Starvin’ Marvin

I am starving upon waking up in the morning!   Well, in the afternoon, too, but let’s just stick with the morning for now ;P 

I had planned on running at the gym, so I didn’t want too much in my stomach.  I decided these were perfect to tide me over…

They were just enough to quiet my stomach and give me a pop of energy for my 3 mile run. 

I felt much stronger during my run today.  Less winded, less time-checking and less leg weakness.  I like that feeling!  Don’t know if it’s the increased run time and mileage or just a good day.  I may have a better idea after my outdoor runs this weekend – Sat. is 2 miles and Sun. is 3 miles.

I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your comments on my last post regarding the pre-5K training schedule.  I am always open your suggestions and recommendations.  Manderz and Amanda gave me some great food for thought – thanks, guys!  And as strongly that I feel about trying to improve my running skills, I also don’t want to injure myself.  So far, my hip has been cooperating, but I know that with overuse, the bursitis could majorly act up.  So, I’ll promise to respect my body and listen to how it is responding to the schedule.  I think what may work best is to follow the schedule for one week on/one week off.  By off, I mean my regular exercise –elliptical, weights, The Arc Trainer and save the running for the “on” weeks.    What do my running peeps think?

After my run, I was starving again.  I brought another dashboard breakfast that I grabbed from the freezer – mini Veggie Quiches…

I dug these out from the depths of the freezer and I wasn’t sure they would be good, but they were A-OK :)

But, not very long lasting.  I was starving about an hour later!  I tried to take my mind off it by doing some house chores, however, that didn’t work very long.  I decided to just listen to my body and EAT!!!  I made a wrap with turkey, bacon, baby spinach and salsa.  Along with it, went some cantaloupe, pineapple and POPchips…

Plus more POPchips.  Cuz, once you POP, you can’t stop! Hey, how’s that for a slogan?!  You heard it here first, POPchips peeps!

Later in the afternoon, the munchies came to visit.  I started off with some #@!$%^&* Cheez-its, then stopped the insanity with a healthier choice…

I was trying to eat a little lighter (don’t laugh) so I could indulge in pizza at dinner!  Pizza is so easy now that I use Biz ‘s no rise pizza dough.   I made a regular boring –old- sauce –and- cheese only pizza for the husband and daughters and  White Pizza with Zucchini and Broccoli for me.  So easy with having leftover zucchini and broccoli waiting in the fridge!

White Pizza with Zucchini and Broccoli

• 1 recipe No Rise Pizza Dough
• 1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• leftover roasted zucchini
• leftover steamed broccoli
• 1 heaping cup part-skim mozzarella

Way delicious…

I couldn’t wait to dig in…

I think I could eat this everyday…

I did finish the night with a piece of dark chocolate that I didn’t take a picture of  because I sprinted up the steps and locked myself in my room so I wouldn’t eat any more!

Okay, I won’t torture you anymore with my punchy writing today …

ONE GOOD THING:  Locks on my bedroom door.  Better than what I used to use across the kitchen opening…

Have a great day, everybody!!

Morning Breakdowns + A New Recipe

Sorry I missed you all this morning.  My laptop screen went kaput, so no blogging was happening til I hooked up my old computer monitor to the laptop so I can see!!!   Time for a new computer;  ka-ching, ka-ching :(   I had to spend the morning at the car dealership, too.  Thankfully, that didn’t cost much.  It’s funny how everything seems to go all at once!

Monday

I’m still surprised in the morning when I come down to the kitchen.  After so many years of the same look, it’s different to see a new look.  I really like it!

I was ready to break out the pans for breakfast.  I decided on eggs again.  This time, I sauteed sliced mushrooms in nonstick spray, added egg whites and a slice of asiago cheese.  Very tasty…

The rest of the morning was spent in clean-up mode.  Still catching up on cleaning after the painting.  Lunch time came quickly, so I made up some fast food.  I decided on another Lavash Pizza, this time topped with some leftover mushrooms from breakfast.  So easy to make;  spray Lavash bread with cooking spray, spread on sauce, top with light cheese and bake at 400 for about 10 minutes…

It makes a huge serving and I ate the whole thing along with a bowl of Tabatchnick Vegetable Soup …

 

I tried to get myself organized for the week during the remainder of the afternoon.  I had a billion school papers to read through, sign, send in money for, etc.  Whew!  And schools say they’re trying to go “green”!  I also worked on some homework with little daughter while munching on a snack of Trader Joe’s Chipotle Pepper Hummus and carrots…

Dinner was easy.  The husband and daughters were jealous of my pizza lunch, well, with the exception of the mushrooms, so I told them they could have quick pizzas for dinner.  I used Trader Joe’s Naan Bread as the dough.  They loved it!  Good for me;  no complaining :)

I dug around the freezer and found a few pieces of my Gram’s zucchini quiche, so I heated that and made a side salad with evoo for us all…

Love it, Gram!!

 

Tuesday

As I said, this morning started off a little rough with the computer glitch.  I had planned on blogging at the dealership, but since that was not to be, I gathered up a bunch of reading material to bring to my Car Dealership Camp Out.  I was rushed, but hungry, so I heated up a Blueberry Apricot Oat Bran Muffin and gobbled that up along with a Chobani nonfat strawberry yogurt before I left…

Turned out I only had to wait 2 1/2 hours instead of the 3-4 hours that I thought!  And the "damage” was minimum.  Hey, this day is turning around!

Breakfast did not hold me over very long at all.  I’m finding that the 6 oz. cups are not enough for me;  I really need 8 oz. to hold me over.  And the muffin, although delicious and healthy, doesn’t have enough staying power either.  I’m noticing, breakfast is turning out to be the most important meal of the day for me.  If I don’t eat enough at breakfast, I feel like eating more later in the day.

Needless to say, I couldn’t wait for lunch!  My stomach was growling  by 11:30 , but I managed to hold off until 12:30.  I dug around in the freezer again and found some homemade turkey meatballs that I completely forgot about!  I made a Turkey Meatball Stuffed Pita using 3 turkey meatballs (sliced to fit), baby spinach, a Weight Watchers Whole Wheat Pita and a drizzle of marinara…

Along with a fuji apple, it was a great lunch…

Little daughter had dance this afternoon, which means that we do not get home until dinner time.  I planned in advance and decided to make a Vegetable Lasagna so that it would be ready when we got home.  Now, I pretty much knew this was going to get some “eeewwws and blaaaahs” because no one but me ,will eat vegetables mixed in with something else.  But, I had this lasagna idea and I really wanted to try it out, so I said tough noogies ;P

These are the items I used for the Vegetable Lasagna…

The star ingredient was the Green Giant Immunity Blend Veggies.  I like these because they are a premium blend;  the vegetables are good quality (no broccoli stalks!) and it is flavored with extra virgin olive oil and seasoning which takes the work out of chopping, cooking and flavoring the veggies before adding them to the dish…

Vegetable Lasagna

• 3 boxes Green Giant Immunity Blend frozen veggies, defrosted
• 2 1/2 cups fat free milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 6 oz. block Cabot 50 % reduced fat cheddar cheese, grated(or other lowfat white cheese such as swiss or mozzarella)
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach
• 12 no-boil lasagna noodles
• 3 tbsp. parmesan cheese

Prepare an 11 x 7 baking dish by spraying with nonstick spray and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine flour and milk.  Stir continuously over medium heat until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes…

Remove from heat and stir in grated cheese until melted and sauce is smooth….

Add the vegetables and stir until mixed in.  *note – I think next time, I would save a bit of the plain cheese sauce to pour over the top layer of the lasagna (maybe about 1/3 cup)…

Place 3 noodles on the bottom of the sprayed dish and top with 1/3 of the sauce…

Add spinach…

Continue with 2 more layers of noodles and sauce.  Top with remaining 3 noodles and sprinkle with parmesan cheese (I added about 1/8 c. shredded mozzarella, too – again, a bit of the plain cheese sauce would have gone nicely as a topper, then additional cheese could be omitted…

Cover with foil and bake in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes…

Dinner done!  While little daughter was at dance, I was able to run over to the gym for a 30 minute beat session on The Arc Trainer.  Boy, I have missed the gym these past few days!  I worked so hard that I was actually shaky when I left.  I remembered to bring a snack in the car, so I dug into some Cocoa Roasted Almonds and felt a lot better…

Dinner was waiting when we got home!  I thought it was delish and so did the husband and daughters after they scraped all the vegetables out of it.  Grrrrrr.

I served it with some of Gram’s green beans to round out the meal…

According to the ingredients I used, this lasagna came in at 330 calories and 10 grams fat per serving  (for 6 servings).  I have a couple pieces leftover that will make a great “frozen dinner” for another night.

I’m hoping to get my new computer tomorrow and get back to my morning blogging on Thursday!  Looking forward to catching up on all your blogs, too.  It’s been a couple days and I miss seeing what you’re all up to!

ONE GOOD THING:  I was able to fit in a workout and it felt great!

Question of the Day:  What kind of computer do you use?

Make It Quick

I’ve been so rushed in the morning!  I don’t know why I can’t get in a better groove;  maybe it’s the waking up in the dark that’s throwing me off!  I got the daughters ready for school and made up my breakfast before running out the door.  I was excited to try this Banana Oat Smoothie that I found on the Clean Eating Club site.  I put all the ingredients in the blender with a few ice cubes and whizzed it up.  I substituted Chobani nonfat plain Greek yogurt for an extra protein boost, too.  I poured it in my to-go bottle and hurried out the door…

I wasn’t sure how the oats would taste in this, but it was great!  I really liked it!  It was filling but not too heavy to workout after drinking it.  I can see having this often on rushed mornings!

I headed to the gym and watched my boyfriend, Dr. Oz while on the recumbent bike.  I wasn’t loving that bike so much.  I didn’t feel like it was doing much, so I got off after 30 minutes and hopped on the treadmill for another 25 minutes.  I’m learning how to work all the bells and whistles of the machines and I fooled with the incline to pump it up to 8% – I think.  It was up there;  I felt like I was walking uphill for sure!  I finished up with 20 minutes of upper body and abs weight work.  I love doing the flab ab stuff.

After home and showered, I realized it was time for lunch.  My stomach was finally growling;  that smoothie really held me over!  But, once I became hungry, I was HUNGRY and needed something quick.  I heated up a Cuban Black Bean Patty from the freezer (they froze so well!), topped it with avocado slices and placed it on a Pepperidge Farms Deli Flat. 

I went with a half serving of Kettle Brand Baked Barbeque Potato Chips and a ripe pear on the side…

For “dessert”, I had a calcium chew!  My sneaky way of getting some chocolate!

The rest of my afternoon was spent in the car taking the daughters to and fro and settling at 2 hours of dance class.  I remembered to bring a car snack, so that I wouldn’t be starved by dinner…

still “noshy” , so I had this Clif Mini Bar, too…

That did the trick.  When we got home for dinner, I wasn’t famished and looking to munch.  Dinner was easy;  I picked up fried chicken at the grocery store for the husband and daughters!  They were thrilled, especially after seeing what I was having – Salmon Roulette, leftover grilled sweet potato (yep, that’s the last of it!) and salad…

I ended the night with a cuppa Teeccino while folding laundry, “tweeting” and watching The Biggest Loser (what is UP with Jillian and her screaming??!!  It’s more than ever!)!  How’s that for multi-tasking?!

Hope you all had a great day!

ONE GOOD THING:  I made a cup of Teeccino after dinner instead of dishing out some dessert.  It satisfied me and I didn’t “look” for anything else.

Question of The Day:  What did you think of  The Biggest Loser last night?

Card Sharks

Happy Friday!  Wow, can’t believe it’s the last weekend of the summer :(  It’s been a great one;  so sad to see it go…

I have been enjoying lazing around in the morning and so have the daughters.  We are getting it all in before the school grind begins on Tues.  We lounged around in our pj’s;  they played, I played around on the computer and then did some cleaning.  I finally got around to eating breakfast.  Another yummy yogurt bowl…

• 1 c. plain nonfat Chobani Greek yogurt
• 1 c. blueberries ( 1/2 c. made into blueberry syrup)
• 1 tbsp. Post Trail Mix Crunch Cereal

A little while later, I got on the kicks and headed to the basement for a treadmill run.  I felt really good…at first.  Then, that darn hip pain acted up, this time on the left side!  I was so annoyed because I actually felt strong otherwise and got in a good groove right away with this run.  I decided to stop at 30 minutes, so as not to push it any more.  I felt so sore the remainder of the day and ended up icing my hip tonight.  Boo!

Trying to use up some of the leftovers in the fridge, I made up a Chicken Tzatziki Salad for lunch…

• 6 oz. grilled chicken breast seasoned with evoo, garlic, onion powder, oregano, s + p
• romaine lettuce
• diced tomato
• 1 oz. light feta cheese
• scoop of leftover tzatziki sauce

It was delish!

More cleaning up – the inlaws were coming for dinner!  I stopped mid-clean and had a quick snack…

And a quick break of trampoline jumping with the daughters!  Well, I mainly laid on the trampoline while they jumped around me :)  The inlaws came while we they were jumping, so I limped off and started on dinner.

I planned on grillin and chillin.  I made up burgers using 96% lean ground beef  and grilled up a bunch of veggies for a Grilled Veggie Salad…

while the burgers were cooking, I made up a simple green salad, too…

My plate…

After the daughters put on a “dance show”, we started up a serious whoop ass friendly game of cards with the inlaws.  I snacked on a  Choco – Cranberry- Almond Granola Bars and a few cantaloupe to keep my mind sharp…

Score:  Me + Husband = 2,  The Inlaws = 1

Go Us!!!

I have to tell ya, I’m loving the ONE GOOD THING that you all are sharing with me!  I think I’ll keep it going for a while, so feel free to share your ONE GOOD THING anytime!

ONE GOOD THING:  I did not pick on any extra slices of cheese for the burgers while I was preparing them :)

Have a great night!!