Give and Get

I forgot to mention yesterday, that before I had that sandwich (very late in the day) I had many, many spoonfuls of granola.  Yum.

After eating that sandwich, I crawled back into bed… okay, I’m lying I crawled in while eating. Ha ha.  I was supposed to do work but got distracted by many things internet. 😳 I decided that I should spend my time cataloging my recipes rather than making things, just because I was getting overwhelmed with all the pieces of paper lying around and bookmarks I’d saved.  Now that it’s nice and organized, I can start baking away.  I should also wait till I have plans to see people just so I don’t have to have all that food staring at me for days!

I finally had dinner late into the evening.

It was suprisingly good.  The last frozen meal in my freezer ever. Well, unless it’s something like an Amy’s thing of course.

Then I started eating this like it was my job.

There were many, many more carrots involved.  Thank goodness for organic produce because I was not about to peel carrots last night.  That hummus is “meh” though, I should just stick with what works and walk over to the Greek diner in my ‘hood to get it freshly made.

This morning I tried something new.

Barney Butter.  It was a free sample.  I’ve never had almond butter before, but I just don’t get what all the fuss is about.  I mean, I’ll try another kind if it’s on sale or something, but it’s not life changing.  Haha, I just got shunned by a million people just now, didn’t I?  It’s okay- I say what I feel!

Then I got my first paycheck of the summer.  Wait… what? The one I was supposed to get weeks ago?  Yeah, DC government is so on top of things.  Especially when it comes to paying me.  Actually, my checks come from the US Treasury.  Email your Senators! This girl needs her money! On my way home I had this.

Mmm, I haven’t had Apple juice in a million years.  Juice is so good even if it comes from that bad, bad place… it was a random gift though.  No worries, I wasn’t sitting there eating McNuggets or anything!

Dinner was a bit thrown together because I was hungry and had no clue what to make and am low on produce.

The basis of today’s meal is a product I got from Fiber Gourmet. Their pasta has 130 kcals and 18 grams of fiber.  Wow!  I’m a big pasta fan, so I was excited to try some that would give me a lot of bang for my caloric buck.  If you compare it to regular pasta, you could have two servings for about the calories of one. I also love that the ingredient list looks like this: Durum Semolina Flour, Modified Wheat Starch, Wheat Gluten.  Hotness, I know what all those things are! That’s all great as long as it tastes good and can satisfy that craving.  It does look good though!

The dish was pretty simple… While the pasta cooked, I sauteed some garlic, onions and carrots in olive oil.  Added spices, a can of tomatoes and about 1/2 cup of marinara sauce (all I had in that jar) and let it simmer away. Then I mixed it with the cooked pasta and added in some fresh mozzarella and some feta cheese and popped it in the oven for 20 minutes.  It was suprisingly good.  Feta makes everything good and the carrots were soft and blended right in with the chunky tomatoes but added a really great sweetness to the dish.

It tastes… like pasta… I like it!  I haven’t had non-wheat pasta in ages so this tasted like a real treat!  I had seconds.  The key is to slice the carrots really thin so that they soften quickly.

Lately, I’ve been making double portions of my meals and saving half in the freezer with a name, date, and nutrition info on it.  That way during the school year I won’t have the same excuse I had last year of being too busy to make a healthy dinner and relying on store-bought frozen items.  Instead, I’ll have my healthy, homemade frozen items!  This was one of those dishes!  Can’t wait to dive in on a cold winter night!

(Image Source)

I also have a 30% off coupon for Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta that’s good from 07/30-08/02.  Gap does this every once in awhile where you get a discount (on everything incl. clearance), both in store and online, and they donate 5% to a charity (you get to pick off their list- I think the last time it was about 1 million dollars or something).  If anyone wants me to forward them the coupon email me so we can all do something good and get new running clothes at the same time 🙂  Or if you don’t need anything for yourself and want to buy me something, you can email me about that too 😉

 

Inspired

I think one of the best parts of being a part of the ‘blogworld’, specifically the food blogworld, is the inspiration you find at every turn.

I am motivated by the other women whose blogs I read.  Sometimes what they share terrifies me.  Other times what they share make me a better person. A better, happier version of me.  While I never aim to be them, I do try to emulate all the good I see in their lives.

Too often though, I fail to let these women know how much they inspire me.  For the record, if you see my comments on your blog, even when they’re random and nonsensical, I am inspired by you.  At times the comments are themselves short because I feel broken or touched by something written.  Forgive me for not letting enough of you know how incredible I think you are.

That being said, I was inspired in a different way today, and not by a food blogger, but by a food blogger’s husband.

Yeah, sometimes guys are ok. Sometimes. (I mean not the ones in around me at the moment but apparently there are some out there :P).

Tina’s husband, Mal, ordered the best looking sandwich ever yesterday.  Since I’m not heading to BeanTown anytime soon (:() I decided to try my hand at it on my own.

*sigh*

I want to marry this sandwich.

I was going to skip the mayo but added a light layer and am so glad I did. The avocado was ripe and perfect.

The onions just warmed enough after a quick browning.  Okay, truth, I walked away for a second and came back to them like this… but I’m so glad because they were perfect.  I cooked them because I didn’t have red onion like the original, and I don’t care for white/yellow onions when raw.

The cheese melted just so- I popped on top of the egg just as I turned off the stove.  It was on just long enough to melt while I grabbed my spatula to place it on the bread.  The egg just fried to perfection (in organic whipped butter of course).

The toast, just lightly done, since I can’t stand dark toast!

The perfect sandwich.  Seriously, we’re picking out China patterns. I want something demure and simple but Mr. Fancy Pants wants some wild pattern 😉

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I saw The Proposal last night with one of my co-workers.  We had so much fun.  The movie was cute and admittedly, I’m not a big movie person so my standards are low.  If I can pay attention for 90+ minutes then I consider it a hit.  I just would wait for it to come out on DVD and rent it though since it wasn’t really movie theater worthy (only movies with lots of special effects are in my opinion).

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I had to stick up for my parents yesterday.  Let me rephrase that.  I felt that I needed to stick up for them.  I’ll be the first to admit that I let people “overuse” me at times.  I’ll also be the first to stop others from doing the same to my parents. Their “friends” like to stop by unannounced and take over their house with their (bratty) kids.  Hey, my parents work, my dad gets up at 3am, my mom has health issues, and hey I want them to be around to play with my (bratty) kids not waste their energy on someone else’s.  So, I said what I had to say, politely, in an email.  Got a phone call. Got lied to. Got insulted.  Remained cool although I just wanted to say “Helloooooooo, lady. No one likes you. That’s why no one actually invites you over.” I refrained.  They said something about my mama, then hung up.  Thankfully, my mom’s attitude is relief mixed with amusement over their stupidity.

All in all.  It was a good lesson to us both.  Sometimes we fight to preserve friendships that aren’t very healthy for us because we think the other person needs us more.  Come to find out they didn’t really care that much and were just users to begin with.  Good times.

But seriously, it’s a huge weight off my shoulders because I wanted to say something four or five years ago but let it go too long.  Now they won’t be a problem.  And if they do show up.  Well, then someone’s flying up to Buffalo to handle some business!

It’s also pretty nice to stick up for the people who’ve stuck up for me forever.

Oh, and since I don’t believe that anyone could ever be too distracted to say goodbye.

I’ll say goodbye for now. I have a list of baking projects I want to tackle which may commence tonight!

 

Seussical

Ahh, good ole Dr. Seuss is so fab and I love that musical but not nearly as much as the Wiz (oh MJ :(().

In my non-sleeping time this morning, I was dreaming of PB2.

Even though I originally wanted to have my first PB2 experience in a K parfait but this morning I was in too much of a daze for thoughts… so I just threw some in a smoothie.

Along with that delicious powder, I had a frozen banana, organic skim and that other chocolate yogurt.  Twas so good an peanutbuttery.  Love love love!  Thanks Cammy!  I won it from her fab blog, yay!

I felt awful on the way home from school.  Obviously, I need to get back to my juice because I cannot experience that again.  Yuck!  (I’m attributing it to the switch from pure enzymes and vitamins and all that jazz to a bunch of protein and I know I’m protein-sensitive).  I ended up feeling better after a liter of water and some fresh air walking before entering the building.

I came home with a huge appetite.  So I made a lunch to match.

Started with a spinach salad with loads of strawberry slices and some cucumbers.

Along with the cucumbers that are lining the side of the bowl, I had adult carrots and celery dipped in Artichoke Kalamata Hummus… yum!

Then I moved on to the main event, ham and swiss on fresh bread that I popped in the oven for a bit.

Perfect lunch!

Later when I got hungry I decided to have even more protein. (Yes, too much leads me to a migraine and yet today was so protein centric but I was craving it- I think that the more of it you eat, the more of it your body thinks it needs even though we, as Americans, definitely eat more protein than necessary).

Aaaaaaanyway, I had green eggs (aka two eggs with pesto whipped in) and an english muffin with blackberry jam.

Breakfast for dinner is the best!

I had a great work day, I love our summer school program.  If I end up staying in the area, I hope I can work with this teacher, he’s amazing and I know I would be so much better prepared for my first solo year under his ‘care’ beforehand.  We took our insects inside yesterday and placed them in a terarium… but the cricket ate them all.  We now have a wild cricket living in his own spot.  A cricket farm (?) that we made out of soda bottles (and that stinks), an ant farm that’s fabulous, and some butterfly larvae.  The kids are so cute, today they focused on doing scientific drawings.  We went from ant pictures wearing stunna shadez to really accurate drawings and the cutest spanish sentences about them.  I’m so proud of our kiddos!

Link love time?  Yes’m.

Snackface is giving away some Veg News goodies. There are too many to list… but check it out. You’ll like it!

Angela is holding the Summer Glow Boot Camp.  She’s so fabulous and this will be such a good life, lifestyle and body changing month due to all her hard work.  Join me on SGBC?

Luckytastebuds wrote a really great post today about weight and health and the reality that size and health don’t necessarily go hand in hand.  Chchcheck it out!

I’m off to go exercise myself and do my SGBC exercises for the day.  Later lovers!

P.S. Seussical- green eggs and ham today. Surely he would have loved PB2 as well 😉