pack fresh veggies...

A left over bbq-ed chicken drumstick. I didn't eat the skin...with Couscous! I HATED the stuff as a child...but apparently my palate has gotten over it, and I really liked this batch!

All together with my Nalgene.

When I got back to my desk, the admin. assistant told me to try these hershey's kisses...they are coconut filled and SUPER delicious. Not just a plain old kiss..and the coconut is very creamy!

And, I'm going to have this LARABAR for a snack in a little bit..more coconut. Behind it you can see my "snack drawer" with Z Clifbars, and a Kashi bar and spoon!

Finally!

I can't believe it is already 2:45pm and this is my first post of the day. I had a three hour meeting this morning, and then it's just been one thing after another today! Although, I'm not complaining, I'd rather it was like this, then the days when nothing is going on.

Breakfast this morning was two mini bagels with peanut butter and a half of a banana and half a glass of milk. I guess that is half of a pint glass..so technically a full glass, if we are counting glasses as 8 oz. I had planned to eat this at my desk after going to the gym, but I just couldn't make my self get out of bed this morning..it was just so warm and cozy. I'm usually pretty good about that..but today..just no.
Lunch was this spinach, walnut, cucumber and carrot salad, with flax and balsamic vin.

Yep, I offcially win the award for ugliest food this week. Yesterday I realized that I had leftovers in the work fridge from last week, so I planned to eat them today. It turned out perfectly that we had turkey burgers last night..I just "crumbled" it into the left over pasta...although there wasn't very much pasta, probably 1/2 a cup cooked.

And finally, at 2:40 I had this LARABAR. I know it's not going to keep me full until dinner at 6.

Speaking of dinner..we are going out tonight with my in-laws to THE MOST DELICIOUS restaurant. We actually just went there last weekend, but it's seriously so good. I'll just admit right now..that I'm not going to take a picture. My in-laws don't know about the blog..and while my Mother and Father in law probalby wouldn't ever look at it, by BIL and SIL (look, i'm a trendy blogger with abbreviations) probably would, and I'm not ready to share this with them.

There are only two people whom I know in "real life" who know how much I weigh. My mother and my husband...and now maybe another friend..depending on how far back in the archives he's read. I know it's just a number, and while I know that the number doesn't have any moral value, to me....it does to other people. My BMI, Height, Weight..shouldn't matter...but we classify people this way, and while I'm making peace with this, not everyone makes peace, and I'm not ready to be judged...I haven't made that much peace.

protein lacking....

I had my snack at 10:15 this morning....Kiwi! It actually wasn't the best one I've had but still pretty good. I like to eat these with a spoon and scoop out the good stuff from inside the skin.

I also ate half of this CLIFnectar bar at about 11:00am...I ate the other half about 30 mins after I finished my lunch. I like these bars, but I like LARABAR's better.

Lunch: Leftover whole wheat macaroni with homemade red sauce. I put a little bit too much red pepper flakes in the sauce..and it is SPICY! I ate about 2/3 of this bowl.

And "salad" Baby Spinach with carrots and a few cucumber pieces. Drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

This lunch is lacking a signficant source of protein. I know they all contain bits of protein...but I need a good hunk to keep me full, so I'll be that I will need my snack a little earlier than usual!

full of FAT

Well my toast actually held me over pretty well, I was hungry about 10:30 am.
I had this apple, it's a "pink lady" These are some of my favorite apples. And I love my nalgene. I know people feel like they smell (which mine doesn't) or that the water tastes like plastic...but I don't experience that either...and it's great for knowing how much water you are intaking.
I had this Kashi bar about 20 mins later.. . the apple only made me hungrier!

I live in a city that has a dairy farming background, and each year the city has "Dairy Days" in one of the city parks. My co-worker who usually goes to the Dairy Days meeting couldn't go...so I got to go instead. They handed out little presents! A "milk lover" luggage tag, and this little piece of chocolate shaped like lips!-I ate the chocolate around 11:50, don't worry it didn't spoil my lunch!

Lunch, was pretty high in two things: fiber and fat! Good fat though! I had some vegetarian refried beans with an avacado (an organic one on sale for only $1.25!). I also had a whole wheat tortilla, and a whole cut up carrot and a whole cut up red bell pepper.

Right now( 2:37pm) I'm having some peppermint tea in hopes of burning all the little germies in my throat. I know..wishful thinking....i'm sure the germs will persevere through my tea!

Trusty Starbucks cup!

oops..out of order!

Well, I ate my apple around 10:30 am....and was even hungrier when I was done with it! I had a hershey's marshmallow kiss out of the office candy jar around 11am. I then got too busy to remember I was hungry (mostly).

This picture, should be after the next one! Oops.

So, I had tuna curry salad again today. I needed to use up these pitas...and my husband and I had leftovers for dinner last night...which left me with no left overs for lunch!

Tuna salad on pitas with spinach. I had left over spinach, and some left over red pepper in the baggy after I ate my two sandwhiches, so I put them in with the left over tuna. See above picture!

I'm not sure what is on my plate for dinner tonight..but I did pack yogurt for a snack!

skies of blue and fields of ...white!

Well, today continued to be a wierd day schedule wise. I work for a city parks and rec. department, and today we had to take a group photo with our new director. We all troupedout to one of our parks at 11am.
Getting a new boss is always fun and interesting..one of the new policies that we are implementing are Birthday Parties...once a month for whom ever has a birthday in the month. Today we had the birthday..with coffee ice cream cake. Yum-O (sorry, the cheesiness of the situation called for a Rachel Ray moment)! anyway, we had this whole shindig right after our picture was taken. I insisted on eating my lunch before the cake, and didn't take a picture. I"m still embarrassed...and with the whole group in the break room...no way!

Anyway...I had a left over turkey burger crumbled up in a whole wheat tortilla with 1 slice of colby cheese and few red pepper slices. I also had my standard "veggie container" with carrots, more peppers, and cucumbers. And a small 1" wide slice of cake. Good thing it was small..because my body def. reacted to the sugar, I wanted more and more and more and more. Not because I was hungry for it, not because my body wanted it..my mouth wanted it. It's hard to overcome!

here is our group photo..as you can probably guess..I'm the one in the grey jacket.
And not that it really matter, but the play ground we are standing on is 100% wheel chair accessable, the only one in Idaho!

I'm starting to feel snacky...so expect a snack post soon!

Feeling FULL!

So after a hungry morning, I am feeling full now!

I had this banana about 9:30am. That coupled with some hot tea with 1/4 cup milk at 10:30 held me until lunch. Oh, and I had one chocolate covered pretzel Sorry, the pictures are small..I forgot to adjust the size. Here is lunch, partially eaten. I started with a whole can of Amy's Organic Low Sodium Low Fat Tomato Soup. More about soup later...
I also had one of my small biscuits from last night (I'll post the recipe..i'm throwing around the idea of a recipes page) and My veggie container...same veggies as yesterday!

Cookies for desert! Two more of the Back to Nature Chocolate Chunk cookies.

And I feel happily full! I stil have about 1/4 cup cottage cheese and some blueberries for a snack!

These soups are great. My husband and I don't like the same kinds of soup, and this brand is a good compromise for us. I LOVE the Pacific brand..but he isn't a huge fan of the taste..and I can't usually get through a whole box of soup before the reccomended eating time. I guess I could freeze it...anyway..He likes campbells full of sodium soups. These work well...and they aren't concentrated..which is why I had a whole can for lunch..only 200 calories for the whole thing. Filling and soooo goood.

something is fishy....

So, I'm trying out different things for meals, seeing what holds my hunger and what doesn't.
Well...Today for lunch ( with no picture, because I'm a scatter brain) I made myself some Tuna, that was inspired by Kaths recipe (www.katheats.com)
Mine was:
1 whole can of tuna
1 tbsp + a little bit more yellow curry
1.5 tbsp mayo
1 squirt spicy mustard
1 squirt honey mustard.
1 whole chopped up carrot
This was really really good. It wasn't too creamy, like when you use too much mayo, or maybe only I do that. It was very flavorful and cruncy and pleasing for the palate.
With it I had a piece of all natural multi grain bread and my veggie container (see picture below).

These are two of the cookies from the Back To Nature box that I bought the other day. I put them up against my glasses case for size reference. I had these about 30 minutes after finishing my lunch. They are pretty good, very natural and sweet. They are easy to crunch through, and I probably could have mindlessly had 4 more.

Half full veggie container....today I had carrot sticks, red and green bell peppers, and snap peas.

and here is the problem....i'm hungry already. I was not expecting this. Not at all. I expected the can of tuna to totally hold me, so much protein! I'm going to see if a cup of tea with some milk for a few calories will hold me for another 45 minutes or so. I like to eat my afternoon snack at 3pm.

Maybe this would have held me better if I'd eaten the tuna in a pita or something..not just as a salad. Hmmmm...

produce produce everywhere!

So, it's Sunday after noon, and I wanted to post some pictures of the fruits and veggies we bought at the store yesterday. It's the end of the month, our budget is just about used up, but we can't not have our fresh produce for the week!
Yesterday at the grocery store, I wanted to switch things up a little bit so I bought some fruit i normally don't...

The first exciting piece of fruit is the STARFRUIT! I've never had one of these before, and they are a little pricey ($1.28) for one, but my husband convinced me that it was well worth the money. Ha. anyway..i have ot wait for it to ripen..but apparently you just eat these like an apple! Bite into them, or cut them into slice for the pretty star shape. Exciting...i'm trying to be patient while mine ripens! I also got navel oranges and my husband picked out the plums. I don't like plums very much, but they really look pretty in our fruit bowl!

This week, instead of cutting up veggies nightly, I cut up a bunch and put them in a glass bowl with a lid that we got as a wedding present. This is 2 red bell peppers, one or two green peppers, two carrots, and snap peas. We also have cucumbers..but i like to cut those up daily for lunces...they are full of so much water that they make everything else soggy!

And from the top.

Today we had lunch with my in-laws. Well...we always have lunch with my inlaws on Sundays. Now, my in-laws are incredibly sweet sweet good people. The are not so fantastic at health. My Father in law has type two diabetes (that he is not so good about controlling, and my mother in law basically loves every fat condiment known to man, but then again..who doesn't!) anyway...Today after church my sister-in-law informs my husband and I that for lunch today we are swinging by Wendy's, picking up lunch for my inlaws and taking it over to them.

Great..a fast food challenge. When I first started losing weight..I spent a lot of time researching the nutritional values of different fast food places. As we all know, subway has the healthiest, freshest ingredients..but stil isn't that great. So...back to wendys'. I decided on a jr. hamburger and a side salad. My mouth wanted a 1/4 pound single with fries. But...I passed (man, tons of willpower on that one) and had about 5 of my husband's fries. I just looked up the nutritional value and with the few fries, and one chicken nugget I had with my jr. hamburger and side salad (1 tsp vinagrette) My lunch only came to about 400 calories. Pretty low, but I don't feel bogged down by grease..which is nice.

My sister-in-law ordered "the baconator" for my F-in-Law. yeah..I looked up those calories....860! man, so not worth it. I would rather eat two home made patties with six pieces of non fast food bacon for that amount of calories.

Anyway...i'm going to need a snack pretty soon. Wish that Starfruit was ripe!

snacks, lunch, and sore muscles

Well, I don't know why I dont think of packing more protein for my breakfasts on days that I do cardio for my workouts..I'm always hungry by 10:00!
At 10:00I filled up my water bottle and had a pear. They are sitting on the water cooler in the breakroom, I just noticed this morning that the calendar says "Have a great 2008," So I put it in the picture!

My Lunch kind of occured in stages today. When I went back to the breakroom, my co-worker was using the toaster oven, and if you use both the toaster oven and the microwave...everything loses power. So I ate my carrot sticks while I waited a few minutes. It was nice to stand by the window and pretend that it was spring, with the nice warm sun coming through...too bad it's actualy 20 degrees out!

Oh right..I had this tea at 11am. I found some Tetley's British Blend at Winco..yum! So...because it's British..I had to have it with milk! I would say I put in about 1/4 cup nonfat milk.

Right....here are the carrot sticks!

I actually ate this Plain Non Fat Greek Yogurt with two little dollops of strawberry fruit only jam...about 30 minutes after the rest of my lunch. I ate my leftovers from last night..and wanted to take a walk...but I wasn't prepared for the 20 degree weather. Instead, I went to the closest book store and browsed the cookbooks! For reference this is a 9 oz container.

Ok, I'll admit it...this is the same picture as last night! It was left overs..and I was so excited to get it out of the microwave..that I forgot to snap a pick. My serving today had LOTS of veggies, a little tofu and some noodles. Even after my serving of yogurt...I can feel a little bit of hunger coming back in. The LUNABAR might come earlier than expected.

Also, my calves are SUPER sore! I woke up this morning and was thinking that my workout yesterday CLEARLY wasn't as hard as I thought, because I "wasn't sore at all" HA. Either..it just took longer..or the elliptical cross training program that I did this morning really did a number on my calves.

just so good...

Ok,I know that I don't have pictures, and that makes this blog less exciting....but I am so excited that I am FINALLY hungry for my snack! I love food, and i've been looking forward to today LARABAR since lunch. But..I made my self wait till I was hungry, I'm trying to learn to listen to my body right?
And it was soo worth the wait. I know that I keep talking about LARABAR's but seriously? they are the most amazing things ever. I know that other blogs extol the virtues of whole foods, and not eating "bars" too much, but how can you go wrong when sometimes the only two ingredients are dates and cashews? Instead of having dates and cashews in a little baggie, I have mine pressed together in a CUTE little wrapper. Just as much waste....and just as great of a product. All natural, raw, vegan... ok, back to the point.
Today I am having (As I type) KEY LIME PIE flavor. I' m a sucker for lime, and this is delicious. It has more ingredients then some but still less than 10, still everything I can pronounce.

Some people splurge money on movies or clothes...I chose LARABARS!

Also, speaking of fantastic food..my lunch of left over whole wheat rotini with homemade pasta sauce, a whole carrot, a while red pepper, and 4 oz of honey greek god yogurt? HELD ME SO WELL. It was little bit more calorie laden then usual....but so delicious!

Snacks and Lunch

Well, I got hungry around 10:00am, and ate these Comice Pear slices. Not a very good set up of the picture. Next time I won't take it on top of the microwave in the work breakroom!
I got hungry again at like 11, and started snacking on my lunch veggies. I've noticed that on days after a cardio workout..i'm much hungrier. (uh..duh). I think I'll need to amp up the protein in breakfast to prevent days like today..

Lunch, in the car again. AND a sandwich again...We didnt' have any leftovers to pack last night.
2 slices bread lovers whole grain, 2.5 oz turkey breas, and about 5 cucumber slices from my veggie container.

I didn't take a picture of the container full..but here it is before I ate my last two cucumber slices!

Ok..I'm still hungry. I'm out of good snacks like plain yogurt. I do have a LARABAR and a kashi bar.

I might make some tea with a little milk...and then have the LARABAR about 2pm.

first sandwich in a loooong time!

Today I was having the hankering to go window shop at the bookstore, and to get a latte. Fortunately we have a bookstore in town with a little espresso counter. Not to bad for coffee that doesn't come from an official coffee shop.
12 oz. Non fat milk Latte with 2 splendas stirred in! My first Latte in at least 2 months!

Lunch on the go. I try not to eat in my car as I'm driving..but I really wanted as much time as possible to look at books. So I ate my veggies and sandwich in the car.

Sandwich: 2 slices "bread lovers multi grain bread" (sooo soft and delicious, all natural AND locally made!) 3 oz sliced roast beef, and some cucumber and green pepper slices from my veggie container. Oh yeah, and honey mustard!

My trustee veggie container! I cut up veggies every night for this guy. They vary, but are usually some combination of carrots, cucumbers, and peppers. My husband picked out the veggies at the grocery store last night, these are his favs.So they will repeat through here often.

I ate about 1/3 of the veggies around 11am when I got hungry. Then the rest around noon.

I also have 4oz of plain yogurt and 1/2 of a crunchy Kashi bar to mix-in, when I get hungry later. I was going to have them with my lunch, but went with the latte instead. I might not even be hungry for my usual afternoon LARABAR.