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Squeezing Pears and Roasting Potatoes

November 22, 2009 by

Hi there!

Today was an absolutely beautiful day in Chicago! When I headed out around 10 AM for my 5-mile run, it was already 52 degrees and sunny! I hope we have many more days like this throughout the fall/winter season. 

After my run, I grabbed another LUNA bar to recharge…

11.22 Luna Bar

I do not eat LUNA bars or any granola/power bars for breakfast on a regular basis. Although they are very nutritious – full of protein and fiber – I really don’t feel like they fill me up enough at breakfast. But, like yesterday, today was another day of running a crazy amount of errands, so LUNA always comes in handy when you’re in a hurry to get out the door. 

My day was full of shopping, which let me back to Target – yet again – to get Christmas tree lights. It never fails, no matter how careful we are with our lights, we always end up buying new ones because the old ones don’t work.

I also stopped at Trader Joe’s. OMG, you would have thought they were giving turkeys away! I go to Trader Joe’s about once a week and I have NEVER seen it so busy. In fact, my regular grocery store, which I went to after TJ’s, was not 1/2 as busy as Trader Joe’s. It’s the holiday craziness starting already.

I headed back home for lunch, which ended up being another yummy sandwich…

11.22 salami sandwich

But I also enjoyed one of the fresh pears I bought at the grocery store. I must have really been on my squeezing game because I picked a perfectly ripe pear and it was so juicy and delicious…

11.22 Pears

I even picked up a few more when I went back to the grocery store today. Hmm, I’m thinking a pear crisp might be in my near future…

11.22 salami sandwich 2

After picking up a few things at Harry and David and Barnes and Noble (I really should own stock in that store!), it was time to head home to put up the tree and lights…

11.22 Santa Train 1

I even put out one of my favorite Christmas decorations, the Santa Train, as I call it. This is by far the best impulse purchases I’ve ever made – and it was at Costco! It’s a beautiful and very detail 4-part wooden train filled with old-fashioned toys – that are real toys!

11.22 Santa Train 2

11.22 Santa Train 3

That is one thing that I’ve come to learn about Costco – If you see something you really like, buy it, because it may not be there the next time you go.

Scott was working most of the day trying to finish project before Thanksgiving. So, I volunteered to make us dinner – and it wasn’t just reservations or take-out!!

11.22 Turkey burger

I whipped up some burgers on our indoor grill – turkey for me and buffalo for Scott. I also made some awesome oven roasted potatoes. These were super easy to make. Here’s how:

Easiest Oven-Roasted Potatoes

  • 4 medium red-skinned potatoes, washed and cut into cubes/chunks
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • Salt/pepper to taste.

    • Mix the oil with the potatoes in a bowl and add salt and pepper. Spread potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven that’s been preheated. Take out tray and flip potatoes over. Return to oven for 10 minutes. Broil for 3-5 minutes if needed – then enjoy! 

For variety, I have added rosemary, Italian seasonings, and or parmesan cheese to the potatoes prior to cooking. It just gives them a little extra flavor.

    11.22 Oven roasted potatoes  

    Now,  I must be off. I have a ton of wrapping to do before Thanksgiving – when my side of the family exchanges our Christmas presents.

    Have a great night everyone!

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Bacon Makes Everything Taste Better

November 21, 2009 by

Hi Everyone! 

Last night, I watched Rachel Ray’s Vacation on the Food Network. She was reviewing some of the hot spots in Philadelphia. I was sooo excited to see that she actually visited two of the VERY places I went to last year at my company’s annual meeting! She reviewed Amada tapas restaurant and Naked Chocolate Cafe, both of which were awesome! I am very proud to say that I found these two places on my own before even seeing the show – so I guess great minds think alike. Maybe it’s a sign that I should subscribe to her magazine 😉

This morning, Scott and I had to rush out the door to run errands, so there was no time for a sit-down breakfast. And so it was LUNA to the rescue…

11.21 LUNA bar

Lunch was at our fave Italian cafe where I promptly ordered my signature veggie pizza…

11.21 Veggie Pizza 2

It was loaded with mushrooms, spinach, red peppers, pesto, and topped with goat cheese, all on a wheat crust – fantastic!

11.21 Veggie pizza 1

Next up, was a little Christmas shopping. In just two hours, I managed to get to:

  • Crate and Barrel – Looking for cool wine glasses on sale for $2.95 – but they were all out 🙁
  • Bath and Body Works – I don’t shop here much because I prefer L’Occitane or Crabtree and Evelyn but BBW was having some great sales.
  • Harry and David – Looking for a foodie gift for my big sis.
  • Barnes and Noble – Hmm, no real reason to go here other than to pick up a mocha frap!
  • Fresh Market – Ahh, rotisserie chicken for dinner!

For dinner, I decided to try my hand at making brussel sprouts. Shauna’h suggested a great recipe from a friend, although I did not have all of the ingredients to make it. So, it was my own creation tonight – which usually makes Scott a little leery.

11.21 Brussel Sprouts

But for these, I fried some all-natural hickory smoked bacon in a pan until crisp. Then I removed the bacon and added steamed brussel sprouts (about 25 sprouts cut in 1/2). Then I sauteed the sprouts in a little more oil and the bacon drippings until they were slightly brown. Of course, I thought they were awesome. On the other hand, Scott remarked that he would probably not eat these again without the bacon. I guess bacon really does make every taste better.

One word of caution, if you do make this recipe, be very careful when pouring the sprouts in the bacon grease or you will wind up with grease burns…

11.21 arm burn

Not fun, especially since now they have progressed to tiny blisters – ouch! It was my own dumb fault though!

Aside from sprouts, I also tried my hand at making mashed sweet potatoes for the first time. I know, I know…how could I have gotten this far in life without making mashed sweet potatoes? Well, let’s just say we did not eat them very often growing up and when I did, we usually had the canned version.

11.21 sweet potatoes 1

For this bright orange and very festive dish, I followed the very easy recipe on Martha Stewart’s site. Seriously, this was SO easy. The hardest part was chopping the sweet potatoes -they are definitely not as easy to chop as white potatoes. Again, this dish was mighty tasty – I’m going to pat myself on the back for this one for sure!

11.21 Roast chicken and sweet potatoes

The side dishes all came together quite nicely with the white wine rotisserie chicken I bought from Fresh Market. Although, I swear these chickens are getting smaller and smaller. They’re almost like a cornish hen now. Scott and I used to be able to split one with leftovers for another full dinner. Now, we’re lucky if we have leftovers. And it’s NOT that we are eating more either!

11.21 roast chicken and brussel sprouts

11.21 roast chickena nd sweet potatoes 2

I paired this all with a nice Robert Mondavi Chardonnay I purchased at Costco last week. Fancy, fancy.

I think this made up for last night’s sandwich dinner, don’t you think?

OK, gotta run. I have a ton of pre-Thanksgiving cleaning to get to tonight! See you all on Sunday!

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How Do You Make Brussel Sprouts Taste Good?

November 20, 2009 by

Hey there! So what happens when you work 10 hour days Monday-Thursday?  You spend your Fridays running all of the errands that you would have during the week. Yes, that is exactly what I did today, I ran errands for practically the entire day.

After an awesome outdoor 4-mile run, I chomped on a hearty bowl of Honeynut Cheerios…

11.20 Cheerios

I really want to get some new dishes to jazz up my food pictures. But quite honestly, I have so much dishware that it’s hard to justify spending money to buy more. And I really don’t have much more space to put it.

Post-breakfast, it was off to:

  • Post Office – To Mail out Christy’s giveaway – yeah! I just hope the chocolate withstands the warmer Florida temps!
  • Target – LUNA bars and a birthday present
  • Grocery Store – Bread and milk

I went to my usual grocery store to pick up our favorite La Brea three-cheese bread, but realized that all they had was the pre-sliced kind. I prefer to slice my own as needed – I think it stays fresher that way. Well, one of the workers offered to bake me a fresh loaf right then and there! Woo hoo – jackpot!

But of course, since I had to wait an extra 20 minutes for the bread to bake, I spent more time at the store than I intended. As a result, I ended up buying more groceries than I had planned. Case in point – I bought brussel sprouts.

11.20 brussel sprouts

Now, I know many of you buy and cook brussel sprouts on a regular basis. Well, I have never bought or cooked brussel sprouts EVER and have only eaten them once in my entire life! However, after seeing a bunch of your posts featuring these little green cabbages, I decided to give them a try. I actually recall seeing a Tyler Florence show where he roasted brussel spouts and they looked fantastic. I’m not quite sure if that’s because Tyler made them or if it was because bacon was involved. Maybe it’s a little of both.

So, how do you make brussel sprouts taste good? If you have the answer to that question (such as in the form of a great recipe), please let me know! 

For lunch, Scott and I had minestrone soup with some of that fresh three-cheese bakery bread I mentioned before…

11.20 Minestrone

The soup was good, but the bread was outstanding! I admit that I had more than one piece 😉 On a side note – Bread is one of my vices, along with peanut M&M’s.

Later in the day, it was more errands for me, including a fruitless stop at Old Navy. Whenever I go into Old Navy, I have these high hopes of finding some great shirt or sweater – but that just never happens. Oh well, I guess it’s back to the Gap and JCrew for me.

Tonight was my turn to cook again, but you all have figured out by now that when it’s my turn to cook I make every effort to NOT cook. So tonight was sandwich night at the Running With Cake household…

11.20 Salami and Ham sandwich 1

The salami and ham sandwiches were a little fancier because of the freshly-made cheese bread. Who am I kidding – it’s still just a sandwich. But I did have a few mini bell peppers for some added vitamin C…

11.20 Salami and ham sandwich 2

And now, on to the best part of my day… dessert!

11.20 chocolate peanut butter ice cream

Scott made a run up to our local Oberweis dairy to pick up two quarts of ice cream – mint chocolate chip for him and chocolate peanut butter for me. Yum!

I have another busy day planned for tomorrow, between Christmas shopping and wrapping, so I’m going to sign off for the night. 

Every your Friday evening!

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Vote For Your Favorite Cooking/Food Magazine!

November 19, 2009 by

Hi All! I don’t know about you but today seemed to go by so SLOW! This is sort of our “slow season” at work, or rather a slower season. People are starting to go on vacation, some are working from home. As a result, it’s been very quiet at the office and the hours just seem to drag by. Luckily, I always have work to keep me busy, but when I see everyone else taking vacations or chatting with coworkers to pass the time, it’s hard to focus on work. 

Anyway, my day started with a great run on the treadmill. I tried to do a split – 1/2 treadmill, 1/2 running outside, but when I stepped out the door, it was just starting to rain. So it was back to the treadmill and away we go!

Breakfast was a small bowl of homemade oatmeal…

11.19 oatmeal with peanut butter

I added a handful of sliced almonds to the oatmeal and topped it with a spoonful of all-natural peanut butter. I find that when I add protein – especially extra protein – to my breakfast I usually don’t need to snack before lunch. And, that’s just what happened today!

11.19 oatmeal with peanut butter 2

The oats plus tons of monounsaturated fats (MUFA) gave me enough energy for hours. It also was so warm and soothing – just perfect for a chilly and rainy fall day.

Lunch happened to be leftovers from last night – spinach risotto…

11.19 spinach risotto

I have come to learn a thing or two about risotto. I’ve learned no matter how awesome and “very Italian” it tastes on the day you make it, by the second day it tastes just like Rice-a-Roni. Not very risotto-y or Italian, but still adequate for lunch leftovers.

If you can believe it, dinner was MORE leftovers in the form of Monday’s turkey tacos. But, I decided to change it up a bit and make a taco salad…

11.19 taco salad 1

This is what happens when Scott teaches at night. I become the sandwich-leftovers queen, and tonight was no different.

11.19 taco salad 2

After dinner, I starting flipping through my Real Simple holiday issue again. I LOVE that magazine! It is probably my favorite non-fitness magazine. But, I noticed my subscription is up this month and wondered whether or not I should renew. Ok, that took me all of 3 seconds to decide – heck yeah I’m renewing! But then I wondered if I should branch out from Real Simple and health/fitness magazines and maybe subscribe to a food/foodie magazine. 

With Gourmet magazine now defunct, I’m down to the following 4 magazines that I’m contemplating subscribing to:

  • Fine Cooking: It seems like such an elegant magazine, which great ideas for fancy full-scale dinners, etc.
  • Bon Appetit: Again, this tends to lean on the more elegant/fancy side of the foodie magazines, but they have great photos and recipes.
  • Cooking Light: This is the Real Simple of cooking/food magazines, easy to follow, and mostly uncomplicated recipes. Plus, most recipes and articles are geared toward the use of health ingredients and cooking methods.
  • Everyday With Rachel Ray: I do like this magazine, but sometimes I feel like it’s designed for someone with ADHD. It is all over the place as far as sections, articles, etc. But something about it still draws me to it, kind of like a car accident where you can’t help but look.

I’m fairly sure I will subscribe to one of these magazines, but I’d love your help deciding! Please send me your vote for your favorite food/cooking magazine! Just leave a comment on this post and let me know if you subscribe to any of the four magazines I mentioned above (or read them on a regular basis), what you like about them, and which one of the four you’d recommend. The magazine with the most votes will earn my subscription! Now I know all of you foodie bloggers out there must subscribe to at least one of these, so don’t let me down! You have until Tuesday, November 24, at 9 PM Eastern to cast your vote. I can’t wait to hear from all of you!

OK peeps, I’ve got a brownie sitting here with my name on it.

11.19 brownie 1

Have a great evening everyone! And remember, to vote, vote, VOTE!

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So, I was called into the Principal's Office….

November 16, 2009 by

**Don’t forget about the first ever Running With Cake giveaway! You may just snag yourself a huge bounty of goodies!**

It’s funny how your day can start off normal, with everything going along smoothly, then WHAM! A huge pile of bricks is dropped right on your head. Well, not actually, but that’s kind of how I felt today.

I had a perfectly lovely run this morning, bouncing along to my Christmas music and wondering what I was going to have for breakfast.

11.16 Greek Yogurt with walnuts

Ahh, Trader Joe’s Greek yogurt with walnuts – a super energizing breakfast. Followed by a steaming cup of Tazo Awake tea..

11.16 Tazo Awake Tea

Everything was still normal at this point. Little did I know, I would need this mighty breakfast to get me through a pretty stressful afternoon.

Next up, lunch – another incredibly yummy salad…

11.16 Chicken Salad

All was still well as I crunched along to a sound of my fresh veggies and chicken.

Then – the bomb was dropped right on my desk…

Stress reduction: www.flickr.com/photos/56661936@N00/1483037699

I was called into the “principal’s” office, aka our new CEO, for a little chat. That chat turned into a 45 minute conversation about changes that were soon to come in our office. My role in all of this is to help craft tactful messages about these changes so that he can then relay these changes to the staff. The pressure’s ON! Stay calm!

Focus: www.flickr.com/photos/56387066@N00/1810357551

Well, I guess it really did not go down in that dramatic of fashion, but still the messages will be very challenging to draft and convey. And, I can guarantee that some in the office are NOT going to like these messages. One change will really hit home with me – I can’t say now, but I’ll share details later.

Still, even with the challenge ahead, I am absolutely thrilled that he approached me to help him. I’m hoping that speaks quite a bit about my ability to do my job and do it well. 

After my exciting afternoon, I arrived home around 6:30 PM to a full made zesty turkey taco dinner. We started with a bit of guacamole of course…

11.16 Guacamole

11.16 Turkey tacos 2

Turkey tacos or even beef tacos are so easy to make and you don’t even need a boxed mix (sorry Mom, not everything needs to come from a box). You can just buy the taco seasoning spice, follow the directions on the bottle, add a few veggies while browning the meat, and presto – semi-instant turkey tacos!

11.16 Turkey tacos 1

Not bad for a Monday night! But wait, that’s not all…

As you all know, I’ve been on a red velvet cupcake kick for the last few weeks. So, Scott so graciously volunteered to run out to Barnes and Noble to pick up a cupcake for me.

11.16 Red velvet cupcake 2

Not only did he come back with the awesome cupcake, but he also came back with a JCrew bag – full of goodies for him though. Hmm, come to think of it, I could use a little retail therapy right now!

11.16 Red Velvet Cupcake 3

Alright my fellow bloggies, I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow, so I’m off to bed.

Peace, love, and red velvet cupcakes to all!

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From Salads to Shopping

November 15, 2009 by

Morning All! 

I am so tired and sore from walking all over downtown Chicago yesterday – ugh! But, it actually was fun playing the part of the Chicago tourist during the Christmas holiday – we need to do that more often. Last night’s post was getting pretty long, so I decided to wait until today to post my awesome dinner!

11.14 Home Salad Bar 2

Toward the end of our Chicago jaunt, I started getting a headache. By the time we got to the train, I had a full-blown migraine!! Yikes – and I didn’t have any Excedrin migraine on me so I was miserable. When we arrived home, I immediately took some medication and laid down for about an hour. In the meantime, Scott whipped up a totally yummy – and super healthy – at-home salad bar!

As you can see, he included a bunch of goodies like:

  • Chopped mini bell peppers
  • Carrots
  • Onions
  • Cucumbers
  • Salami
  • Ham
  • All-Natural bacon
  • Almonds
  • Cheddar cheese
  • Green leaf lettuce

11.14 Dinner Salad

He also took some of the leftover 3-cheese bakery bread and made some incredible asiago/garlic cheese bread…

11.14 Garlic Bread

I had 2 pieces but really wanted to eat more like 5!

This morning, despite being sore and tired from yesterday’s 2-hour walk, I went for a fast 5 mile run. A cold morning run was really what I needed to get me moving today. 

Breakfast was a big ‘ol oatmeal bowl full of fresh oats, chopped walnuts, and a dollop of peanut butter for good measure…

11.15 Oatmeal with peanut butter

I threw in a swig of orange juice because I feel like I’m seriously lacking in the vitamin C category these days…11.15 orange juice

Now, we’re off to do the Christmas shopping that we didn’t get to on Friday.

Have an awesome Sunday everyone – and remember to enter the tasty Explorer’s Bounty giveaway by 9 PM Eastern on Tuesday!

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A Chicago Tourist For A Day

November 14, 2009 by

Hey All – Remember to enter the first ever Running With Cake giveaway!

Scott and I made an impromptu trip to downtown Chicago today, and what a day it was!

 

Jen Chicago2

That’s me in Millennium Park overlooking the newly frozen outdoor skating rink! I wonder how they keep it frozen during 60 degree weather?

Before heading out on the train, I fueled up on a big bowl of Cheerios..

11.14 Cheerios

Good thing I did because we ended up not eating lunch for at least another 3 hours after that! Needless to say, I was starving by the time we arrived at the downtown Nordstrom Cafe for lunch. I seriously wanted to order one of everything. I started with some carbs to take the edge off…

11.14 Cheese Scone

This was an awesome cheddar and chive scone – absolutely delish! It would have gone GREAT with a bowl of soup, but I decided to order the Cranberry Turkey sandwich instead…

11.14 Nordstrom sandwich 2

Yes, Thanksgiving came a little early this year in the form of a sandwich and it was good! Too bad after I ate most of it I turned the sandwich over and noticed some questionable green “element” on the bread. Could it have been mold? The server insisted the bread was baked fresh that day and said it might have been guacamole – although guac was not part of the sandwich. I guess we’ll never know..

11.14 Nordstrom sandwich

After lunch, we headed to “The BEAN” or as one little boy called it “The Giant PILL”.

Chicago Bean

The “BEAN” has actually been around for a few years but it’s still way cool to view, even when you live in Chicago. Because it was such a nice day there were TONS of people outside, which made the reflections that much cooler.

Jen Bean 3

I also tried taking a picture of myself in the BEAN…

Jen Bean2

It came out all warped and crazy!

Next up, we did a little walking through the gardens of Millennium Park. Too bad all of the flowers were already gone for the season. It was still a lovely fall setting with all of the gold and amber hues in the gardens…

Jen Chicago 6

I was even able to catch a certain handsome guy contemplating the meaning of life at one point…

Scott Chicago

He was actually checking out the Bean’s backside!

After our Millennium Park jaunt, we decided to make our way to Macy’s for some window shopping. Chicago doesn’t officially turn on its huge holiday lights display until next weekend. However, Macy’s had already starting displaying all of its holiday decorations, including its famous holiday window scenes…

Chicago Macy's xmas window

This year’s theme is “Believe”, based on (I think) the story “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”. It was 60 degrees outside but seeing these displays made me feel like it was Christmas Eve and snowing outside!

Chicago Macy's Clock

Aside from its window displays, Chicago Macy’s on State Street also showcased a little indoor holiday magic – ok, it was a LOT of holiday magic…

Chicago Macy's xmas display

Can Macy’s ever do anything small?? Upstairs in the famous Walnut Room, the huge Christmas tree was also displayed in all of its twinkling glory…

Chicago Walnut room Christmas Tree

A thousand points of light indeed! I left Macy’s feeling very much in the holiday spirit as you can imagine. As we were headed out the door to catch the train, I also grabbed a froyo to go…

11.14 Frozen Yogurt

Not the greatest, but then again, we were practically running to the train while I was eating it! I think we walked a total of 2 hours today (no cabs for us!) so we were exhausted and a bit sweaty by the time we plopped ourselves on the train.

We ended our fabulous day with an equally fabulous dinner prepared by Scott, but I’m saving that for tomorrow!  

Have a great night all!

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Explorer's Bounty Tea and First Giveaway

November 13, 2009 by

This afternoon, I was in deep thought looking out our back window when I noticed this scene…

11.13 spider web trees

A spiderweb of trees in our backyard! It was amazing and kind of creepy all at the same time.

Earlier in the day, I went for a cold run for which I had to bundle up in layer after layer. After the run, I thought I’d give Greek yogurt another try after my spoil-sport yogurt yesterday…

11.13 Greek Yogurt with peanut butter 2

I mixed Trader Joe’s vanilla Greek yogurt with a handful of walnuts and a dollop of all-natural peanut butter..11.13 Greek Yogurt with peanut butter 1

When you mix it all together it’s like peanut butter fluff with a whole lot of crunch! I also enjoyed some super yummy tea..

11.13 Explorers Bounty Tea

About a month ago, the nice folks at Explorer’s Bounty sent me a big package with a bunch of all-natural organic goodies, like chocolate covered nuts and puffed fruit. I did end up tasting several of the products and was not a huge fan of the food. Don’t get me wrong, the products were not horrible, I’m just not a puffed fruit eater and am not a lover of organic chocolate. But, if you are, you’re in luck.

Running With Cake is hosting its FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY!! I have several unopened packages of Explorer’s Bounty products, including puffed fruit, crackers, and chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. To enter my giveaway, please do the following:

  • Visit the Explorer’s Bounty site to check out their story and products, AND
  • If you have a blog, mention the Running With Cake giveaway on your blog, AND
  • Leave a comment on this RWC post letting me know your favorite organic chocolate brand (any brand) and what you like about it (I’m hoping to find one that I actually like!)

Please have all entries to me by 9 PM Eastern on Tuesday, November 17. Then I will pick a winner randomly and announce the winner to all. OK, ready, set GO!

Although I didn’t care for Explorer’s Bounty organic food, I LOVE their tea!!

11.13 Explorers Bounty Tea 2

They sent several types of herbal tea for me to try and today I gave the Green Tea a whirl. Let me tell ya, I am not a big green tea drinker (although Scott loves green tea) but this tea was great! I liked it so much I almost made another cup. I even gave Scott a taste and he said – “yeah, it’s good” – that says a lot for him since he’s super particular about his teas. What I really liked about it was the light flavor – even after steeping it for over 5 minutes. I think that’s why I haven’t liked most green teas in the past because they are too strong tasting to me. I am definitely looking forward to trying the of my tea samples – yum yum!

11.13 Explorers Bounty Tea 3

After breakfast, instead of doing the early Christmas shopping that I intended to do this morning, I ended up not leaving the house until 11:30 AM to run to Costco and the grocery store.

Scott was working at home today, so when I arrived home from shopping we made some sandwiches for lunch…

11.13 Sandwich with tricolor peppers

I love little bell peppers! They are a) convenient because you don’t have to cut them up to take them to work, b) they are sweet, and c) they are so darn colorful and cute!.

11.13 Tricolor peppers

All three reasons were enough for me to buy a jumbo size bag at Costco. I just hope I can eat them all before they go bad! By the way, Costco was rockin’ the samples today – from sausage, to cake, to mozzarella cheese, I could have made a meal out of everything they were having. I wasn’t really in the mood for snacks luckily because I probably saved at few hundred calories.

It was my turn to make dinner tonight. Scott often says that whenever it is my turn to make dinner I always decide that we should go out to eat. Well, I really attempted to make dinner tonight. I even went to defrost chicken and realized that we were on our last 2 chicken breasts. I was really weighing the option of defrosting chicken and not having any for the rest of the week or going out to eat. You all know where this is headed…

11.13 TGIF spinach dip

Yes, we ended up at Friday’s, where we had the obligatory spinach and artichoke dip. I used to love Friday’s but now have a more luke warm feeling towards the restaurant. As for my entree…

11.13 TGIF Mediterranean Salad

I’m just not having luck with foods these days, especially Mediterranean/Greek salads from restaurants. Tonight, although my salad looked good, after a few bites I realized that it was completely loaded with dressing, so much that it was soggy. Yuck! I really dislike eating my salad when all I can taste is dressing – no matter how good the dressing is. I ended up eating about 1/4 the salad then pushing it aside. I left Friday’s a little perturbed and hungry. I’m having serious thoughts of eating a big bowl of Kashi right now.

Remember to enter the Explorer’s Bounty giveaway by 9 PM Eastern Tuesday!

Have a great night everyone!

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The Traveling Blogger

November 11, 2009 by

Hi Everyone!

Hope you enjoyed my Veterans Day post from earlier today. Although today was my day off from running, I was up and at ’em around 6 AM. I even arrived at work at 8:30 AM because traffic was SO much lighter, no doubt due to the holiday. Which brings me to the question of the day – Did you have Veterans Day off from work or school? If so, how did you spend your day off?

Before work, I made myself a big cereal mix of Honeynut Cheerios and Kashi Go Lean Crunch…

11.11 breakfast

I know, surprise, surprise. Work was a little busier today because my boss was actually back in the office, which translates into more meetings. Although, he is leaving for the next two weeks, going partly to Korea for a meeting and then taking a vacation. I don’t think I’ve ever been away from my job for more than two weeks – at least not anytime recently. 

For lunch, I drove about 30 minutes from the office to attend a very cool luncheon/meeting. At the luncheon, I listened to a presentation by two former top broadcast news journalists and than chatted/networked with a bunch of older ladies. I would love to show you pictures from the luncheon, but I really couldn’t find a good, inconspicuous time to take photos of the food! I did end up having a really yummy turkey sandwich with brie and tomatoes, plus a little fruit salad, and a chocolate chip cookie.

On my way back to the office, I got a little turned around and actually went out of my way about 10 minutes. But, thank goodness for the navigation system!

Dinner was homemade turkey chili courtesy of Scott.

11.11 dinner

Because I’m trying to add more veggies into my diet, I added about 2 cups of spinach to my chili bowl. I honestly couldn’t taste the spinach that much, but it’s great to know that I got all of the vitamins with it.

I booked another business trip yesterday, this time to Phoenix/Scottsdale. If anyone has recommendations for restaurants for that area, please let me know. It looks like I’m going to be traveling quite a bit in the first half of of 2010. Right now, I have at least one trip planned for each month – yikes! Here’s the line up thus far…

  • January – Phoenix/Scottsdale
  • February – Orlando
  • March – Baltimore (Yeah – Fit Bloggin!!)
  • April – Miami and Key Largo
  • May – New Orleans or Washington, DC

There may also be a last-minute trip to DC in there somewhere as well. I’m pretty certain I’m going to be sick of traveling (or at least airports) by June! However, I’m hoping to indulge in some seriously cool restaurants in each of these cities (great blog fodder) and do a LOT of running.

If there are any bloggers in Miami (or Southern FL) or Baltimore who’d like to meet up, let me know!

Have a wonderful night!

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Another Reason to Eat Chocolate?

November 10, 2009 by

Despite getting up at 5:40 AM, somehow I managed to not get to work until 9 AM. I am really despising traffic these days. I need to invest in some books on tape. Too bad Jenna’s book isn’t ready yet 😉

Because I was up so early, it was still dark out and I had to wait for about 30 minutes before heading out to run. I did my typical 4-miler, although it was pretty fast. I am actually sore right now, but I’m not sure if that is from the run or from sitting in 2 hours of traffic!

Being that it was so late, I ate a B-nana in the car…

 

11.10 breakfast

I really should NOT be taking photos (or eating for that matter) when I’m driving. My blogger alter ego is such a bad influence on the regular me.

Work was another totally laid back day – sweet! I could really handle this lifestyle for the next month or so – just get me to Christmas baby! Lunch ended up being Rachel Ray leftovers…

11.10 lunch1

Just look at those little dumpling’s, aka gnocchi, they’re showing off for my new camera…

11.10 lunch2

Later in the PM I had a snack attack and noticed some freebie granola bars in the staff lounge – bonus! Nothing like a healthy and free snack…

11.10 snack

Surprisingly, we have not had our usual obscene amount of food yesterday and today. Ahh, it’s the calm before the holiday food storm.

Scott’s teaching tonight so I had to fend for myself. Why is it that when I have to cook for myself, I end up eating leftovers or a sandwich?

11.10 dinner1

But one thing is for sure, I do eat less when he’s not around. Boys are bad influences on girls in the eating department – for the most part anyway. I wish I could do the reverse and inspire him to eat healthier – or at least smaller portions. I’m just saying it like it is.

11.10 dinner2

News of the Day…

This just in – a new study from Spain reports that chocolate can help prevent hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis) which is a precursor to heart disease. Not that I actually need another reason to eat chocolate, but I’m happy to hear that it does the body good! Now, if they could just find that chocolate helps you make more money and get a better night’s sleep, then I’d be all set!

I celebrated this new-found chocolate wisdom with, what else?

11.10 cookie

A few more of my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that I made last night.

I need to get some sleep tonight, so here’s to a wonderful and restful night to all of you!

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