Archive for September, 2008
« Previous EntriesTuesday Tips (TT)
By Andrea | Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Hi guys! I was thinking of adding a new feature to the blog called Tuesday Tips. This would consist of little tips I’ve discovered that make life a wee bit easier or a wee bit greener, or just plain cleverly helpful all around. I come across things all the time and there are things that I do that maybe you’ll like too! If you have tips you can email them to me to try out and I can post about those, giving you full credit of course. What do you think?
Rocky says, Tip #1
“Make sure you pet has plenty of blankets, pillows, and space to lounge around comfortably. This is a most important task!”
Topics: Tips | 8 Comments »
September 30th, 2008: Breakfast
By Andrea | Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Morning guys! I went to bed early (10pm!!) and I overslept this morning. 
I don’t know what happened but my alarm didn’t wake me up. It was set and I checked it before bed but heard nothing. I even had to turn it off this morning so I have no idea what happened there. I got up at 7:10, so not terribly late but later than I wanted.
It was cool this morning because it had rained during the night. Not cool enough that I needed my little blue shirt though for my run. I ran a different route this morning and I also incorporated some sprints. Well not full out running as fast as I can sprints, but picking up my speed for a distance and then going back to a pace run and alternating like that the entire time. I think I did five total “sprints” bumping my HR up to the 170s. I don’t know the total distance I ran this morning but was out for about 20 minutes and my total cals burned during this run are my most yet, 253! Wooo! I was getting grumpy and complaining about Google maps not having the roads listed that I’m running on and Scott said we could drive it so I would know the total milage. 
I’m thinking this might be a good reason to the get the Nike+iPod thingie. Would you agree? I thought so. 
Yum!
I was ready for that drink this morning! I kicked butt on my run and was feeling very pleased with myself. 
Then it was back out the door with Rocky and again another high for me, I did the most calories on this walk too, 196! Woo! Normally it’s in the 150s range but for some reason it was bumped up today. I don’t care, I’ll take it!
It was chilly during the walk and I should have worn a jacket but decided against it and fully regretted that decision. I knew I wanted oats this morning, I missed you oats! And I loaded mine up!
Loaded
I had the regular mix of:
- 3/4 cup of vanilla soymilk
- 1/2 cup of quick oats
- 1 mashed banana
And today I added a small pinch of cinnamon sugar and salt. Then on top was:
- Dried cranberries
- Sunflower and pumpkin seeds (a wee bit)
- Some BN granola
- Some yogurt
Yum! I gave myself a little bit more today and left Scott with slightly more than 1/4. I wanted to see if more would keep me fuller longer and Scott doesn’t eat much for breakfast so I knew him having less was no big deal. So far it’s seemed to work, I’m doing okay hunger wise.
Today I have grand plans of kicking things into gear and getting more organized around the HQ. I also have some bloggy stuff I need to get done and other very boring tasks. See you later!
Oh! And happy news, 
Andrea and Erin hosted this round of Blogger Secret Ingredient and the ingredient was apples. I entered my Apple Quesadillas and the recipe got picked. 
I get to pick out an amazing healthy bread from this place located in Portland.
Topics: Daily Eats | 2 Comments »
September 29th, 2008: Lunch and dinner
By Andrea | Monday, September 29th, 2008
Hey guys! I am worn out! 
PT today totally kicked my ass! I did arms, Biceps and triceps and a little abs at the end. I was wrecked but in a good way. I was starving for lunch afterwards. I had plans on making big salads for us but then I heard a commercial advertising breakfast and knew that’s what I wanted instead. Since we didn’t have Sunday Breakfast I was missing it!
Mmmmm breakfast.....
I didn’t even shower first, I went straight for food! I scrambled up three eggs and took 1/3 and gave Scott the rest. Along with two Morningstar sausage patties and 1 1/2 slices of health nut bread with some butter. This was the first time I had those sausage patties and they were okay. Not bad for an alternative to real sausage. I was curious to see what they would taste like because I lurves me some sausage. My only suggestion would be for them to use a little more seasonings and bump up the garlic factor. Aside from that they get a thumbs up from me and I’ll pick them up again. Oh and I had some OJ!
After lunch I took a nice long soak and it was perfect! I was so relaxed after all I wanted was a nap. 
I had stuff to do though, so no nappy for me. I started laundry, did some stuff around the house, and worked on some recipes. And then I started getting hungry for dinner. Actually I could have used a snack but since it was so close to dinner, I waited it out.
Leftovers
We had leftovers, the soup from yesterday. The only thing I did was add a little bit of chorizo to it and then heated it up. I was so excited to find the sausage! I got it at WF and it was soooo yummy. The previous times I have tried it, the versions that were in my grocery store were not good at all and the store only has one kind which makes no sense. When I spotted these guys I snatched them right up! It made the soup super spicy to me though, I was sweaty and blowing my nose every few minutes. Scott of course was fine because he can handle all kinds of spicy hotness. Whew! I was stuffed after dinner.
I’m pulling an early night tonight and will definitely be in bed reading soon. And looking back, I see my only fruit today was a banana from this morning. I’ll have to have some fruit later I think. Hope you guys had a good Monday!
Topics: Daily Eats | 3 Comments »
September 29th, 2008: Breakfast
By Andrea | Monday, September 29th, 2008
Morning guys! I went to bed at a decent hour last night, 10:30. Wooo! I was wiped out. I thought about reading for a bit but just decided to hit the hay. This was after we watched a movie, a movie that we were both really looking forward to seeing. The Fall, have any of you seen it? If you watch Pushing Daisies, the lead in this movie is Ned. The visuals and the costumes in this movie are amazing. I haven’t seen something that has impressed me visual-wise in quite some time. However the story? Sweet jeebus but the story is awful, bad, and horrific. I was so so bored during this movie despite how visually pleasing it was. Rent at your own risk.
On to breakfast! I have PT this morning and wanted something like but filling.
Boo!
I had a sliced banana with 1/4 cup of Bare Naked granola, 8 chocolate chips, and 3 scoops of yogurt. Mmm! I decided to throw the choco chips in there just because it was a Monday and I could use a little more pick-me-up. I had that along side my morning coffee + creamer.
In case you are not hockey fans, I will tell you that hockey season officially starts this week. I was told by a certain someone that satellite would be purchased to ensure that we would be able to get all the hockey games. And also because this company provides more HD channels than our current cable company. The first game of the Pens season (they had two pre-games last week that they won) is on Saturday. Saturday, October 4th. I know this because I have the schedule printed out and hanging on my fridge. Today is Monday, September 29th. Guess who doesn’t have satellite yet? I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count.
See you after PT!
Topics: Daily Eats | No Comments »
September 28th, 2008
By Andrea | Sunday, September 28th, 2008
Hi guys! Another day in review because I was a slacker today and just wanted to veg out. I did some cooking and the experiments didn’t turn out. Boo! I want to start making my own bread but the thought of kneading and all that doesn’t sound too appealing. I have a bread machine so I busted that out today and my bread was a hard little rock. Oh well, I’ll get it right somehow. On to my day!
Well we have to recap the rest of last night. That consisted of me laying on the couch drinking some wine. I had another glass of red and one glass of white. I also had a small bowl of pumpkin latte! Wooo!
Pumpkin Latte
Two little scoops of coffee and two little scoops of pumpkin ice cream. I bumped it up with some bare naked granola to give it a little more nutrition value and to help fill me up a bit as I was a little hungry. The granola tasted the best on the coffee side. Like a mocha latte. I watched some TV and stayed up too late which seems to be a trend this weekend. Once I hit the bed though I was out cold.
I knew I wasn’t going running this morning because of all the exercise I did yesterday. I needed to give my bod a break so I tried to sleep in as much as I could, 7:45 was all I got. I got up and got Rocky taken care of then did dishes because there was a pile-up in the sink and dirty dishes sitting around drives me crazy. This gave me a chance to let the coffee get nice and hot!
Light and filling
Breakfast was the usual cup of joe and some pumpkin creamer. Mmm! I had a Fage 2% peach with some of the bare naked granola sprinkled on top.
I went to go get dressed to take Rocky for a walk only to realize I didn’t pull out any workout clothes. Doh! I knew I could take him later so it wasn’t too big a deal but I was looking forward to a morning activity. I had way too much energy so I started poking around in the kitchen. That’s when I started the bread machine debacle and then I got lunch going. No Sunday Breakfast today. I still had some of that rotisserie chicken left and it needed used up. I decided to go ahead and make some chicken salsa soup. It was a dreary day today anyway and soup seemed perfect. With the bread going and the soup started that woke Scott up and he drifted downstairs.
Yummy!
I had a ladle and a half of the soup and a couple of the tortilla chips with it. Yum! I grudgingly went upstairs to change out of my jammies and sort the laundry. We took Rocky out for his walk and I started laundry when we got back. Scott pulled out some of my fall decorations. Hooray! One other box seems to be missing somewhere. I looked through the box to get reacquainted with what was there. I decided to decorate during the week sometime, I wanted to spend the rest of the day with Scott.
Hormones were making me snacky today. I made some good choices though!
Fruit servings
I had a small handful of raisins and the rest of the cantaloupe. Okay, well Rocky had some of the leftover cantaloupe too.
Fizzie
Scott and I played some MetalGear and I made us some drinks while we played. Lime Cranberry fizzies, this time made with lemon lime seltzer and cranberry juice. So yummy! Both of us started getting hungry and since we wanted to take advantage of the really nice weather, we decided to grill. It’s been a while since we’ve grilled, I was excited!
Grillin' time
We had turkey burgers which turned out so awesome (recipe soon)! Some sweet potato fries that I seasoned with some olive oil, S&P, chili powder and some cinnamon. On the side was some grilled zucchini that was seasoned with olive oil, soy sauce, garlic powder, S&P. Everything was soooo yummy! I also had another fizzie with dinner. I ate everything on my plate including all of my burger! That never happens, I usually eat half a burger but I loved this one so much I ate it before I moved on to anything else.
Now I’m sitting on the couch and I think we might watch a movie. Hope you guys had a good weekend! See you tomorrow!
Topics: Daily Eats | 4 Comments »
September 27th, 2008
By Andrea | Saturday, September 27th, 2008
Hi guys! Wow what a jam packed busy day today was! I’m so ready to crash and relax. Starting where we left off…
Popcorn debate
Last night I had some popcorn and a Summer Ale. Scott and I split that bowl while we watched the debates which I thought were boring as hell. I’ve seen much better debates. After that was over we moved on to some shows we taped. I was so sleepy but had another beer.
#2
The pumpkin beer was what I really wanted and should have started off with that. I didn’t need two beers especially since it was so late (to me!) already but I had it because that’s what I originally wanted. I went to bed waaaayyy too late, 11:30. Ugh! And I didn’t sleep well at all. I was preoccupied with other things and that spilled over into my dreams and then I kept waking up during the night. Meh. I was dragging this morning when I got up with Rocky who only let me sleep in till 7:45.
Pick me up
I had my coffee right away even though I knew it hadn’t been sitting for very long and indeed it wasn’t very hot at all. But I needed something to get me going. Then I got hungry and made breakfast.
Breakfast
I don’t normally have oats on Saturday mornings but Scott and I had a long day ahead of us and since we wouldn’t get a proper lunch, I needed to fuel up. I had a bowl of regular oats:
- 3/4 cup vanilla soymilk
- 1 banana
- 1/2 cup of quick oats
- 2 chopped nectarines
- salt, sugar and cinnamon
And my toppers were sunflower and pumpkin seeds. On the side I had 1/2 a Kashi waffle with some dark chocolate PB which is one of my finds from last night’s run to the store.
Then it was time to head to MT and have a round of class. Class was hard today and we did some pretty interesting drills. They involved catching some front kicks and slamming a round kick back. Sounds easy but really can be tricky.
It's me
Not the best pic I know. But that’s what I look like after class. All sweaty goopy. I was in the bathroom to change into a different outfit. Our MT instructor was hosting another instructor today to train us in combat jujitsu after our regular class. Not sport jujitsu that you see in MMA fights, this was real-life, what are you going to do if someone has you on the ground AND they have a knife? Or a gun?
Time to choose
Since the seminar started pretty much right after MT class, that meant that we wouldn’t get a chance to eat lunch. I decided to bring some protein bars and bananas to eat during the time between. I took this pic before we left, is that cheating? I had the mint choco Cliff bar. It was okay. I think the Cliff Z bars might have a better texture. Scott had a banana walnut Cliff bar and I had a small bite of that. It was way too sweet for me, I wouldn’t be able to eat a whole bar of that flavor.
Boy am I glad we ate something because the seminar was three hours long. That might not sound like much but when you’re rolling around on the ground, subduing someone, and locking someone up for three hours straight that wears you out!
Our instructors were thoughtful enough to have food for everyone afterwards. I was starving! I already had dinner planned for Scott and I but we each had some food so as not to appear rude. No pics though because there was no way I would have been able to be discreet about it. I had a serving of carrots and celery, a small amount of homemade mac ‘n cheese, and some crackers which I have no idea what they were. Oh and I had a serving of banana peppers. I can’t pass those up, I love them! I drank water that I brought from home with my meal. There was some sort of dip thing that I had a few bits of with my crackers and veggies. I have no idea what that was or what was in it so I didn’t have too much.
By the time Scott and I got home it was 5:30. Looonnnngggg day! Rocky was happy to see us but mostly he wanted fed as this was cutting into his supper time. After we both showered I started dinner.
Yum!
Nothing fancy, I heated up a Kashi margarita pizza (another find at the store!) and added some rotisserie chicken to it. I also roasted up some asparagus in olive oil, soy sauce, pepper, garlic powder, and some chili powder. Along with a glass of red. Everything was yummy! The asparagus roasted up nicely with the tips getting crunchy and caramelized. Mmmm! We watched some TV while we ate. Then I stopped to post the entry.
Now I think we’re going to watch a movie. I may make another snackie only because that pizza was very thin and the meal didn’t really fill me up too much. It could be because my eating schedule was off today as well. I’m still deciding what to do. I’m in my jammies and ready to relax though! See you guys tomorrow!
Topics: Daily Eats | 3 Comments »
Back later…
By Andrea | Saturday, September 27th, 2008
Hi guys! I have a really busy day today so I will post a full day recap later. I’m already looking forward to being home and relaxing with a glass of red! See you soon!
Topics: Daily Eats | No Comments »
September 26th, 2008: Lunch and Dinner
By Andrea | Friday, September 26th, 2008
Hi guys! My Friday was a little meh today so I’m trying to end it with a little more spark. Since I didn’t get my veggie overload last night with dinner I decided I need to make sure I did that today for lunch.
Veggie overload
I pulled out stuff from the fridge and sauteed it up in some olive oil. There’s some shredded cabbage, red onion, green pepper, yellow squash, carrots, and some sugar peas. I tossed the in the leftover apple spice chick sausage too. I seasoned it with some S&P, garlic powder, and chili powder and added in some soy sauce and a little bit of chick broth for some extra flavor. Yum! We both had two big bowls (Scott’s bigger of course ).
Cantaloupe
I needed some fruit since it was lunchtime, so I pulled out the cantaloupe. I didn’t even give us bowls, we just ate out of the container. The two of us almost polished off that whole thing!
Then I ran out to get my hair cut. *sigh* My regular stylist was out on leave because she had surgery on her foot. She’s back now but jam backed with appointments, mine isn’t until Oct. 23! And I scheduled that app last month too! Anyways, in the mean time I’ve been cutting my own hair. I’ve tried having others do it but no one ever gets it right. Well today I decided to just suck it up and go to one of those walk-in places in the shopping plazas. I figured they could at least even everything out and trim up the ends. I didn’t feel like having to deal with cutting my own because clean up is a pain and I can’t see everything clearly to make sure it’s even. So I go and the girl was nice enough but she didn’t cut enough off. And even though I explained what I wanted done, it didn’t happen. I came home and still had to cut my own hair. Make it shorter and give the layers more umph. Anyways that took me till mid-afternoonish. Then I got hungry.
Hummus and Triscuits
I munched on some roasted red pepper hummus and some Triscuits (I know not very healthy crackers). Scott was hungry too, so he joined me.
Yum!
I also pulled out a handful of raisins to munch on. I have discovered these are perfect snack for me when I start to get hungry and need something to keep it at bay. I don’t know why but these always do the trick. While we snacked we talked about what we were going to do for dinner. What I had planned earlier in the week I ended up not being in the mood for. What I wanted was a huge salad. However I didn’t have any salad stuff. Normally I do but last trip to the store they were all out of spinach and romaine.
I needed to have a salad, so we decided to run over and pick up some goodies.
Dinner and drinks
Of course me being me, I can’t ever go to the store and just get what I need. I must scout and see what goodies I can find! I did come away with lots of stuff like tubs of Fage! I picked up 0% and 2% 
No Chobani though, I can’t find that here.
Anyways on to the salad! This salad had:
- Romaine
- Spinach
- Cucumbers
- Grape tomatoes
- Banana peppers
- Sunflower Seeds
- Pumpkin seeds
- Shredded cheddar
- Pieces of rotisserie chicken
I had ranch dressing on top (not too much!) and a little chick wing on the side. Drinks were the same mocktails as before but this time with some frozen pineapple which gave it perfect background flavor.
And that was my day! Now I’m going to relax and probably grab a beer. I may also watch the debate and pop some “presidential debate popcorn”. See you tomorrow!
Topics: Daily Eats | 1 Comment »
September 26th, 2008: Morning
By Andrea | Friday, September 26th, 2008
Morning Sky
Hi guys! I am having one of those days where I just want to stay in my jammies and do nothing. We are having a very chilly day today, the coldest yet it seems. I so did not want to get out of bed but I made myself. I wanted to see the sky and wanted to run early not later. It was cold and very hard to leave the nice warm bed and husband. I did a short turn today, my old route. Even though my shins are a bit sore ( I had Scott rub them while we watched TV last night. I love having my shins rubbed. Weird? I dunno but it feels awesome) I was going to try and run faster today keeping my HR way up to see what kind of exercise that would turn out to be. Well it figures that my HRM decided to be a dinkus and not work right this morning. *grumble* I had a HR of 76 and 60 today. I burned 41 calories it said. This happened on the last really cold day too, so I’m assuming I need to make sure I super wet the band on colder days. Otherwise it can’t pick up the signal it seems.
Drinky
I drank my recovery drink and was out the door. It was sooo cold that I actually got chilly during Rocky’s walk. I almost sprinted the rest of the way home because I was so cold! That’s a first, usually it’s starting to warm up by then.
Different
Because it was so chilly, I almost made some oats but since it’s Friday wanted something a little different. I toasted 2 kashi waffles and one has PB and honey and the other has AB and honey. Along with coffee and pumpkin creamer. Oh that was soooo good this morning! And these waffles fully filled me up. In fact I’m still full and normally I would be getting hungry for lunch about now. I do think I need to start considering more protein in the oats some how.
I have so many things I want to do today that involve going out and running errands. However all I want to do is get comfy and lay on the couch and read. I better get moving and try and get some stuff done! See you later
Topics: Daily Eats | 3 Comments »
September 25th, 2008: Dinner
By Andrea | Friday, September 26th, 2008
Sorry this didn’t get up yesterday guys, I was pooooped. I’m still pooped.
While I wasn’t too terribly hungry yesterday afternoon, I needed to give myself a little something in order to fuel me during MT conditioning class. I decided to try a new bar.
First taste
I tried this Luna Bar Chai Tea for the first time yesterday. The first bite I thought was a little odd and had a very chalky aftertaste and texture to it. I appreicated the great ginger and nutmeg seasonings enough to give it another go. I ate another bite and it was all I could do to swallow it. Ugh. This bar was so disgusting. I asked Scott if he wanted to try it (because you know I hate throwing food away) and he said it was fine and he would eat it. Yeah, well after a couple of bites even he couldn’t finish the bar and we did end up tossing it. Never again! I have one more Luna bar left in PB cookie flavor but truth be told, I’m not sure I want to even try it.
Snack take 2
I decided on a small amount of cereal instead. I had 1/4 cup of Kashi H2H and 1/4 cup of Kashi Go Lean High protein and High fiber. After the pic I added some vanilla soy milk. This was fine although I think even that small amount of extra fiber was too much for me.
I decided to wear my HRM to conditioning class to see what kind of calories I was burning. Since this is a conditioning class there is no hitting each other, we do exercises and bag work for 45 minutes. My HRM said I burned 435 cals. Wooo! When I told my instructor he said, “That’s it?” That’s a lot! Considering it’s a 45 minute class and I’m not moving the entire time. We do partner work, for example, I hold Scott’s feet while he does sit-ups. Since I’m not moving my HR will go down and hence calories burned will go down. So 435 I think is an awesome amount.
Dinner was kind of a thrown together mish-mash. I discovered late in the day that I didn’t have any pizza crust for Pizza Thursdays and it was too late for me to make some. Boo! So I did some apple cheddar quesadillas instead.
Big dinner
Yup, that’s a lot of stuff on that plate. One quesadilla cut into thirds, some apple spice chick sausage from WF, and some oven fries. In the back is ketchup and some dipping sauce for the sausage made out of mustard and apple sauce. It was yummy! I ate almost all of the quesadilla, save for about 1/3 of one triangle, three pieces of sausage, and all my fries. And then some fries off of Scott’s plate. I totally gave in to my fry craving. I ate way too much, I had that over-full stuffed feeling. Ugh. Along with dinner I made us a round of mandarin lime fizzies.
After dinner we sat on the couch and watched some TV.
Just one
I had one glass of white while watching HH. Then it was off to bed, I was exhausted.
Topics: Daily Eats | 1 Comment »