Be It Ever So Humble...

There's no place like home! I just returned from a trip to Seattle and Portland. The weather was great, the leaves were changing and I had a lot of great food. Details are forthcoming...

Not Too Bad

It started off as a good morning. I had my usual cereal (1 C) with milk (3/4 C)...

I snapped a photo of lunch today! It was some leftovers. A cup of yogurt (~1 C), some mashed potatoes (~ 3/4 C) and gravy (2 tsp), steamed veggies (1 C) and cranberry sauce (1/2 C). I also grabbed a pear for lunch and had a tangerine for a snack at work.

Then Lauren came over for dinner! She made some black bean burgers (1/4 C beans, whole grain bread crumbs) with chopped onions and red and green bell pepper (1/4 C). We also had potato wedges (2 C) and carrots (1.5 C) with hummus (~2 Tbsp). We each had a glass of red wine and some water. It was SO YUMMY!

We had dark chocolate for dessert. Now I'm having some juice and watching Leno.

Exciting News: I'm now part of Foodbuzz's Publisher program! I love their site and am so excited to be a part of it.

A Little Bit Excellent

Today was a little crazy, but overall, was really good! I had my annual review at work and got a lot of positive feedback. Hooray! It's always nice to hear your work is appreciated.

I started the day off with some cereal with milk and coffee. Then it was off to work. The morning went relatively smoothly and I had a Nature's Valley Maple Brown Sugar granola bar mid-morning when I got hunger pangs. For lunch, a PB & J and an Asian pear. I had a bit of time to study, which was really useful, because I had my test this evening! I drove straight to campus and munched on a protein bar and banana in my car. Then I reviewed and took it. I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but am hoping my extra credit essay gets me some more points! But I learned how this prof administers tests and how I should study.

Then I had a little birthday shopping to do for the hubby and swung by the store to get some cotton balls and chapstick. I need those to survive!

For dinner, a medium potato with loads of veggies and a bit of plain yogurt. I had a light beer on the side. The potato was nice because I had all that protein in the bar and I had no veggies today! It was very satisfying.

Here are some photos from yesterday...

Some brie, cranberries and crackers.

Spaghetti with meat sauce, mashed potatoes, salad, and stuffed mushrooms.

Delay!

So something is going awry and I'm not able to upload photos. Sorry! Will do that whenever I can.

For lunch, I had a fourth of a chicken and cheese sandwich, and a fourth of a chicken salad sandwich. I had lots of fresh veggies (~2 C total throughout the party) with 1.5 Tbsp dip. I ended up splitting a fourth of another chicken salad sandwich. I also had a bit of a rice krispie treat but Kendall and I decided that they were too sweet and left most. I also had a cup of punch. Yum!

After gifts, we headed home and I studied for about an hour with a glass of juice. I feel a lot more prepared for my test. I love that feeling.

For dinner, it was leftovers. I had about 3/4 C pasta with some meat sauce, 1/2 C mashed potatoes with 1 Tbsp gravy, two stuffed mushrooms and a mixed salad. I also had about 1 Tbsp brie with 1/4 C cranberries and 5 crackers. So good! I also had half of a sugar cookie.

We had a lot of folding today after our walk. But now that it's done, we are hanging out with some beer and a little bit (4 bites) of carrot cake. I've definitely upped the discretionary calories today, but I'll be extra good tomorrow.

Oh Happy Day!

What a great Sunday! I started the day out with some plain nonfat yogurt (1 C) with a bit of cereal on top and one of our fancy schmancy Asian pears. With coffee, of course.

Then I got crackin' on making invites to Bethany's bridal shower. It was fun to make cards again.

Then it was off to my nephew John's birthday party! They went for a Halloween theme. The spread was great and really creative!

Sandwiches on homemade bread, veggies and dip, monster finger cookies and ghostly rice krispie treats...

Cute treat baggies of popcorn!

Super creepers!

We had a great time and the kids were so cute!

What a Day!

Saturday was busy but fun! I started the day off with a bowl of cranberry-cinnamon oatmeal. I sprinkled a bit of brown sugar on it, which was yummy. I wasn't crazy of the texture of the dried cranberries in the oatmeal. I think I wish it was softer. I love those cranberries in other settings, though! I cut up half a banana in my oatmeal and at the rest on the side. Plus coffee!

Then we hopped to it and cleaned MOST of the house. We needed to take my aunt to the airport, so we didn't get to the floors or the dusting, but we planned to finish it later. The drive with Aunt Elsa was nice and we talked about Seattle and architecture. She's a pretty hip lady!

We came home and finished cleaning, threw in some laundry and snacked. Then we hit the stores! I snagged a nice knit sweater that's longer with a belt. Love it. It was hard to decide between the light gray and the brown stripes, but I went for the gray because I think it will be a little more versatile. We also bought a little gift for my nephew's birthday.

Then it was home again for lunch. Kendall made grilled turkey and swiss with some onion and tomato. And we made some tomato soup with basil on the side. Delish!

I hit up Newflower for a sack of potatoes, some red bell pepper and saw this display of Asain pears. It said $.69 so I stocked up! Too bad it was $.69 EACH! Yikes! But we are resolved to eat them all!

Then I sat outside in the glorious weather and studied while Kendall did some yardwork. An hour later, my brain was tired and I helped out with some yard clean-up. Then I held the latter while Kendall did a little painting. Then I headed inside to get dinner ready. Sorry I don't have more photos of it, but I was super busy cooking and paying attention to the kiddos!

But here's the menu:

Stuffed Mushrooms

Baked Brie with Cranberry and Walnut and wheat crackers

Baked Chicken Rolls with Cheddar

Mashed Potatoes

Purple and Green Asparagus

Mixed Greens Salad with Bell Pepper and Pear and a Balsamic Vinagrette

Robin brought dessert! We had sugar cookies, carrot cake and brookies (brownies and cookies combined). Yum! I had only one mushroom and one cracker with brie while I was cooking. I had a smaller chicken breast with cheese. Those were a hit! Kendall was on taters and did a fabulous job, as always. I never knew I was marrying a man who had such a knack for mashed potatoes, but he's really good at it!

I had about 3/4 C of those with a bit of gravy (~2 tsp). I loaded up the adults' plates with asparagus. I think it was a bit much! The purple asparagus was fat and everyone got two spears of that. Then then I basically split the other lb. in thirds. Yikes! I think it was about 2 C of asparagus. I had about 1.5 C salad, which was so yummy. Then I had one 2-bite brookie, a 4 in. squared piece of cake, and half of a sugar cookie. I sipped a light beer while cooking, but had half left when dinner started. But I also wanted some white wine with dinner, so I had about 2 oz of that. Then, when I had finished both, I had about 3-4 oz of white wine. After guests left, I had a litte more brie and about 6 crackers and 2.5 oz of red wine.

Then it was off to bed! Today will be busy too. We have a birthday party, lots of laundry and I need to make some invitations for my friends' bridal shower and I MUST study some more.

Happy Friday!

Hoorah! It's Friday! I started today out with a bowl of Cheerios and nonfat milk and black coffee. I had to run around a bit to get my gift basket ready for our silent auction at work. We are holding the auction to raise funds for grocery gift cards for some of our needier patients. Every year, it is SUCH a good feeling to raise the dough so others can have some turkey!

It was also Bosses' Day, and we chipped in for cards, cookie cake, chocolate cake, mini cupcakes, punch and chips and dip. I held off through the morning and had a tangerine for a snack instead. For lunch, a PB & strawberry J on whole wheat. I dug in to 6 tortilla chips with gobs of salsa. I blew it by eating my dessert before my apple. I had a bite of cookie cake and 4 bites of chocolate cake and was so full! I worked the apple in later in the afternoon, though.

I swung by the grocery store tonight to pick up a pizza, some beer, and a few items for our dinner tomorrow night. We're having one of our favorite people, Robin, and her two great kids over! I splurged a bit of a wedge of brie, and some crackers. I bought reduced fat Triscuits because of the fiber content. I also bought some whole-grain bread crumbs. I'm usually pretty skeptical of things like bread crumbs being healthier because the label said they are "whole grain," but I checked the labels, and it was higher in fiber, with 4 grams as opposed to 1 gram! Score!

I also splurged on some hard candy to put in our pumpkin bowl. I wanted to have a little something in the bowl when the kiddos come over.

While the pizza baked, I had a salad, then 3 slices of pizza and a light beer. Now we're going on our walk and then to relax!

Testing Testing

Today went well! I have a test coming up that I'm pretty nervous about so I spent a good 45 minutes studying. I felt a lot better afterward.

I started today off by measuring my cereal again. I'm just trying to get a good idea of the look for the portion, and in the morning, my memories not so sharp. Today was Cheerios, skim milk and coffee.

Then it was off to work, where I grabbed a banana from our shared table for a snack. I also snagged an apple for my lunch, because we are only down to one apple and if I could save the one I packed today for Friday, then both Kendall and I get a piece of fruit in our lunch.

This afternoon, we had a team meeting and we rocked our numbers for the past fiscal year, so they brought us treats! I split a cupcake and a mini-lemon tart with my co-worker and grabbed what I thought was a chocolate bonbon. I think it was a cake ball. Not so great. I also had about 3 oz of pomegranate soda. Yummy!

For dinner, I made spaghetti with ground turkey and steamed some fresh broccoli. I measured out again, and was pleasantly surprised. I really recommend measuring your food from time to time! Tonight, I measured out one cup of pasta, which turned out to be more than I thought. I also measured out one cup of the sauce, which I estimate to be about 3/4 meat and 1/4 tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Then I measured out my broccoli using two half-cup measures. So that is 2 servings of vegetables! A serving is probably a lot less than you think, so eat up!

Now we are relaxing with The Office and 30 Rock and some guac and chips!

Beans 'n' Cornbread!

So at work, I had a slice of banana walnut bread and an apple. For lunch, I had some PB&J on whole wheat and another apple. Then they announced we got some organic bananas and apples. Since I had already had 2 apples, I grabbed a banana. Yum!

For dinner, we started with a salad with mixed greens and cherry tomatoes from the farmers' market.

Then we had Blue Runners Creole Cream Style Red Beans (1/2 C) with rice (1/2 C) with some sauteed onions and a bit of shredded cheddar.

Still hungry, I had some beans on cornbread with cheese and a little rice...

So yummy! I love those beans!

Am I Crazy?

This morning, I wanted to listen to a little music and started poking around on Pandora. It quickly lead me to listening to Christmas music by some of the more popular artists (Michael Buble, Martina McBride, etc.). I usually want to go buy tons of CDs for Christmas, but this year, I'm considering downloading a few to iTunes. So I've started a spreadsheet (dorky, I know!) of all the tracks that come on that I really like. If I have a lot from one album, I might buy the whole thing, or I might download some of the others.

This morning, I decided to measure out my cereal and milk and juice. I've been overestimating! I usually think I'm having 2 cups of cereal, but it's really only about 1 C. And I haven't been having that much milk either. So I measured out a full cup and 4 oz. of juice. Nice breakfast! It's a good reminder that sometimes it's best to measure out your food to remind yourself of portion sizes.

A coworker baked banana-walnut bread today, which I might have with my apple this morning for a snack!