Freedom Friday!

Whoohoo!  It’s Friday, the most fantastic day of the week…unless you’re on vacation then every day is fantastic.

Yesterday was a pretty good day.  Even though I didn’t get to Vinyasa class last night because of some late running conference calls (darn that work).  I did great on the eating side of this new commitment.

EATS

I need super fast lunches when I work from home and super packable ones when I go into the office.  I usually do a stir fry at home since I really don’t like to eat cold greens anymore – UNLESS it is a full-on “salad“.  I don’t consider a pile of veggies on a plate to be a salad.  Somehow my brain has to agree that what is on my plate is to be called a salad…then it tells my taste buds it’s a salad…then I’m ok to eat – the salad.  Weird I know.

At least not all the time right?  🙂

So here’s a couple shots of my Eats from yesterday…

Lunch

I didn’t have a mid-morning snack since the protein pancake and green smoothie really filled me up (that and I had conference calls that started at 8am and took me to 11:45am).  I warmed up a zuchinni and sweet baby bell peppers in a pan with Bragg’s Aminos then threw in some spinach to wilt down.  While that was warming up I microwaved a teeny sweet potato.  Trader Joe’s sells a bag of sweet potatos that are the perfect individual size.  On top of the warm veggies I put about a tablespoon of olive tapenade and a slice of goat cheese.

During lunch I had some entertainment. Oh yeah, obliviate that fool Hermione!

I could watch this on repeat!

Dinner

Like my mid-morning snack, my afternoon snack time was wooshed right over by conference calls and actually trying to do some work.  Who doesn’t have those days, huh?  For dinner I made HunBun and 12yo gluten free cheese pizzas.  Schar’s has the best pre-made gluten free pizza crust – that we’ve found – and we’ve tried A LOT of pre-made GF pizza crusts.  I used to make my own, but they are a pain in the patootie to mix up all the different flours and other stuff to make a good crust.  So now I just shell out $7 for 2 crusts and HunBun is happy.

My dinner was a super pretty and filling stir fry, again.  I made some quinoa in the rice cooker earlier in the day and also baked a butternut squash during lunch.  So to put my dinner together all I had to do was wilt up some spinach, toss that onto a bed of organic arugula then topped with butternut squash chunks, quinoa, olive tapenade and goat cheese.  So FULL!

After folding some laundry I decided to make some “balls” for a snack.

Balls of delight!

Date Balls

• 1 cup of chopped up dates
• 1/4 cup of dried cherries
• 1/8 cup of cashews (or whatever nuts you like)

Put the cashews in your food processor and pulse until they are pulverized.  Add in your dried cherries and pulse again until they start to get chopped up.  Pour the cashew/cherry mix into a bowl.  Chop up your dates before putting in the processor.  They are easier to chop up that way and won’t just clump while you still have fully intact dates swirling around.  Once the dates are fully chopped up pour them into the bowl with the cashew/cherry mix.  Now use your fingers to mix up all 3 ingredients and form bite sized balls.  Put them in the fridge for storage or you can eat them all up right after you make them!

**I went a little overboard on the cashew pulverizing on this one.  It was almost to a fine powder stage and I prefer a little more teeny nuts.  Next time I’ll slow my pulse finger down.

At about 745 or so I got a little hungry again so I ate a chocolatey but healthy treat!  Honeycrips and JIF chocolate PB cup!

Chocolatey

That was a pretty good eating day!

I gotta go run the 12yo to school so I’ll post another update today with my morning workout and my breakfast eats.

See ya later!

Cathy

 

 

 

 

 

I must be healthy…I’m craving veggies!

Am I healthy now?

So I’ve been making a huge personal push to clean up my food intake – not just volume but quality and type.  I am normally a pretty clean eater.  I don’t eat a lot of red meat, although every now again HunBun and I will do the 2 for $20 deal at Applebees and get the 7oz. steak with veggies and baked potato  YU-UUM.  Add in the queso and chips?  Super YUM!

Oh, and if you have a Texas Roadhouse near you they have pretty good steaks there AND you can get loaded sweet potatos – it’s like Thanksgiving all year round!

We have a lot of chicken dishes, not too much fish (unless you count “packet” tuna/salmon) and the other seafood is shrimp that I usually cook up with basil pesto and pour over some gluten free pasta.

I used to eat a lot of salad, but then my taste buds turned on me and I couldn’t stand to eat raw spinach or raw kale.  I have to saute the greens or at the very least warm up the toppings so the greens are a bit wilted when I put them in my piehole.  I love veggies and try to add a new veggie every now and again…which is how I found my new fave brussel sprouts – but that’s a digression.

Back to my “I’m healthy now” proclamation.  So I guess I’m healthy…or healthier, right?  So as a testament to my healthiness here are some photos of the latest eats I’ve partaken of.  Just wipe the drool up before it hits your keyboard.  🙂

 

Snack

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Drink!

Avocado. Pure & Simple

That’s been my eating pattern for the last week or so.  I’ve been eating protein pancakes every morning – they fill me up until snack time rolls around (or if I’m caught up in marathon conference calls, then when lunch rolls around – BOOT!).  For lunch it’s been microwaved sweet potato and random veggies or egg white scrambles.  Snacks are usually honey crisp apples (SO GOOD) or cucumber slices and hummus.  I do love me some salty chips – so I toss a serving of Target’s Organic Corn Tortilla Chips on my plate too (15 chips for 150 calories – not too bad if I plan ahead).

In addition to the increase in veggies I’ve also upped my water intake to at least 80 oz a day (my handy pink water bottle has a little tracker for every time I fill it up I move it so I can see how much water I’m drinking – so smart, why didn’t I think of that?)  I’ve also grown to love coconut water – especially the chocolate flavored one.  As you can see from the photo above I did try Mamma Chia’s Cranberry Lemonade drink.  It’s like you’re drinking liquidy jello – once you get over that texture the drink itself is really tasty.

So I think I can label myself as “healthy”…I’m not an uber fanatic on my food intake.  I focus on good clean food for most of my meals but do enjoy sugary & salty delights whenever I want….just not everyday.

What’s your healthy eating approach? 

See ya later!

Cathy

 

 

 

 

 

Bar Review

In the last couple of days I have had snacks or meals in bar form so I wanted to give a review in case you are looking for some new portable eats.  **Get it…bar review, hee hee hee.  On with the reviewing!

Oskri Apricot Almond Bar = Snack recommended!

Oskri Apricot Almond Bar

This is a Kosher, Vegetarian, Gluten Free bar with 4 listed ingredients : Apricots, Almonds, Dates and Peaches.  The bar is 1.9 oz and is 131 calories with some pretty good protein (1.9g), fiber (5.3g), total fat (1g), sat fat (0g), sugars (26g) and sodium (6mg).

This bar is really tasty with a very nice texture.  Even with a primary base of fruit there is still some “bite” to the bar and requires some “chew” that makes the bar feel really substantial.  Every now and then you hit a piece of almond in your bite and that is a nice texture change.  If you like softer bars that keep their shape (meaning they don’t just flop over when you open the package) this is a good one to try.  You can taste the individual fruit flavors, which is nice and they balance well.  The bar leaves you feeling full and satisfied.

Rating = Recommended snack option

Mrs. Mays Almond Rice Stix = Snack recommended, when you’re not that hungry…

Mrs. May’s Almond Rice Stix

This is an interesting take on a rice crispy bar…except for being ooey gooey from marshmallows it has a dry texture.  I tried the Roasted Seaweed (Nori) flavor and the 12yo and I ate them up over a couple of days.

This is a Gluten Free treat with no saturated fats, no trans fats and low sodium.  The serving size is about 1 oz or 4 pieces (each piece is about 1/2 inch x 2 1/2 inches – I should have taken a photo but we ate them all 😀 ) for 130 calories.  Best bet is to portion these out as you just start dipping your hand in the bag and pretty soon they are all gone.  The listed ingredients are: Rice, Almonds, Raisins, Rice Malt, Cane Sugar, Sesame, Nori, Sea Salt.  Details: Protein (4g), fiber (1g), total fat (5g), sat fat (0g), sugars (5g) and sodium (85mg).

These are really tasty and have an asian flavor with the nori.  They remind me of furi kaki or japanese rice crackers that have a soy and nori flavor.  I recommend these as a snack…but they aren’t really that filling so choose on a day that you’re not that hungry but wanting an asian flavor twist.

Rating = Tasty snack but not that filling

Two Moms in the Raw: Gojiberry Granola= Acquired Taste

Raw bar: Gojiberry Granola

So I grabbed this bar on the way to Back to School night instead of a tried and true Kind Bar.  I wanted to try something different and I liked the sound of a Gojiberry bar since I know how full of antioxidants goji’s are.

This is a Gluten Free, Dairy Free, and Wheat Free with 100% organic ingredients.  The serving size is about 2 oz or the entire bar for 210 calories.  The listed ingredients are: organic oat groats (huh?), organic agave, organic sunflower seeds, organic buckwheat, organic pumpkin seeds, organic gojiberries (yay), organic millet, organic apples, organic sesame seeds, organic flax seeds, organic pecans, organic almonds, organic cinnamon, and sea salt.  Details: Protein (6g), fiber (4g), total fat (7g), sat fat (1g), sugars (18g) and sodium (45mg).

I unwrapped the bar while sitting at the stoplight and took a bite.  Hmmmm.

Let me think on how to describe this bar.  The texture when you bite it almost seems like it’s stale – but I know it’s not.  There isn’t a lot of crunch which you would think it would have because it’s a pretty “hard” compressed bar.  You can tap on it and you hear the taps.  It also falls apart…meaning little bits of the bar fall off like it fell out of the “glue” that bound the bar together.  (Not so great when you are driving and can’t follow where that piece fell.)  The taste is pretty good – it’s sweet enough without being overly sweet and you can taste all the different types of grains that the bar is made of.  Soooooooo, the rating right?  I’d say it’s one I’d have to eat again to have a definite opinion on eatability or not.  I ate the whole thing so it’s not like I was heebed out or anything and I wouldn’t put it past me to eat another one if it was set down in front of me.  It also kept me full for the entire Back to School night (I ate a bowl of Dulce de Leche Cheerios when I got home) which is what you’d expect a bar of this size and calorie count to do for you.  I’d say I’d need to try another Raw bar to decide…it may have been the texture that threw me but I can’t say for sure.

Rating = Need a second taste to decide.

Cathy

What are some of your favorite bars for snacks or meals? 

Have you tried any of the bars I reviewed?  What did you think?