You are here: Home / Blog

A Soup-er Wednesday Day

October 14, 2009 by

Yes, it was a super, soup-er day, and you’ll see why in a minute. It was a no-run Wednesday for me today which means I was able to sleep in for a whole extra 20 minutes – whoopie!

Then, it was time for breakfast…

10.14 breakfast2

A cereal mix of Honey Nut Cheerios and Kashi Go Lean, topped with walnuts and banana slices – hmm!

10.14 breakfast1

It was another day and another birthday at work. This time, someone supplied the whole office with birthday bagels. Luckily I stopped eating bagels circa 2000. I seriously can’t even look at a bagel without feeling bloated.

The morning flew by and I was able to get a ton done – so much in fact that I had a little extra time at lunch. So, I met Scott at Go Roma. Enter soup #1…

10.14 lunch

A cup of hearty minestrone with a dollop of basil pesto on top. This soup is so rich and filling – it’s hard to believe that it’s low in calories – but it is thank goodness! This soup actually kept me fairly full all the way until dinner – minus a few Halloween-shaped pretzels I had 😉

Enter soup #2….Potato and cheese!

10.14 dinner

Scott made this soup on Monday and now, after sitting for two days, this soup tastes 10 times better! It really thickened up and all the flavors finally came out to say “hello!” I had the soup with a few pieces of whole-garlic infused bakery bread – the perfect thickness for dipping in hot soup!

Now, it’s time for dessert – a little chocolate peanut butter ice cream from a huge Chicago favorite – Oberweis!

10.14 dessert2

We used to buy single scoops of ice cream at Oberweis for about $3 a scoop. But now, we’ve wised up a little and just buy the pre-packed quart of chocolate peanut butter for $6. It makes like 10 scoops which is waaaay cheaper!

Now that I’m all souped and ice creamed out, I’m going to read a little of my new Real Simple magazine – yeah! I love the Holiday issues!

Only 15 more days until the BIG meeting in San Diego!!

Have a great night all!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , ,

A Bacon Chocolate Cupcake – To Go

October 13, 2009 by

Hi Everyone!

Have you ever had one of those days where everything just seems to fall into place and your productivity is super high – even higher than normal? Well, today was one of those days for me! I started off with an awesome four mile run, split between the t-mill and outside. It was even colder outside today (35 degrees, brrrrhh!) than yesterday but I bundled up. The cold air actually felt great, although by the time I got home my hands were frozen.

For breakfast, I recharged on some homemade oatmeal…

10.13 breakfast1

I started with plain oats, then added some skim milk, walnuts, creamy PB, and topped it with fresh cut strawberries – so sweet, thick, and yummy!

10.13 breakfast2

Not only was my run fantastic, but work was incredibly productive today! I was so on my game today. I completed project after project – writing, reviewing, copying, etc. – not bothering to wait for admin help and just taking care of things on my own. I love these kinds of days!

But of course, working in a large office is not without its faults. As I mentioned last week, there are no less than 6 birthdays being celebrated in our office this week. As is office custom, when it’s your birthday, you bring treats for everyone in the office. So, when I walked into the staff lounge this morning, I was not at all surprised to see 3 large coffee cakes, 2 dozen cookies, and a dozen gourmet cupcakes. I would have taken a picture, but the food was a little disheveled and it would have seemed odd if I tidied up and then took a picture. 

So, out of all these goodies, what did I take? A cupcake of course!

10.13 snack

The cupcakes were from a specialty bakery in Chicago called Bleeding Heart Bakery. They sell all sorts of goodies, but seem to specialize in cupcakes with exotic ingredients/flavors – like bacon-infused chocolate cupcakes and blueberry crumble. I thought I had selected a peanut butter chocolate cupcake but it turned out to be bacon-infused chocolate. Kind of a strange combination – bacon and chocolate – but it really works. And, no, I did NOT eat this for breakfast – shame on you for even thinking that 😉 I saved it for an after lunch treat and it was fantastic!

Speaking of lunch, it was leftover pasta and sauce for me!

10.13 lunch

I LOVE pasta and sauce as leftovers – it’s a lunch that I actually look forward to. However, I ate this so fast because I was just about starving. I realize that I really need to eat earlier (before 1 PM) to avoid eating fast or overeating at lunch.

My afternoon cupcake treat was a great way to celebrate my super productive day but it left me pretty full, even too full for dinner at 6:3o PM. So instead of a big dinner, I opted for a small salami and ham sandwich on fresh bakery bread, with a side of pickles and Cape Cod chips…

10.13 dinner2

I haven’t had a sandwich in at least a week, which is actually quite a stretch for me. And having the sandwich on garlic bread from the bakery made it extra tasty!

10.13 dinner1

No dessert for me tonight – the cupcake was enough sweetness to last me the whole day!

I have a few things to catch up on this evening, so I’m signing off early. Have a great night everyone!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , ,

Cursing the Chex-Mix

October 12, 2009 by

Hello All! Thank you all so much for all your sweet and concerned comments about my lost camera. I am liking the new one – the Canon SD 980 IS, however, I may have my sights set on an even better one!! Hopefully, I’ll have more details about that in the coming weeks. But, let’s just say that one camera is NOT enough for this household!

After my split run (2 miles on the t’mill and 2 miles outside) I came home and enjoyed a bowlful of fluffy goodness…

10.12 breakfast1

Today I tried Chobani’s fat free vanilla Greek yogurt topped with walnuts for extra crunch and MUFA. This yogurt was pretty tasty, but I still prefer Trader Joe’s Greek yogurt to most.

I arrived at work about 9:15 AM, Starbuck’s skinny vanilla latte in hand, and promptly got down to business. For nearly 4 hours straight I barely left my cube. I was so entrenched in work that I didn’t even feel like eating lunch – just wasn’t hungry. Instead, I munched on some homemade chex-mix, full of chex cereal, mixed nuts, and pretzels (what, not chocolate?), that was found in our staff lounge. I have a very strong feeling I should have eaten lunch, because around 4 PM I was cursing that chex-mix big time – ugh! Please note that I do NOT normally skip lunch completely. It’s only on these very rare occasions when I’m just not hungry that I do actually forgo a lunchtime meal. I do not recommended it at all, because most of the time, I will end up eating junk or over eating later in the day.

Anyway, now it’s on to dinner with Scott, which is always event. Tonight, I came home to a very clean house (thank you!) and a huge pot of potato soup!

10.12 dinner1

Hmmm….sooo good on a cold day! I will have to admit, I do like my version of the potato soup a tad better. I think it may have to do with the carrots and leeks that I add – they give my soup a ton of flavor. But this version is still quite tasty.

10.12 dinner2

While we were waiting for the soup to finish cooking, I decided to finally break into the Trader Joe’s pumpkin bread…

10.12 pumpkin bread1

I simply followed the recipe on the box, only I added about a cup of chopped walnuts right on top…

10.12 pumpkin bread2

The smell of this batter was just heavenly! It’s amazing what certain food scents can conjure up in your mind. I felt like it should be Thanksgiving or at least November.

About an hour later, the sweet bread was finally puffed and fluffed and ready for me to take out of the oven…

10.12 pumpkin bread3

Next came the taste test….

10.12 pumpkin bread4

This bread was really good, although I felt like there was something missing. I can’t put my finger on it just yet, but I can assure you that if it just had a little something more, it would have been fantastic. Scott, on the other hand, liked it “enough to have a second piece”. I think I’ll try homemade next time….

I am completely spent for the night. Have a great evening and see you all tomorrow!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , , ,

New Day, New Camera

October 11, 2009 by

A food/health blogger without her camera is like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, without the peanut butter. Well, as you all know, my husband lost our camera yesterday somewhere in the woods. We actually went back to the forest preserve this morning to look for it and inquire at the Visitor’s Center, but no luck.

So, my husband did what any awesome husband would do and he promptly went out and bought me a brand new camera!! But before I get to those details, let’s see how my day went without the camera….

Prior to our excursion to the forest preserve, I ran 4 miles on the treadmill. It was only about 28 degrees outside this morning and I’ve become such a marshmallow that it’s hard for me to run outside when it’s below 30 degrees. Running on the treadmill was VERY hard this morning. Even though I got about 8 hours sleep, I felt so sluggish. I even tried watching the Chicago Marathon, thinking that might help, but I still felt weak. I’m guessing it was my camera dilemma that zapped the energy from me.

For breakfast, I had a bowl of homemade oatmeal…

10.11 breakfast

Please keep in mind that this photo was taken with Scott’s iphone, prior to him buying the new camera. My oatmeal was made with plain oatmeal, doctored up with some brown sugar and a bunch of walnuts – super yummy! I would have added peanut butter, but we are completely OUT! Imagine that, a peanut butter-loving gal OUT of peanut butter. We are were also out of cheese, which is again so unlike us.

After our fruitless effort in the forest, we headed to Red Robin for lunch. We tried to save money and calories by splitting a crispy chicken sandwich…

10.11 Lunch

But then we went and ordered TWO chocolate shakes!! I needed to wallow somehow and having a chocolate shake was the perfect way to drown my camera sorrow.

But then….enter the new Camera!!! My new Canon SD 980 IS is very similar to my old Canon SD 870 powershot, only an upgraded model with more features and a touch screen. So cool!! We’re going to at least try it out for a month to see if we like it and then take it back before our 90-day trial period if we don’t.

I was so excited when he gave it to me that I promptly started taking pictures of everything just to play around…

10.11 fruit

As you can see, I had zero natural light because it was nearly dinnertime when he came home with the camera, but that didn’t matter to me! 

I also tested the new cam out on dinner….

10.11 appetizer2

We started with a little lot of aged white cheddar cheese and whole wheat crackers, both purchased today from Fresh Market. We haven’t had high quality cheddar like this in a while so we ate way more than we should have – practically the whole block. But we were also celebrating our new gadget!!

Dinner was lemon-herb rotisserie chicken from Fresh Market with a side of homemade mashed potatoes and steamed carrots…

10.11 dinner1

We topped this all with my husband’s homemade chicken gravy – oh my, this was good!

Now, we’re about to watch a few episodes of The Office on Hulu – I missed Jim and Pam’s wedding 🙁 – and dig into our celebratory dessert, a raspberry white chocolate layer cake…

10.11 dessert

One word to describe this – SWEET!!

Ok, enough for today. I’m outta here!

Have a great night everyone!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , ,

A Food Blogger's Nightmare

October 10, 2009 by

In the food blooger/health blogger world, having camera issues can mean major headaches. But, to lose your camera completely, well that is a nightmare. And today, I am living that nightmare.

My husband spent the whole day with “the boys”, hiking, pizza eating, movie-watching, etc. He asked to take the camera and I obliged. Bad move. Somewhere along the way, our $600 camera was lost. I won’t get into the details or my frustration with the situation. However, I wanted to let you all know of my dilemma so that you would understand why I may have not-so-pretty photos or missing photos completely. In the meantime, I will be using my husband’s iphone to take photos. The photos on his built-in camera are not too bad, but no where near real camera quality.

So now, as you can imagine, I need to invest in a new camera, preferably one that takes awesome close-ups. If you have any recommendations, please shoot them my way!

Sorry ladies, that’s all I’ve got tonight. Just not in the mood to write anything else. I’m sure you can relate on some level.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

It's 3 AM, But I'm Not Lonely

October 9, 2009 by

Happy Friday everyone!

I’m watching Psych right now and loving it! I really should go to bed since I only got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night. I woke up at 3 AM and just couldn’t go to back to sleep. I actually started thinking of that song by Matchbox 20 – It’s 3 AM. But, I wasn’t lonely just anxiety-ridden.

I got up around 4 AM and actually worked for a few hours. How dedicated is that? Breakfast was another cereal bowl, but this time with a new cereal…

10.9 breakfast

I received a free sample of Total blueberry pomegranate in the mail so I threw that into the mix with Cheerios multi-grain and Kashi Go Lean. I topped the cereal with a bunch of walnuts for some extra MUFA and crunch. The Total cereal sure smelled good when I poured it into the bowl – very fruity. It added a little bit more sweetness to my normal cereal mix, which was surely welcome. But I really don’t think it was anything extraordinary, but then again, I’ve never been a big Total fan.

Scott and I opted for lunch at Portillos today – a Chicago hot dog/Italian beef favorite. I ordered the all-beef hot dog with everything…10.9 lunch

Really messy, but awesome! I did NOT eat the pickle right on the hot dog, but I left it on for the picture to give you the full effect. If you ever want to see a crazy place at lunchtime, just go to Portillos – it’s nuts! There were so many people in the restaurant that we almost didn’t find a seat.

Dinner was leftover soup…

10.9 dinner1

With a side of Mac and cheese…

10.9 dinner3

Now, I really need to get to bed, as I’m sure you can all understand. I hope I will be able to finally get some sleep and shake this headache that I’ve head all day.

Night everyone!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , ,

The "Good" Jeans

October 8, 2009 by

Hello All!

As many of you know, when it’s someone’s birthday in our office, it’s customary to bring in a treat for the entire office. Many people go the easy route and buy donuts or coffee cakes from the grocery store. While others will bring in huge platters of sweets and other goodies. Well, I looked on our interoffice calendar for next week and there are 6 birthdays! You all know what that means – food overload! I’ll try to snap a few covert photos whenever possible.

This morning, I was able to get out for my run and finish just before the rain started – perfect timing!

Breakfast was cereal bowl trifecta…

10.8 breakfast

A mix of Cheerios multi-grain, Kashi Go Lean, and Nature Valley nut lover’s granola (a sample received from the company). Crunch, crunch!

Next up was deciding what to wear. Now, during the months of October – December, we are allowed to wear jeans on any day of the week (I think they feel sorry for us because we’re so crazy busy preparing for our big shindig at the end of October!). The catch is, unless it is a Friday (when we are normally allowed to wear jeans), we have to pay a $1 which goes toward our Foundation. Money isn’t the problem. I just never seem to have a good pair of jeans available to wear! And this morning, that’s just what happened. I woke up thinking that I would just wear jeans, pay the buck and be done with it. Not much thought or effort, etc. But I realized that I didn’t have my “good” jeans ready to wear (I really only have one pair of Gap jeans that I like enough to wear to work). They are not fancy, they just fit really well and don’t have that faded/worn look that probably would not be acceptable to wear to work.

So I went back to the closet for 20 minutes trying to figure out an alternate outfit. Because of this extra time spent on outfit hunting, I didn’t arrive at work until 9:15 AM!!! Yikes! Has this happened to anyone else…where you’re late to work because of a clothes dilemma? What is your go-to brand of jeans? I’m asking because I’d like to invest in a few new pairs.

Anyway, I settled on brown pants and a burnt orange v-neck sweater – very fall-ish, I thought. 

Work was very productive and went by super fast. If it weren’t for the handful of people who kept bugging interrupting me with unnecessary issues, I would have been even more productive. I need to put a sign on my cube that says please save all unnecessary questions or issues until after Nov. 6! But, I’m sure that would appear rude and not very team-oriented.

Lunch happened to be leftovers once more….

10.8 lunch

My favorite sausage-leek pasta dish sprinkled with a few red pepper flakes for extra kick!

Around 6:45 PM, I arrived home to an empty house, which wasn’t so bad because it was quiet and it smelled completely like chicken soup! Scott (who was home sick for most of the day) made homemade chicken noodle soup for himself and kept it warming up on the stove for me. So thoughtful, even when he’s sick. The soup must have helped him feel a little better since he did end up going to class tonight.

10.8 dinner

After my hearty bowl of soup, I indulged in… more cake? No, I did NOT have cake! There was actually one little piece left in the cake dome and I thought about eating it to put it out of it’s lonely misery, but I walked away. Instead, I had a date with Edy’s…

10.8 dessert

I mixed a scoop of Edy’s chocolate with a scoop of Edy’s spumoni. So good! Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE cake! But, a girl can only have cake so many days in a row. It’s really that old saying – too much of a good thing….and so on.

I have a little more work to do tonight, so gotta run. But, I think I can smell a loaf of pumpkin bread in my near future!

Have a great night ladies!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , ,

Cake Denial

October 7, 2009 by

Hi everyone!

I am so excited! I arrived home today to find a HUGE package of goodies – all food samples for me to try. I won’t reveal what products they are just yet – I need to arrange a really cool picture displaying my new bounty!

Today was a no-run Wednesday, so I promptly got up around 6:30, ate some breakfast, and was at work at 8:30 (yippee, I was early!). Before leaving the house, I had a light breakfast – a super ripe and juicy nectarine…

10.7 breakfast

I just wasn’t very hungry (that happens when I don’t run) but I knew I needed to eat something. 

Work was very productive again today. Thankfully, my projects are beginning to wind down. But, it really is just the calm before the storm, so to speak. Because, in about 3 weeks, everything culminates at our big meeting in San Diego. I will be traveling and working for 7 days straight – working 12-15 hour days. Although some people at the office may not agree, I really do have fun at the meeting. I find all of the hustle and bustle exciting and energizing.

I’m a little worried about my posts for that week though, because of the long days. Also, I’m still not sure how I’m going to take pictures of all my meals – and we usually have GREAT meals/dinners at these meetings – very high class. I promise I will try to sneak in a few good photos!

Around 1:30 PM, I thought it was about time to grab lunch. I called ahead to Go Roma to check out their soup du jour – it was cream of chicken with wild rice. Sold!

10.7 lunch

Oh, this soup is fantastic! But I really felt like I was eating 1,000 calories because it was so rich and creamy. That definitely kept me full for the rest of the day!

Dinner was a superb meal of chicken tacos prepared by Scott The Chef/Computer guy – aka my husband.

10.7 dinner2

He actually made me chicken tacos while he had the steak variety, because I don’t eat beef. Hmm..so good that I actually had two full tacos! As you can see, I made the first one and completely forgot to put lettuce on it – so here  is my taco re-do….

10.7 dinner3

To finish off the meal, I had a little taste of chocolate that someone gave to me at work…

10.7 chocolate

This was a Lake Champlain maple crunch chocolate made in Vermont. Don’t you just love the cool fall design? It’s so Vermont-ish too.

OK, I wasn’t going to mention this, but my conscience got the best of me. After the chocolate, I had another piece of chocolate cake with Breyer’s vanilla bean ice cream. No photo though because I’m in cake denial. Part of me thought that if I did not have a photo of it that there would be no proof that I ate it. I’m sure you’ve all been there!

Ok, enough blabbering for tonight. See you all on Thursday!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , ,

Take the Cake….Out of My House!

October 6, 2009 by

Evening chicas! I first want to give a shout out and a huge CONGRATULATIONS to all of our fellow female food bloggers who received FoodBuzz Blog Award nominations. Good luck to all the nominees!

Today was such a productive day! Really, I felt like I was flying through project after project and putting out fires along the way. 

This morning, I was on treadmill about 6:30 to run for about 15 minutes before heading outside. It had just rained about 2 hours before so the ground was still wet and the air had that wet Autumn leaf smell that I love. I only ran about 4 miles total – it was all I could do today because I was running late for work.

After my run, I grabbed a simple breakfast…

10.6 breakfast

A high fiber English muffin with all-natural creamy peanut butter.

Somehow, even after waking up at 6 AM I still didn’t get to work until after 9 AM. I really have to streamline my morning routine.

About mid-morning, I became a little hungry and went to my granola bar stash in my drawer. I tried the Market Pantry high fiber peanut butter and oats granola bar.

10.6 snack

I was excited to try this bar because I love “high fiber” foods. But, after one bite, I knew this bar was not for me. I did not like this bar at ALL. It’s hard to even tell you what I didn’t like about it because after just one bite, I grimaced and threw it away. I’m glad I didn’t waste 140 calories on that one!

So, it was on to lunch! I was so hungry by the time I stopped for lunch that I ate it so fast and I didn’t stop to take a photo (oops!). But rest assured, it was the same thing that I had for dinner last night – sausage and pasta with leeks. Nothing like leftovers!

Dinner ended up being more leftovers – turkey chili!

10.6 dinner1

I had it with a size of elbow noodles, topped with white cheddar cheese – yummy!

The chili was pretty filling, but I still went for another piece of chocolate cake to finish off the night…

10.6 dessert

This cake is sooo good! But, I would be extremely relieved if I came home tomorrow and it was all gone. Please take this cake out of the house!

Now, I’m watching reruns of The Office and contemplating whether or not I should do more work. I think not – I see my new Shape and Fitness magazines staring at me just begging to be read!

Take care all and see you tomorrow!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The End of Gourmet

October 5, 2009 by

Hi Girls! If you haven’t already heard, Gourmet magazine is no more! That’s really too bad – it was such a reliable foodie magazine. I only hope that the other foodie mags don’t follow suit.

Well, our foodie lives must go on….

Today was a very busy day! I arrived at work around 9:30 AM (that’s really late for me as you know) and didn’t get up from my desk until near 12 PM! I swear I could feel a blood clot forming in my leg. I am so happy to be home right now and doing something away from the office.

Before heading to work, I ran about four miles outside. It’s getting so chilly in the morning these days, but as long as it doesn’t drop below about 30 degrees, I’m solid. After the brisk run, I munched on some cereal…

10.5 breakfast1

I changed things up a little and had Cheerios multi-grain mixed with Kashi Go Lean. Plus, I topped it with 1/3 banana and a handful of walnuts!! I absolutely love walnuts. I love their crunch and that they’re packed with nutrition.10.5 breakfast2

Speaking of walnuts, next week is the Annual Walnut Harvest Celebration in northern California. I so wish I could go and enjoy all of the walnut-based recipes! If you want to learn more about walnuts and related recipes the California Walnut Board has a great Web site with a ton of information.

On my way to work, I stopped off to get a Starbucks Mocha frap. I’m getting kind of burned out on these, I think it’s time to switch my drink to the skinny vanilla latte again.

After working nonstop for 4 1/2 hours, I finally ran out to get some lunch…

10.5 lunch

I went to Go Roma near the office for a little minestrone soup! Hmmm,,.it was really good on a chilly day.

For dinner, Scott made a dish that I usually make – my sausage-leek dish...

10.5 dinner

The dish was exceptionally flavorful tonight. Hmmm…maybe Scott should cook it from now on 😉

After dinner, dessert was calling my name in the form of a green-frosted cake!

10.5 cake

Oh my, how I love devil’s food chocolate cake – or really any kind of cake.

I have a little more work to do tonight so I’ve gotta run for now girls. It’s going to be like this from now until mid-November, but I’m used to it by now.

Have a great night!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , , ,