Long weekends are the best

Hi friends!

Sorry for the short hiatus…I have been thoroughly enjoying this long weekend and also getting quite a bit accomplished at the same time. My apartment has NEVER been this organized and yet I’m coming up with more to do 🙂

Anyway…Sunday morning began like many others, only it was sort of special. I had oats in a jar!

Then on the way to church, I had another treat…soy pumpkin spice latte! Uh oh…

This was so incredibly delicious. But I can’t make this a habit. For financial and waistline reasons 😉

Lunch was rather unconventional…I got this weird craving for waffles and sausage so that’s what I had for lunch?

Two Eggo waffles, two Morningstar Farms “sausage” patties. And I added a tbsp of light syrup on top.

I got creative with La Croix as Amanda inspired me to do this!

So much fun!

I spent most of Sunday cleaning, doing laundry and lots of other stuff I can’t even remember. This whole long weekend threw my memory off, ha.

In the afternoon, I snacked on some popcorn. This stuff is seriously good.

Then for dinner, I decided to get creative! I knew I wanted chickpeas, but the thought of eating just plain ol’ chickpeas cooked in the microwave did not appeal to me at all!

After researching recipes for a while, I decided to just go with my own thing and see what happens. Here are the star ingredients!

I knew that a lot of curry dishes are made with coconut milk, so I thought why not try this soymilk? It is unsweetened so it should work. That little thing of Thai Kitchen red curry paste was a worthy investment as well.

I started out heating 1 can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed well) with 1/2 cup soymilk and added 1 tbsp curry paste.

But the longer I thought about it…I kept adding more stuff! I ended up adding chopped onion (1/2 cup), spinach (1/2 cup), minced garlic (1/2 tsp) and a pinch of salt.

The result looked like this:

Overtop a whole wheat pita pocket with a side of stir fry veggies.

I was ready to try it after taking that picture, but I was a bit nervous!

I love throwing things together on my own, especially when it was all stuff I already had on hand! This was delicious…not quite spicy enough but that is something I can improve on in the future. Success!

Then for dessert…the very last of my ice cream. Yes Mari, I still had some!

Another great use for a wine glass 🙂

Goodbye dairy ice cream! It’s been real. I would say I’ll miss you but we all know there are plenty of great alternatives out there.

I know this post is long so I will be back in a minute with today’s!

Sleepy Saturday

Well, I think we can almost officially call this Fall now! The leaves are turning, the weather is cooler (at least in the morning and evening hours), Starbucks have Pumpkin Spice lattes back…IT IS FALL!!

I’m so excited because I think this is becoming my favorite time of year. Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of winter but perhaps I can be creative this year and find a way to enjoy that season more too 😉

So, where to begin! Oh yeah, let’s start with how Friday went down…

Breakfast was plain oat bran with banana and almond butter. The jar is almost empty so you know what that means…oats in a jar soon!

Then mid morning I snacked on more banana and PB after a 15 minute walk (this was half, the banana from this morning was huge):

For lunch, I had one of my favorite vegan convenience meals!

I don’t want to become dependent on these but it got me through this time 😉

YUM! Just as good the second time around…

After lunch digested, I went to the gym for a 40 minute treadmill workout with Farrah. We did walking and running intervals until we reached 3 miles…went something like this – 5 min walking warm up (2.5 mph), Run 5 minutes (5.5 mph), Walk 2.5 minutes (3.8 mph) – repeat run/walk sequence 4 times – cool down walking for 5 minutes. In the run sequences I did 6.0 for the last minute a few times.

It was awesome! I felt like I could’ve pushed it more but I didn’t because I want to honor my body and not reach those limits as I’m not a competitive athlete or anything. My body thanked me by not being sore and I wasn’t too tired either.

Snacks were some REAL dark chocolate (no milkfat in this piece):

Some almonds…

For dinner, I convinced Josh to go to Shalimar, a really great Indian restaurant here in town. I ordered what I’ve seen Gina eat several times…Baingan Bartha!

I had mine over some rice with garlic naan on the side. I think this dish was vegan, no? It was just peas, eggplant and sauce I think. Geez, it was so good. I ate most of it, but not all.

Even though I felt pregnant (with a food baby) for the next couple of hours, I still managed to eat a serving of ice cream (not vegan trying to use it up):

Then we watched a couple of bad movies (The Mummy Dragon Emperor something or other, dumb and Valkyrie which wasn’t too bad actually) and I snacked on two sheets of graham crackers (these need to leave my house like now) and a couple of marshmallows.

Then I had some tea and went to bed 🙂 Zzzzz…

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Hello Saturday!

For breakfast, I had two very non-vegan Eggo waffles with PB and banana. I decided to have fun and make a waffle-wich!

On a Pokemon plate no less. Haha. Close up of the yummy goodness…

On the way to meet my mom for a nice walk at the park with Suzie, I grabbed a tall soy latte from the ‘Bucks. It was tasty…I think there soy latte feels like a treat even though it’s fairly low in calories! I resisted the pumpkin spice latte for now 😉

At the park, we walked around the track twice which is about 2.4 miles, plus walking to and from the car, we got a good workout in! So did my silly dog.

For lunch, we went to Mimi’s Cafe, which is easily my favorite restaurant. While perusing the menu though, I couldn’t help but think how hard it would be for a vegan to eat there.

I ended up getting the veggie burger with fresh fruit. I only used half the bun as it was huge and not even close to whole grain.

This was pretty good and definitely filled me up. But I can’t eat veggie burgers all the time…

I think I might write to the company…not to complain, but just to find out their suggestions for vegan menu options. Other that a garden salad with no dressing…that’s what I’m finding on the websites out there – that’s not a meal!

I also had some delicious unsweetened raspberry tea 🙂

Before I went grocery shopping, I popped a piece of real dark chocolate. Now that I am back home, I’m thinking it is time for a nap. I’m going out with some girls to Ramsi’s tonight…I see falafel in my future…and it is beautious!

Have a great day friends!

Baskin Robbins 31 cent scoop night

Wednesday 4/29 was the annual Baskin Robbins 31 cent scoop night which is an event that donates the proceeds to America’s firefighters, including donations to National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), the National Junior Firefighter Program and some local firefighter charities as well.

As we did last year (link from my really old Xanga site), the girls jumped in the car to get to Baskin Robbins before the 10:00 deadline. We arrived at our destination at 9:30 and were told that the line had been “closed” because they had too many people (they were like 10) and that they wouldn’t be done serving until after 10 which is when they were supposed to be closing. We were a bit perplexed, is this not for charity? Would it kill you to stay open an extra 10-15 minutes for a good cause? We chalked it up to kids who wanted to get out of work on time because they had school the next day. At least we hope that’s why.

Luckily we found another Baskin Robbins a few miles away and walked right in around 9:45 with no wait and nobody telling us we couldn’t get in. Thank goodness! They even told us to stay as long as we wanted to we enjoyed our ice cream at a table and departed around 10:10. Those people rock 🙂

I had a small scoop of Reese’s peanut butter cup as my choice:

I have to say, it was not that great. I guess I got spoiled by my recent Graeter’s trip because this just didn’t knock my socks off. I should’ve had what Courtney got, which was the Peanut Butter Fudge I think. She wanted hers to be featured on the blog, so here ya go:

Yeah, I’ll get that one next time! 😉

Aleta was quite upset when she thought we might not be getting ice cream (although we had a McDonald’s or Dairy Queen contingency plan in place) so when we finally got ours, she was sooo happy!

Aleta got three scoops of three different flavors all in the same cup. That girl knows how to party! That’s Beth smiling in the background 😉

Hooray for girlfriends, Wednesday nights, ice cream and charity. Hope you enjoyed your scoop!

Back in town

We went to Gatlinburg this weekend for lots of eating, shopping and relaxing! But now that we are back I am glad to be getting back to the regular routine. After Nicaragua, Indy and this past weekend, I don’t plan on going out of town again for a looong time…

I am also happy to say that my plan for last week worked. I lost 2 pounds! I also feel good about the choices I made this weekend while we were on the go. I started off doing really good taking pics but then it became tiring so I gave up after Friday, sorry. But, here are some of the highlights:

Before we left, I made myself a “sausage”, egg and “cheese” sandwich on flax bread. The sausage was Morningstar Farms (meatless) and the cheese was Veggie Cheese in cheddar flavor. It was very filling and savory. We didn’t have any other fruit in the house, so I had an applesauce cup with it. I also had a mocha light frappuccino from Starbuck’s mid-morning…

Subway (first meal on the road) – I ordered the Black Forest Ham sub on wheat with lettuce, tomato, green peppers, banana peppers and regular mustard; I also had some cheddar Sun Chips.

Before dinner I snacked on an apple cinnamon Z bar, definitely my favorite flavor so far!

Carino’s – A very nice restaurant and highly recommended when visiting Gatlinburg, TN. I ordered the Stuffed Roasted Vegetable Rigatoni; the creamy sauce was a little too heavy for me but the veggies were fantastic, so I just ate around it as much as I could. I also enjoyed two pieces of bread and the house salad.

TGI Friday’s – A staple back home, I knew what to expect here. But I ordered the turkey burger with a side of broccoli instead of fries. It appeared to come on a wheat bun which was very cool!

Fuddrucker’s – We used to have one of these in Northern KY but it has since closed, so my husband couldn’t leave without getting himself a HUGE burger! I ordered the tilapia (cajun style) sandwich (topped it with lettuce, tomato, onion and honey mustard) and a side of baked beans. The bun was a little too moist and doughy for me, but the fish was fantastic! I also snagged 2 of my husbands onion rings, yum!

Kilwin’s – Oh….my….gosh….that’s all I can say! I ordered the cinnamon coffee cake ice cream in a waffle cone and it was so delicious. I had planned on finding a good chocolate or peanut butter flavor but after tasting a few of those and this one (which my husband had ordered) there was no going back. It was seriously some of the best ice cream I have ever had! The place is also a candy haven, you should see all the fudge, candied apples, peanut brittle, etc. It’s unbelievable!

Ben & Jerry’s – Black raspberry frozen yogurt is one of my all-time favorites and I only get it at the specialty stores which is either in Gatlinburg or when we go to the KY state fair. It was a nice treat but after Kilwin’s, it didn’t blow me away as much as I had hoped.

IHOP – I ordered the garden scramble with egg substitute and 2 pancakes with Promise spread and sugar free syrup. Perfectly filling, less than 600 calories (according to the menu) and so very tasty, I couldn’t have been happier!

I don’t have a pic yet, but I tried a new beer this weekend too. Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy! It tasted like beer with lemonade, exactly as it’s described. I really liked it, my only complaint was that it was very filling…which I guess isn’t necessarily a bad thing because I only was able to drink one. 🙂

Hope everyone had a great weekend and Happy Monday!

Lost weekend

Whoa this weekend got away from me. And I did get a little carried away. A little too much ice cream and french bread with nutella. Thankfully both things are out of the house now 😉

I will update more on this later, let’s just move on to the new week, shall we?

Okay, I’m back.

So, Saturday I ended up having lunch a lot later than I expected, so I had another snack beforehand – another piece of french bread with cinnamon raisin PB and a side salad to get some veggies in.

A friend and I had late lunch at Jason’s Deli, where I just got a cup of the chicken chili and a fruit cup (sorry no pic). Their fruit is the best and the dip they serve it with, yum-o! However, they also have free soft serve, so I had a cup of that too (90 calories).

When I got home from shopping, I went to dinner with my husband at Pig City BBQ, which I usually like but for some reason it just didn’t impress me that day. I ordered the grilled chicken sandwich, seasonal vegetables and baked apples. The apples were just mushy and gross (so I did NOT eat them) and I wasn’t impressed at the amount of veggies I got. But the sandwich was pretty good.

However, I think my feelings of disappointment about the meal (and my tiredness from the race that morning) carried over because when I got home, I drowned my sorrows in some ice cream and the rest of the french bread with apple butter and Nutella. But at least it’s gone now!

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Sunday started off good, I got up before breakfast and did a 30-minute walk around my neighborhood. It was awesome, I loved the stillness of the morning before everyone else gets up. For breakfast, I had oats (made with milk) with apple butter, almonds, and a sliced apple. Then I made myself my very own iced ‘mocha’ with decaf coffee and chocolate soymilk.

At church, I always get hungry before lunch, so I had a few dried plums and a Kashi bar to hold me over. We ended up going out to lunch with some friends, which I wasn’t too thrilled about because I had already eaten out so much that weekend, but I really wanted the company so I gave in.

We went to O’Charley’s and I ordered the new “Bistro Chicken” which tasted pretty good but even for someone who loves garlic it was a little much. And I shouldn’t have eaten the potatoes because they didn’t sit well with me. But I put it behind me and vowed not to eat again until dinnertime. But, when I went to my parent’s house to do some laundry, I ended up eating 2 cups of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios for a snack (280 cals, eek!). I also made the mistake of looking up the Bistro chicken nutritional info online (950 cals for the whole dish — I ate most of the chicken except for 2 bites, but only about half of the potatoes, and all of the salad).

Dinner was at the in-laws and I was all prepared to eat pizza, but when we arrived, there was lasagna with garlic bread (agh, more garlic). But I ate it anyway and enjoyed that company as well. I had a small serving of lasagna (like 1/2 cup maybe) and one slice of the garlic bread loaf.

When we got home, I felt hungry but also like I had completely messed up the entire day, so I drank the rest of my chocolate soymilk (about 1/2 cup) and finished off my ice cream (about a cup). I don’t know why I let the day get to me, but it’s just an old habit that will die hard I’m sure.

I feel better now and have gotten focused again but I do have these little setbacks from time to time. It’s best to just let them go and move on. But they do happen, even to someone like me who has been eating healthy for so long, we’re only human after all 😉

Friday wrap-up

I ended up going for a really good run after work. It was on the treadmill but I was able to do intervals for 30 minutes, so I really enjoyed it and broke a really good sweat!

When I got home, I felt hungry and knew it would be a while before I had dinner so I had two small pieces of french bread, one with cinnamon raisin peanut butter and the other with nutella. And a cup of chocolate soymilk:

For dinner, I went to BD’s Mongolian Grill with some friends and I got tofu and tons of veggies stir fried in teriyaki sauce and just a little bit of brown rice (no pic). Afterwards, we went to Barnes and Noble (we were supposed to see SATC, but it was all sold out!) and I got a hot green tea and a rice krispie treat from the cafe.

Then when I got home I enjoyed some Edy’s ‘light’ cookie dough ice cream 🙂