I wanted to eat the lonely oatmeal packet I took back with me from our Oklahoma trip last weekend.  That’s right, I smuggled oatmeal from the hotel.  I had taken it from the continental breakfast bar the hotel offered thinking I was going to eat it one night as a dessert with some peach yogurt, but it never happened.

I destroyed consumed the evidence though without too much guilt.

1 packet Quaker Regular Oatmeal

1 TBSP milled flaxseed

a sprinkle of raisins

cinnamon, and more cinnamon

tip of my spoon of Almond Butter

I started some laundry, showered, did the dishes, swept and mopped the floor which included pulling out the fridge!  Oooh!  Treasures!  With kids, crayons are like weeds and they spring up in any and every place imaginable!

We also headed to the grocery store.  Our goal this week it to make meals that we can have plenty of leftovers with.  We are trying to stretch the almighty dollar as far as it will go.  Damn!  I might need to suggest a rubber currency so that could be a little bit easier!  We picked up stuff for chicken tacos, baked apricot chicken, pasta meals with turkey Italian sausage, and homemade pizzas with La Tortilla Wraps.

When we got home I was starved for lunch.  I quickly made a turkey melt with a La Tortilla high fiber tortilla.  I threw in some mesquite smoked turkey and a slice of reduced fat colby and heated it up on the stove until the cheese had melted.  Of course I added in salsa and some Mediterranean Lentil Chips on the side.  Have anyone ever had these lentil chips before?  I picked them up at Marshall’s one day and have never looked back!  30 chips are 110 calories and only 3 grams of fat they are made from, you guessed it!  Lentils!  Great source of fiber and protein!  They are also gluten free.

Mmmm!

My snack this afternoon was a 1/4 cup low fat cottage cheese and sliced strawberries.

Big girl and I went for a walk before dinner this evening.  It has been raining all day but there was a break in all the rain so we took off.  Wouldn’t you know it though as soon as we left our street it started to rain again!  She didn’t care so neither did I it was fun!  She got to splash in all the puddles and we ran some of the way home too, so it was a quick but enjoyable walk for the two of us.

Dinner was being prepared when we got home and B was making pizzas!  He had cut up broccoli and bell pepper for my pie.  Also adding in some lean sliced ham strips for protein.  Using tortillas as our pie crusts, they were excellent!  The best part it we will have enough to make this again in the next few days, so not really left overs, but repeat worthy on the same dime is a win in my book!

Baby girl took one look at my pizza and snatched a piece of broccoli at the same time I snapped my picture.

Broccoli thief!

Now she likes a lot of veggies which I love, however, if I tried to feed them to her she would probably refuse so I am content with sharing as long as she eats them!

It’s getting late and I am going to enjoy whats left of my day, so good night blog land!

This morning’s breakfast was an egg wrap made complete with salsa and spicy mustard! 

I used a 1/2 cup egg beaters and wrapped it up in a La Tortilla tortilla.  Great start to a great day! 

I worked out a little this morning.  My week has consisted of the elliptical trainer and a lot of sweat and so today I took it easy and just did 10 minutes on the treadmill to get the blood flowing and spent the rest of my time concentrating on upper body weights and toning.

For my morning snack I had a usual plain greek Fage 0% with cereal mixed in.

Yum!

Who else is excited for the weekend?  Anyone like me happy for the plan-LESS weekend ahead?  Or are you mega busy?

source

I have been getting ready to leave for OKC tomorrow for Big girl’s Tae Kwan Do tournament!  Is she excited…?  Kind of.  She enjoys her classes and has fun, but gearing up for these tournaments are stressful and a lot of practice, so I think she’ll be happy when it’s over.   Baby girl is going to stay with B’s mom over the weekend while we are gone.  *snif*  I’ll miss her! 

But I have soooo much to do!  We have to go to the store for car snacks for the 3 hour drive, I need allergy meds!  OMG!  I need some Claritin Clear or something.  I already have eyesight issues and this crap in the air is making it intolerable!  Every 3 seconds it seems I am digging in my eyeballs (good visual huh?) trying to rinse the film off my contacts.  I know, don’t lecture me on why I just don’t wear my glasses.  I do…at home.

I want to say a big THANK YOU to Low…and behold!’s Kacy for hooking me up with some fantastic info on some local eats while we are in Oklahoma this weekend!  I can’t wait to try her recommendations!

I have been trying to use up the veggies in my fridge since we wont be home this weekend to eat them.  My lunches and dinners have all looked like this:

Huge salad!  Spinach, carrots, avocado, mushrooms, cucumber, tomato.

This hurried picture was my lunch yesterday.  My meal contained steamed broccoli and brussels.  Mustard to dip them in.  Carrots, and avocado.

Dinner one night this weeke was veggie pasta, and spicy turkey italian sausage otherwise known as Wacky Pasta around our house.  I topped it off with a fine load of veggies.  Should veggies and load be in the same sentence?  Let me ponder that one.

Pizza last night.  But I ENHANCED mine with a big bowl of spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots.

My breakfasts also were very fruity seeing as how I needed to eat up the fruit that would be left to spoil over the weekend.

The theme here?  Hodgson Mill’s Multi Grain Hot Cereal with Flaxseed.  I also used cinnamon, almond butter, and of course fruit!

Let me leave you with something that makes my day just that much better every time I use it.

HELLO KITTY plastic lunch box!  Toda it faithfully held Fage 0% and some cereal for crunching.

Yay!  I makes me smile every time!

Oh!  I was one of the lucky winners in What Kate Ate’s Sunshine Burger giveaway!  Can’t wait to get this coupon and check it out!  Thanks!

It began VERY early it seemed for us.  Like it was Christmas Big girl comes in our room at barely 7 am to ask if it was time to see if the Easter Bunny had come! Ha! I had to go wake up Baby girl just so we could see!

They had a blast! Not only did the Easter Bunny find our house, but Pepaw came armed with donuts and baskets, and my Mom too! We now have enough candy and chocolate bunnies to feed a small army!!

I did not partake in the donut massacre, but lots of coffee ensued, in an Easter mug though to keep it festive.  Some toast with strawberry preserves and an egg and sausage stuffed thingy was my breakfast.

Lunch yesterday was simple and easy because we were having my Mom and Eddie over for dinner.

I had brussels, broccoli both steamed a slice of toast with my newest fav…Almond butter!  Wow!  This stuff is good!   I LOVE almonds but the cost of almond butter has always prevented me from buying some.  I got a jar on sale this week at the store though!  So good!

Dinner was my Mom’s eggplant parmesan.  She made it with sliced eggplant, chicken breast, provolone, and alfredo sauce!  Yummy!

B and I contributed with roasted veggies (potatoes, summer sqaush, and fresh green beans) and of course deviled eggs!

We ended the evening by going on a family walk around the neighborhood and blowing bubbles in the front yard!  It was an awesome day!

Breakfast this Monday morning was multi grain hot cereal, with strawberries and almond butter:

When I got to work, I discovered my Ipod was dead!  Fail!  Sux to work out in the TV-less gym with no tunes!!  So I went on an outdoor 1 mile walk/run!  I am no hero so in my little 20 minutes I get each morning I just did the 1 mile and was happy!  Go me!

I had a cup of Fage 0% and Naturals Honeyful Wheat cereal.

Lunch was a partial repeat from yesterday except no toast, but I added carrots.

Mmmm, mustard sprouts!

My afternoon snacking was a small Red Delicious and a hard-boiled egg.

I’m sure my co-workers were thrilled with the smells of my broccoli, brussel sprouts, and egg today!

Dinner was also a repeat from yesterday!  Leftovers!

I think I will get ready for bed though and call it a night tonight!  We leave for OKC this weekend for Big Girl’s Tae Kwan Do tournament!  I am looking forward to the mini-cation that will present itself while we’re gone!  Road Trip!!!

ETA:  Some some awesome cool giveaways this week:

Emily’s Wellness Tea Giveaway

Kate’s Sunshine Burger Giveaway

Averie’s Cuisinart Food Processor Giveaway

I can assure you my breakfasts have looked like this all week:

Fiber One with Almond Milk, and either strawberries or blueberries.  I am usually not a fan of this much milk in my cereal.  This morning though I measured my milk to show myself the serving size 1/2 cup.  Suggested serving is 1 cup and even the 1/2 cup was WAY too much for me to handle on a normal day.  Just sayin.

I did get a couple of slices of this at Big girl’s Tae Kwon Do bake sale.

Homemade Pumpkin bread!  OMG! 

Had I been blogging daily you would have seen it in these little mixes everyday!

So yum!

Lunches have been pretty salad-y with a couple of days looking just like this:

Spinach, mushrooms, carrots, cucumber, grape tomatoes, diced pear, and cottage cheese.

I also slipped in a meaty wrap a couple of days ago.

Turkey and pastrami on a La Tortilla Whole Wheat.  Did I mention mustard??

I have snacked on a little of this and a little of that.

Last nights dinner was  baked salmon and couscous.

Wow!  That’s one BAD picture!!  But the grub was right on!

Tonight though we let the girls decide on what they wanted to eat.  B said they picked but I have a feeling he helped “suggest” what dinner should be.

Little Ceasars $5.00 Hot and Ready!  Uh-huh!  Yeah…it was good though.

Check out how freakin CUTE these little Easter candies are!!

They were delivered to us a work by one of our residents and they are Easter egg chocolates!  So cute and full of chocolate!  I ended up having a pretty indulgent day. 

I wasn’t going to post anything tonight, but I am glad I did.  It feels good to get caught up.  Oh!  And check out the new little Foodie Blogroll widget on the side!  I am moving on up!  Now if I could get more than 3 people to read my blog it may give me a little more inspiration to converse with an actual audience.  Ever get the feeling you are talking to yourself?  Sometimes I do.

Now I really must go figure out what I did to my camera camera phone and fix my horrible pictures!!

G’night!

Pumpkin Bread

I didn’t really take pictures of anything I ate yesterday.  Don’t worry you didn;t miss anything but eggs, and pasta.

I am getting my hair cut this afternoon!  Finally!  I am in need of a trim badly!  But before I thought I’d share this mornings good eats.

Breakfast was a hard boiled egg, fresh pineapple, and a slice of toast with sugar free raspberry preserves!

I was hungry again in just a couple of hours though.  No, let me re-phrase that…starving!  I got to work, and worked out for a short 20 minutes and couldn’t wait to dig into my cottage cheese and kiwi I had brought with me. 

My stomach is still screaming for more food!  So I will gladly listen and am about to grub on a huge salad I made.  Then I’m off!

Happy Monday…I guess.

But with so many kids it was crazy!  When they said GO it was a mass frenzy and Big girl had her heart set on one of about 5 stuffed Easter bunnies out for grabs that she didn’t pick up any eggs!  She did not get a bunny, so when she realized all the eggs were gone in about 2.2 seconds the tears came up!  Thankfully another little girl gave her some of the eggs she collected so Big girl would have some.

We then did some grocery shopping before heading over to my Dad’s house for some more Easter fun!  I failed to take a pic, but he grilled up some of the best burgers I have had in a long time!  I love homemade burgers, they are the absolute greatest! 

For dessert we indulged in some vanilla ice cream and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies! 

The girls then got busy coloring Easter eggs and then they got to partake in a “real” Easter egg hunt!  They had a great time at their Grandpa’s house!

It felt so nice to be outside in the sun!  I think I even came home a little less translucent! 

It was a very windy day!  We had such a fun afternoon! 

I started my day yesterday with some oatmeal, sugar-free strawberry preserves, flaxseed, cinnamon, and almonds.  Breakfast fuel to keep up with the Easter egg hunting fools!

And for dinner we decided to keep it simple and made homemade pizzas!  We used flat bread and sort of dressed our own.  My pizza included spinach, mushrooms, red bell pepper, and sliced Canadian bacon on the bottom.  You can’t really see it.  B and the girls both had turkey pepperoni and Canadian bacon on theirs.

Last night’s dessert was a yogurt mess of course!  I used 1/2 cup of Fage 0% i picked up on special at Kroger yesterday!  I scored an awesome deal, the entire 2 cup container was only $3.79!  I grabbed two!  I mixed with some Carmel Delight Fiber One, raisins, and some of B’s chocolate Fro-yo.  Ben & Jerry’s I think! 

It was a fun-filled Saturday!  The kind of day you wished you had every weekend.  I am totally loving the warmer weather and can’t wait to get some yard work done too!  Hooray for Spring!

Moving on to yesterday.  A quick recap of my eats include:

Oatmeal, sugar-free strawberry preserves, milled flaxseed.

A chicken salad with salsa as dressing.

Cinnamon raisin bread.  It smells so good!!

Dinner was baked carribian spiced chicken breast, couscous, and corn.  Pineapple and pear on the side.

Dessert was a 1/2 a vanilla flavored Yoplait greek, 1/2 a slice crumbled cinnamon raisin bread, and some Fiber One Caramel Delight cereal.  There are a few chocolate chips in there too!

Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs and spinach with salsa and coffee.

Lunch this afternoon was a pastrami/turkey wrap with spinach and mustard.

I also micro-steamed some broccoli and had a side of black olives and grapes.

I was rather snacky today so what went UN pictured were some baby carrots, another slice of cinnamon raisin bread, some plain Fiber One cereal straight from a baggie, and a few jelly beans on my drive home.

Does anyone else have a snack stash in their car?  Maybe cause I am so ready to eat dinner by the time I leave work at 6 pm I need something to munch on during my trip home!  Sometimes it’s some almonds, sometimes it’s an apple if I’m not going straight home, and sometimes it’s just a craving for something so good it’s bad like chocolate or like today it was jelly beans.  Snack driving!

I just finished watching tonight’s Jamie Oliver Food Revolution!  What an eye opener.  I mean I think we all know how bad our country has gotten when considering the fast food mega giants, and the rising rate of diabetes and obesity.  But when you consider the children and the school lunch program it’s a whole other arena!  So much red tape and politics. 

As a mom to a school age daughter who bounces back and forth between bringing her lunch to eating from the cafeteria I have to think about this.  The food being served today, although similar to what we ate as kids in school, it has taken on new dimensions.  More fillers and steroid pumped animals are being served now than before.  I could be dead wrong, but it only makes sence due to a ton of budget cutting from school districts and food service is more than likely being brought to us from the lowest bidder. 

We were more active too don’t you think?  P.E. wasn’t being cut from school budgets then and recess was actually get outside and play, and play hard!  The school lunches that were served to us were probably no more nutritious than what is being served to the children today, but I go out on a limb here to say they were MUCH less processed and more “home cooked” to a small degree.  Nonetheless, I give my daughter the choice to eat from home and take her lunch to school or eat from the cafeteria lunch menu.  It’s all about good choices, but not stripping them from their kid card and allowing them to have fun at the same time.  I want to see both of my daughter’s growing up to be healthy and happy.  Something that is easily achieved through education and setting the stage for a healthy lifestyle.

I am looking forward to next weeks episode of Food Revolution!

I hope every one is looking forward to a glorious weekend right about now though!  My plans include an early morning Easter egg hunt at the park and then lunch at my Dad’s house with the family!  Later!

I have nothing new to report except I was finally able to punch out a killer workout this morning!  I did a 20 minute HIIT on the elliptical that defiantly got my heart rate going.  Normally I try to just stay “fit” but I don’t sweat much and I don’t feel like I push myself hard enough.  I am also OK with not killing myself in the gym because my goal is not to lose weight, but just stay healthy.  Today though was a butt kicker!  Woot!  Feels good!

Maybe cause at the wee hour of 5:30 this morning I ate this:

1/3 cup oatmeal

water

1 tbsp sugar free strawberry preserves

1 tbsp Wildroots milled flaxseed

I keep forgetting I have this and opened it for the first time today.  I have to start remembering!

My post workout snack was a cup of greek Yoplait plain mixed with some more sugar free strawberry preserves.

After mixing it all together it was like I had bought strawberry flavored yogurt, and it didn’t contain all the unnecessary sugar that goes into flavored yogurt.

Lunch was left over from last night.  I didn’t have any sausage left so I just made a bean burrito out of the black beans and veggies with a La Tortilla tortilla.

Just as good the second time around!

I also ate an orange just a little bit ago.  I don’t eat enough oranges, and when I do I wonder why not?  They are the perfect cure for a sweet craving and refreshing!

Well hopefully the rest of my day will fly by!  Happy Wednesday!