The other exciting bit of news is that I gave my first injection to Paige.  I essentially had the technician holding my hand, but I did it!  Since we have to give her injections nearly every other day, and they are $19 a shot at the vet, I figured it would be best if I learned how to do it.  I must say that it is scary! I’m contemplating as to whether I need another hand holding.

Breakfast (382 cal): Totally sub-par pancakes. Forgot the flax meal and walnuts in the batter.  Flax meal makes a HUGE difference.

Snack (234 cal): Lovely bowl of oikos w/ a super ripe nectarine along with some Kashi GoLean and the last of my almonds.

Lunch (381 cal): Similar sandwich as yesterday.  Ezekiel, hummus, lettuce, sprouts, cucumber, carrots, more sprouts and chive cream cheese.  On the side I had some Newman’s Own Organic Soy Crisps in Lightly Salted. I have to say these are the best soy crisps I’ve tried and the ingredients rock (Organic Low Fat Soy Flour, Organic Rice Flour, Salt, Sunflower Oil.).  I find most have this odd taste and are way too salty.

Snack (183 cal): Huge pile of cucumber and carrots with guac.  I love cutting my fruit and veggies into small slices so it takes longer to eat.

Dinner (490 cal): Since I got home so late from the vet, I was all about the microwave!  I had a MorningStar Farms Vegan Griller with ketchup, sweet potato, brussels sprouts and some beets.  I was still a bit hungry, so I also had a small bowl of puffed kamut with SO Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk.  I wasn’t impressed with the coconut milk – I think I’ll stick with my soy milk.

Calories in/Calories out: 1669/~2150

Due to rain yesterday morning we didn’t go on our long run, but we did hit the gym.  I did about 15 minutes on the treadmill before switching to the elliptical because it was aggravating my Achilles tendon.  My tendon feels much better today and I am itching to get back to running on Wednesday, until then I’m just focusing on walking.

Paige is super itchy.  I’ve been giving her allergy medicine, but it just can’t counteract having allergens pumped straight into the body I guess. Poor baby.

Breakfast (288 cal): One egg plus two egg whites, ezekiel toast and half an apple with peanut butter.

Snack (191 cal): oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins.

Lunch (476 cal): Veggie sandwich on ezekiel bread (home made hummus, lettuce, sprouts, carrot, bell pepper, cucumber), oikos with nectarine with more carrots and cukes on the side. I also had a iced coffee, made with almond breeze, on the way back to work.

Snack (147 cal): Popcorn.

Dinner (496 cal): I have been craving this salad from the Tortilla Factory for probably about a month.  It is simple with romaine topped with warm black beans, cucumber, peppers, and avocado.  It was supposed to come with a hard boiled egg, but they must of forgot it.  On the side I had some tortilla chips, salsa and steamed veggies.  So good.

Calories in/Calories out: 1598/~2300

On Saturday we had our last of 3 classes in the vegetarian cooking series at Cookology. So sad.  Food was awesome though.  Of course, these are all meant to be stand alone meals, so this ended up being a very heavy meal – I certainly couldn’t finish everything.

QUICK VEGGIE MAINS
Pecorino Ravioli with Walnut Brown Butter
Tomato and Feta Cheese Strata
Thai Veggie Curry

I had never made a strata before and it was very easy.  Basically it is a baked egg casserole that includes eggs, veggies, bread and cheese.  I can defiantly see us making this in the future, especially when we have leftover bread.

The Thai Veggie Curry was certainly easy too.  I loved the combination of coconut milk and curry – spicy and sweet.  Basically you can use any veggies you like.  I think ours included sweet potato, corn, okra, cauliflower, and chili peppers.

The ravioli was also quite easy, but a little more time consuming if you were to make your own dough.  I wouldn’t make the brown butter sauce again – it is just much too heavy for my taste.  I would have preferred the ravioli with a light red sauce.

After pigging out at cookology we went home and watched Coraline and then headed over to the inlaws for birthday celebrations. My MIL had recreated the bulgur burgers that we made at cookology for my birthday celebration a couple weeks ago and they were super. I also had baked beans, corn, sweet potato fries, regular fries. And then there was this lovely strawberry cake and lemon meringue pie and ice cream….

Completely back on track Sunday though. Thankfully. 

Grilled cheese and apple on ezekiel cinnamon raisin bread with a salad. YUM!

 We took the pups to the vet, spent an ungodly amount of money and finally started Paige on her allergy shots. I chickened out with giving the injection, but I’m going to watch again tomorrow and then maybe I’ll try on Thursday….

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Breakfast (435 cal): Same loverly Apple Butter Oat pancakes as yesterday with cherries. I don’t think it gets better than this.

Snack (185 cal): While my fruit of choice was strawberries yesterday, today it is clearly cherries. Cherries are my favorite fruit besides oranges btw. What’s yours?  They are paired with some egg whites.

Lunch (499 cal): I took this picture last night when I packed it – avocado doesn’t stay pretty for long. ;)  Clockwise – cherries, 4oz oikos (found these at Whole Foods – they come in a pack of 4), carrots, and avocado, cabot, lettuce and carrots on a multigrain baguette.

Snack (132 cal): I’ve been in a popcorn mood lately…..

Dinner (443 cal): My salad was a mix of greens, carrot, a sprout mix, cherries, a few almonds and avocado tossed with blueberry pomegranate dressing.  My flatbread pizza was simply cheese and a boca bruschetta burger.

Dessert (125 cal): We did more biking tonight.  We got new running shoes and then stopped by Ice Berry (original w/ strawberries and mango) before picking up our Red Box movie – Coraline.  We’ll have to watch the movie tomorrow, otherwise I’ll just fall asleep anyway. I also had a handful or two of some Just Fruit Munchies.

Calories in/Calories out: 1818/~2400

Snack (188 cal):Yummy oikos, strawberries and almonds.

Lunch (420 cal):Bento from yesterday: sauteed veggies, boca w/ ketchup, strawberries and celery, corn on the cob and sweet potato w/ butter and cinnamon.  Now, like Gina this was my first time having real butter in quite some time. Not because I avoid it per say, but I don’t like cold butter on bread, in fact I only like butter in a handful of situations.  Apparently on a sweet potato is not one of them (I usually use a little butter spray).  For dessert I enjoyed a mock mocha.

Snack (139 cal): Plain unadulterated brown-bag popcorn.

Dinner (460 cal):I have been craving an egg sandwich for days, but until last night I had no eggs.  I fried up 1 egg + 2 egg whites and served it with cream cheese on one of the left over baguettes from yesterday.  On the side I had a monster salad topped with carrots, strawberries, avocado, almonds and poppy seed dressing.

Calories in/Calories out: 1612/~2100

This of course, reaffirms my belief that I was not meant to be a runner. I mean, I think I could do it on a very casual basis, like 2-3 times a week for about 3 miles.  I think that would be ok for my body and I would stop “getting” injured every other month.  Also, just to clarify, I’m not upset by any of this, just accepting my body’s limitations.  And after October I don’t think I will be training for a marathon again, perhaps a half, but even then.  I may just stick to 5-10Ks.

What I would love is to be able to focus on weight training, which I think I’ve brought up before.  It is just hard to do that while training your body for running – I think it sends mixed messages to the body. October will be here before I know it, so I’m not too worried about the delay.

On a more upbeat front, we went shopping at Whole Foods this evening and picked up the rest of our food for the week.  It makes me feel good that I was able to buy mostly local, organic foods. AND I don’t think we spent more than at the regular store. Bonus.

Anyhoo… eats.

Breakfast (348 cal):Vanilla Praline Protein Oats topped with PB and Strawberries. Pretty darn good.

Snack (207 cal):A generous dusting of cinnamon on a Jazz apple (not the most ethical fruit purchase) with some cabot and krackers.

Lunch (470 cal):So I actually did make a bento today, but the boy talked me into Panera. I am so weak! I was pleasantly surprised that they have black bean soup today AND more pleasantly surprised that they let me order a cup instead of a bowl.  I didn’t know they did that.  You see, I love the idea of a You-Pick-Two, but I want a full salad (especially when it is the Strawberry Poppyseed – YUMMMMM!) and would rather have the cup of soup that comes with the You-Pick-Two.  Problem solved.  I got both with a multigrain baguette and nabbed the boy’s as well.  They will fit perfectly in my bento!

Snack (163 cal):In an effort to clear out our lass than desirable packaged food I had a Quaker Raisin Date and Walnut instant oatmeal packet.  I don’t like instant oatmeal. I found this one to be surprisingly salty. Blech. I also had a lovely mock mocha that totally made up for the sub-par oats.

I assure you that is a raisin….

Dinner (409 cal): I contemplated having my bento for dinner, but then I would just have to go ahead and make one for tomorrow. And I am lazy like that.  Instead I had… a flatbread pizza. What!?! Yes, it is the third one this week, but they are devine.   Tonight’s included my leftover zucchini/squash/onion sautee, Morningstar Farms crumbles, and a little cheese.  This was not as good as the roasted veggie pizzas, but still pretty darn good.  On the side I had a carrot and celery stalk and for dessert I had some strawberries.

Calories in/Calories out: 1598/~2100

Next was a package from Gaia Herbs.  Apparently I participated in a survey and so they sent me a coupon and a sample of Chia Fresh their fiber supplement. I am very interested in their Omega-3 EFA product made from Chia seeds as well. From the materials it looks like a good company – organic, ethical company that makes vegetarian products.  I’ll give a formal review once I try the product out.

Our workout this morning was totally uninspired.  We had this idea of doing a circuit on our walks.  We did the walk today, but only scoped out a park to see what kind of exercises we could do there.  Of course there are squats, lunges, step-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, horizontal pull-ups, bench dips.  I think once we get our plan in place it should be some good fun. On our walk we stopped by Dunkin Donuts and I grabbed a medium coconut iced coffee w/ skim milk. I love that it only has 40 calories.  Quite the calorie bargain.

Breakfast (410 cal): Much the same as yesterday – Cinnamon Banana Flax Oats topped with NSA Apple Butter and PB.  YUM!

Snack (173 cal): I’ve been working hard to par down my snacks to make them snacks instead of mini meals.  I’m not sure why I’m making this change, but I’ll go with it. Apple dusted with cinnamon and some cottage cheese.

Lunch (555 cal): Second day I packed my bento! YAY ME! Clockwise – cold flatbread pizza like last night, boca w/ ketchup, pistachios (far right), celery and carrots. Even though the pizza was a little soggy, it was out of this world. If I could I would eat this every day.

Snack (178 cal): Flatbread with melted cabot and avocado…. yummy, but wish it was bigger. :-/

Dinner (413 cal): Dinner was simple – Boca with sweet potato, corn on the cob and a mix of sauteed zucchini, squash, and onion.

Calories in/Calories out: 1729/~2200

Breakfast (411 cal): Banana flax oats topped with some of the no sugar added apple butter I picked up at the farmer’s market and a bit of PB. This apple butter is so yummy and sweet – why would you ever need to add sugar?

Snack (185 cal): Cantaloupe sprinkled with pepper along side a VitaTop. Have you ever tried pepper on cantaloupe? I love it when the cantaloupe is super ripe like this one.

Lunch (456 cal): So proud that I actually packed my bento today.  Clockwise – cantaloupe with pepper, carrots, avocado, a crumbled MorningStar Farms burger with bulgur.

Snack (407 cal): This was eaten when I went home to walk the dogs. I guess my lunch wasn’t very satisfying, because for some reason I was “starving” wen I got home.  Apple, string cheese, cottage cheese, Dr. Krackers and a mini Clif bar (which seriously tastes like a chocolate chip cookie – evil!). Also an un-pictured Jolly Rancher.

Dinner (463 cal): Farmer’s Market Flatbread Pizza: roasted zucchini, eggplant, green pepper and onions.  V. yummy.  On the side I had some carrots and an apple +PB2 for dessert.

Calories In/Calories Out: 1922/~2222

Started off Saturday with our weight watchers meeting and then pilates. Immediately after pilates we went off to the second class in the Vegetarian Series at Cookology.  Only 6 people had signed up for the class and only one other couple actually showed up, so it was quite an intimate class.  We had a blast and the food was awesome as always.

Cookology

Vegetable Tagine

This dish was so wonderful.  The dish was a simple stew with onion, butternut squash, sweet potato, carrots, tomato.  It was spiced with fresh garlic and ginger and then cinnamon, cardamon, star anise, and cayenne pepper.

Prepping the Vegetable Tagine

Vegetable Tagine

Vegetable Tagine Close-up

Stir Fried Egg Noodles

Tangy, salty and oh so yummy. This dish was very simple – sauteed garlic/ginger/some spicy pepper, mushrooms, bean sprouts and egg noodles.  We finished it with soy sauce and some Thai basil.

Stir Fried Egg Noodles

Stir Fried Egg Noodles Close-up

Plum Compote

We sauteed the plums to give them a bit of color and then added some sugar and then some Liqueur 43 (or something like that).  The liquor and sugar made a wonderful sweet, fruity syrup.  Need I even say this was heavenly and it was the first thing I ate once everything was ready? Yeah, didn’t think so.

Plum Compote with Vanilla Ice Cream

Food Inc., Poets and Busboys, and Maggie Moos

After our class we headed down to Shirlington to catch the 3:15 showing of Food Inc.  My thoughts on the movie are so jumbled and I really still have such a lot to think about, but I just have to say wow.  I was tearing up many times during the movie and left feeling that there are some serious changes I need to make in my life and lifestyle.  If you haven’t seen it I strongly urge you to do so.

My rough thoughts are that I need to stop buying so many pre packaged foods.  Really, I would like to move as far as possible away from the manufactured food industry as possible. This means that I would like to grow as much food as possible and look to farmers markets before the grocery store.  I would like my diet to include primarily foods that are in their natural state or foods that I prepare from whole foods.

Over the next month or so, the boy and I will be researching ways to implement these changes.  In addition, we will be trying to use up our packaged foods.  As we are clearing our kitchen of packaged foods we can augment them with homemade foods and then switch over to make most everything ourselves.  While I think this will be a lot of work I also think it will be a great challenge.

For dinner we ate at Busboys and Poets, a lovely vegan friendly establishment.  They strive to buy local and have a gift shop to support fair trade in the restaurant. I highly recommend it.

Sweet Potato Fries

Tempeh Panini with Fruit

For dessert we stopped by Maggie Moos for the first time.  So much better than Coldstone.

Maggie Moos - Toffee Temptation

So yeah, I ate way too much yesterday.

Long Run, Farmer’s Market and Pho

We set out for our second try for 17 miles this morning.  It was crisp and just beautiful out.  I fueled pre-run with a mini clif bar, which may be exactly what I was looking for – no nausea at all! Everything was going great, until right before 11 miles and then my Achilles tendon started acting up.  Running was no longer possible, but walking was fine.  So, we finished out our 17 miles walking…. could have been worse.  Our next long run is in two weeks and we will try 17 again.  I love that we built in so much cushion into our training schedule.

After the run/walk we ate, showered and headed over to the farmer’s market in Sterling.  I picked up some zucchini, yellow squash, onions, red potatoes, egg plant, watermelon, cantaloupe, no sugar added apple butter, bacon & jerky for the boy, and this oh so yummy oatmeal bar.

Oatmeal Bar

As we were heading back from the market, the boy got a call from his dad.  He had biked out to our house and wanted to know if we were up for lunch.  We headed to a local indian restaurant we’ve been wanting to visit, but there was a line, so we went next door for our first experience with Pho.  I started off with a tofu summer roll and then had a small (which was HUGE) bowl of vegetable pho.  I added way too much spice, but it was still pretty good, and I have regained feeling in my lips so that’s good.

Pho 99 - Summer Roll w/ Fried Tofu

Pho 99 - Vegetable Pho

Just to note some of my other new obsessions: delicious (Yes I realize that I am sometimes way behind the times…) and a blog called TasteSpotting. I have found that instead of printing out countless recipes and then never organizing them, I could instead bookmark and tag them on delicious for easy searching for later.  And TasteSpotting – pure food porn and more stuff for my delicious accout.

Otherwise it has been a pretty standard Friday – get up, run (slow enough that the boy was literally running around me, backwards, and other shenanigans at times – I was not all that amused ), eat, go to work, spend my early Friday napping, yadda yadda yadda.  Eats were great and I tried something new, which always pleases me.

Breakfast (532 cal): An un-pictured bunch of cherry essence prunes and super yummy pancakes that included: 1/2 C egg whites; 1/2 C oats; 1 super ripe banana; 1 T flax meal; 3 crushed walnuts; generous amount of cinnamon; stingy sprinkle of nutmeg, cloves, and ginger; 1/4 t baking powder, 1 packet splenda. I topped them with SF syrup.  Amazing.  Have you tried these yet? If not get on that this weekend!

Snack (150 cal): Dr. Krackers with cottage cheese.

Lunch (510 cal): Large veggie salad from the deli, which might I say was fricking amazing.  Seriously.  It contained: romaine, broccoli, cauliflower, olives, green pepper, celery, cucumber, carrots, onions, beets , a packet of roasted almonds and FF ranch.  BTW, those 100 calorie packets of roasted almonds by Emeralds are super yummy, I’ve only been able to find them at one store though.

A little later I finished lunch with an oikos topped with a vita top and strawberries. Um, yum.

Snack (177 cal): Un-pictured: samples of cookie and bread at the store. Carrots while cooking dinner.

Dinner (483 cal): Something new – Tandoori Tofu. I simply pressed my tofu during our run this morning, added 1/2 a jar of tandoori paste to a zip-lock baggie, tossed in the tofu and coated it, and then let it marinade all day.  When I got home I baked it at 425 for about 30 minutes.  On the side I had some roasted pepper and onion bulgur pilaf as well as sauteed broccoli. The sweet roasted veggies were a nice contrast to the tangy, spicy tandoori.  So yummy.

For dessert I had a new Mint Chocolate VitaTop with ice cream.  Ummm…. yuck.  Imagine an altoid brownie…. curiously strong indeed.  I’m so sorry I bought a dozen of these and I may see about getting a credit or something.

Late Snack (225 cal): Strawberries, the sweetest nectarine topped with crumbled Nature Valley Nut Clusters – Roasted Almond.  Also a few un-pictured cherry essence prunes.

Calories in: 2077
Calories out: ~2300