An Early Morning Treat

Every-other Friday, meetings at work bring me in to the office at unreasonable hours. (To be fair, it really wouldn’t be so unreasonable if I worked closer to home…)

In an effort to a) curb some unnecessary spending b) cut my coffee drink calories and c) give me a good reason to get myself ready and out of the door on time on those early days, I’ve made a little deal with myself! Twice a month, on meeting mornings, I allow myself a cup ‘o my precious little Starbucks!

Yesterday, I treated myself to a large (errrr, sorry. A venti) cafe misto. I cannot tell you what a HUGE difference that made in the tone of my morning! It was such a wonderful early Friday kick-off!

 

 

 

Hooray for shady car pictures! (Also, don’t be fooled by the light outside of the window. This shot happened pre-6:15 am.)

And now. Get ready. I finally managed to assemble a filling, healthy lunch for myself yesterday that incorporated leftovers from the night before. Yes, I know. Throwing leftovers into a container to bring to work really isn’t a complicated task, but I never, ever manage to do it. (Just read last week’s posts!) I was quite proud.

That looks pretty disgusting, no? Well let me assure you. It was absolutely delicious. Yesterday’s lunch included a small, breaded pork chop. Mashed potatoes (made with both white potatoes and yams for some added nutrition and a hint of sweetness—sooo good. You MUST try that combo!) and roasted brussels sprouts. I could eat that meal every day for a year.

Unfortunately, I only half-won the Epic Food Battle yesterday. Since it was an especially long day with an evening event and an early meeting, around 3:15, I knew it was time for an afternoon snack, especially since, at that point, dinner was still many, many hours away.

Enter: A whole wheat bagel and peanut butter.

Bagel.

Peanut butter.

(Utensils are for losers.)

A little bizarre. Slightly uncivilized, but quite filling and very tasty! One day, I’ll get the whole shebang together: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Maybe some snacks? I can make this happen.

In other (extremely exciting) news, I received a very special present at work:

A KEYBOARD. A real life keyboard. I know, it sounds stupid, but can I tell you how unreasonably obnoxious the keyboard on my work laptop is? It makes me want to cry every time I type on it for any extended period of time. This new puppy will revolutionize my workdays. Hey, it’s the simple things!

And on that technological note, off I go. I hope you had a great night and I will see you all again soon!

Food Fixations

Who doesn’t love a little aliteration in their lives?

Today was cold. Freaking, freezing cold. Katie and I planned to hit up the infamous BodyPump this morning (which was quite a killer, by the way. I decided that if I only hit the classes up every once-in-a-while instead of three times a week as I used to, I may be able to incorporate it into my workout plan without getting the unwanted muscle-builder effects that I was getting when I was a regular.) Anyway, when I got to the car to take off, it was so bitter cold that it felt like the door handles and steering wheel was about to snap right off when I touched it.

So I don’t know about you, but when I find a food combination that I like, I eat it by the truckload. My most recent kick is Greek yogurt with sliced banana.

(Yogurt: Banana ratio = 1:100)

Sure, this combination won’t be winning an Iron Chef competitions any time soon, but I am obsessed. There is something about the mix of textures and the zingy-ness of the yogurt with the sweetness of the banana slices, I’ll take 2,000 cups!

Because I’m five, the other half of my lunch consisted of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (and not a particularly good one, I might add.)

Look, it’s even wrapped up in foil like a five-year-old’s!

So my preoccupation with Greek yogurt has gotten me thinking about some of my other food obsessions in recent days.

• Grated parmesan cheese. Strange, right? If it were prudent, I would pile about 2 million tablespoons of the ridiculously artificial cheese on top of my dinners on a daily basis. I don’t know what the deal is.
• Sweet potatoes. I eat about one of these every single day. Fortunately, they are packed with vitamins and are also very filling, so it’s not a bad choice, but it is a strange one.
• Low-fat ranch dressing. I spent about 211/2 years of my life loathing salad dressings. I hated it with a deep and starving passion. Even the smell of it would make me cringe, but now, I can’t get enough.  I put it on everything. 

Those are the three big ones. Interestingly, 2/3 of that list is comprised of condiments which I typically don’t use at all. When I get a flavor stuck in my head, I don’t let go easily! Evidently I happened to hit the food jag phase of life a couple decades later than usual. 😛

I hope you had a great day and stayed warm. Might I suggest hiding under a blanket??

 

 

I will see you all tomorrow!

 

Confessions and a Smoothie

This morning was pretty easy-going. Since it’s my day off, I stupidly scheduled a bunch of less-than-fun appointments so that I could get them over with without leaving in the middle of work. This included a stop at my least favorite office in town: the dentist. I really hate going to the dentist, but today’s trip turned out to be pretty uneventful! I do, however, have a cavity which will have to be filled next week. Sounds like my next day off will be full of Novacaine > : (

Somehow I managed to leave the house without breakfast this morning! (BAD idea! Don’t do it!) So for the last few hours, I’ve been daydreaming about what I’d make when I got home. Today seemed like a smoothie day for some reason. I am actually not a huge fan of smoothies. I know a lot of people use them as their go-to breakfasts and lunches, but I just can’t get into the smoothie groove! This one however, was one of my favorites when I was in school because it was super easy to make, I could get all of the ingredients at the campus grocery store and it wasn’t too much bulk for my teeny-tiny, dorm room-sized blender to manage! Apparently it’s kept it’s magic, because it was delicious!

Before we get to the recipe, I figured in the spirit of letting you learn a little more about me, that I’d let you in on a secret. A confession, really. I HATE lunch. I really don’t like ANY typical lunch foods! I hate sandwiches, I hate salad, I hate deli meat, soup, subs, condiments. Ick, ick, ick! I’ve recently decided that it’s time to find some healthy and enjoyable alternatives because my three staple lunches are starting to get a little old. As this blog progresses, I’ll be sure to include my new finds and discoveries. But let’s start with the smoothie!

Notes:

-I never, EVER believed that you could add SO much spinach and *actually* not taste it, but it’s 100% true! It doesn’t change the flavor at all. This is actually the first time I’ve included it in this particular recipe, but if I didn’t make it myself, I never would have known. Do be careful however, because it takes quite a bit of blending to get the leaves completely pureed. I actually put it back in the blender after my first attempt because there were still pieces of leaf intact and that was kind of grossing me out. Throw it on the liquify setting and you should be good to go!

-I’ve been experimenting with protein shakes recently (my most recent purchase of a tub of protein powder started this), I’m sure you could throw a scoop in and it’d probably be just fine.