Father Knows Best

Breakfast was an egg in a basket, and coffee. I wanted grapefruit, but I'm saving it for tomorrow. We made our way over to my parents house for Sunday lunch. While preparing the feast we drank wine and ate apples, cheese, and crackers.My dad did the bulk of the cooking today. Here he is putting twice baked potatoes in the oven while we sat around and drank wine.They came out of the oven perfect. They're stuffed with onions, bell pepper, cheese, and bacon.Also on the menu, salad my mother made:
Steaks grilled to perfection on the George Foreman
And we moved on to Chimay for lunch.My plate:

After this, we had coffee and I shared a cookie with my mother. I think I had most of it though.
I drove home very sleepily and collapsed. After I awoke I had a leftover enchilada (expect to see this for lunch tomorrow too). I love that green sauce! I'm drinking a mocktail of cranberry-grape juice and club soda.
"I'll have another cointreau and sody."
Has anyone seen "The Big Picture"? Not a great movie, but a few funny lines.

'Bani, 'Sagna, and Tater

This title is either my eats for the day, abbreviated, or a hillbilly sorority. You Decide!
Is is only Thursday?
Update: The neti pot seems to have helped, although I might take another waterboarding session tonight.
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Breakfast:
This morning I had yogurt, honey, granola, coffee, and cantaloupe. This was starting the day right! Chobani 0% with super nutty granola, local Louisiana honey, Italian Blend coffee, and a juicy if somewhat bland cantaloupe.
I forgot to snack today! The gnawing feeling started when I was at the gym. Oops. My performance was good, but I got a little nauseated and thirsty.
Lunch:
I more than made up for the calories at lunch! Leftover homemade lasagna for the win! It looks kind of gross in this picture, but trust me, it was to die for.On the side: a lovely spinach salad with yellow bell pepper, grape tomatoes, black olives, walnuts, and a hunk of feta cheese.My mom's version of this salad is better - she makes one with just tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, bell peppers, and salty black olives. A little olive oil, vinegar, s&p. No lettuce. This is what I wanted (it goes well with pasta), but I didn't have those ingredients.
It worked out to be a lovely lunch. The above lasagna is 1.5 servings, and yes I ate it all! Don't hate.
Snack time later in the day: I ate a Luna Peanut Butter Cookie. This was free from drugstore.com - wahoo! - when I made my last order. I thought they just really liked me, but they sent my mom the same sample.Pros/Cons:
Pro: The flavor was awesome. I love a real peanut butter taste, and I thought they delivered.

Con: I don't like the crispiness of the Luna so much. It's too much like a rice crispy treat.
(The way I talk I sound like I have some serious gum problems, but I just really like soft and chewy bars, not hard or crispy).

For the record I've only had one other Luna, and didn't really like it (S'mores flavor). This was definitely better. This PB cookie has piqued my interest enough to want to try one of their hundred other flavors.

Dinner was a baked potato. This potato was so huge! I weighed it before cooking and it was over a pound. Needless to say I cut it in half after baking it.
Toppings: plain nonfat greek yogurt (Voskos brand), green onions, and a slice of pan fried deli ham. It was yummy! I'm glad I didn't attempt to eat over a pound of potato.
Before dinner I snacked on a few Smokehouse almonds.**I'm going to Neti and call it a night.**

Spicy Oat Love

Breakfast:
This morning, I had Spicy Oats for the first time. This recipe is a favorite and usual on Green Dog Wine's blog (which I love), and little did I know when I was eating breakfast this morning that it is her blog's one year anniversary. Wahoo! Ingredients used: one egg, Old fashioned oats, 2 morning star sausage links (she recommends the patties), and Tabasco.
The original recipe calls for Frank's Hot Sauce. Here's my cue to say, "down here we don't take too kindly to them Nawthun brands."It looks beige and mushy, but it was very very good. I had to throw it in a tupperware and eat at my desk because I was running out of time. My muffled "Mmmm's" and "omigods" could probably be heard throughout the building, but that's not unusual. My workplace likes to eat.

Before working out I had a fuji apple. The banana in the picture ended up in the freezer. It was a little too mushy. It's ok though, it will be reincarnated as banana bread.I also had half a Clif bar. The other half was eaten in the afternoon.


Lunch:

For lunch I had my homemade hummus, with carrots, bell pepper, and grape tomatoes. The tomatoes have been very good lately. Not too squishy or seedy. There was also a salad which I didn't finish, and a grilled cheese sandwich. The salad had spinach, radish, walnuts, and green apple.An ounce of cheese and Orowheat thin.My well-loved Snackster, which makes pressed hot sandwiches.
Dinner:
Boyfriend made pita pizza while I took a small (but well-deserved) nap. The crust was Kangaroo pocket pita. They were the "salad pockets" if I'm not mistaken, and you can tell in the picture that the pizza halves are not joined. That was ok by me! The sauce was Newman's Sockarooni (love), the toppings were skim mozzarella, black olives, onion, red bell pepper, and Hormel Natural Choice Pepperoni. Doesn't that look good? For us, pita pizza is a fast meal that is customizable. You could definitely make this healthier. Our kitchen gets too hot to make real pizza, so I leave that to my mother who knows how to make a good dough, and also has central a/c.

Exercise:

30 min on elliptical
10 min on stationary bike

My coworker has been going to the gym with me lately, and she mentioned wanting to go swimming. We have a lovely indoor pool at the gym and hardly anyone uses it. I think part of it is the "Swim With A Partner" policy. I told her I have to buy a swimming suit first!



Links/Notes:

Breathing during exercise
Best way to cook vegetables
Organic Food Industry Chart

Risotto and Broccoli with Pine Nuts

Lunch: The boyfriend made risotto and shrimp, I made stir-fried broccoli, and my mother made salad. I would consider all of these dishes our specialties. Well, *ahem*, the three of us have more than one signature dish, but in some circles that might be considered bragging. Onions in a bath of extra virgin olive oilArborio rice and "vegetable" stock. It was really seafood stock (sorry, mom), but my boyfriend pasted the word vegetable over every mention of seafood on the box. I guess you had to be there.Risotto cooking away. It takes close to an hour to cook, but it is worth the wait.

Meanwhile, we all ate cantaloupe, and enjoyed a glass of wine.

My parents went to Groth vineyard this summer. Excellent!My mom brought out some special feta she picked up at the market. As you can see, we made a sizable dent. I like those sundried tomato triscuits.

I couldn't help but take some pictures of the pretty things sitting about.
I chopped up two heads of broccoli. Usually I would cut the pieces a little smaller, at least to "mouth size". I forget how long it takes to cook when I leave huge chunks.

Throw it in the wok with about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, a chopped clove of garlic, and a tablespoon of pine nuts. Toss it around until it gets steamed through and has a few dark edges. If you don't like your pine nuts or garlic as burnt, leave those out until the last minute of cooking. I like the flavor that they give the broccoli and don't mind a little crispiness.
Salad before tossing. The ingredients were mixed baby greens, grape tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, red bell pepper, and possibly more. The highlight was the homemade dressing. The base was cottage cheese and yogurt, with lemon, garlic, and several other ingredients. It was slightly creamy but not heavy. Very good salad!
Shrimp seasoned with Tony Chachere's. Sometimes that's all you need.We stuffed ourselves and made plans for the following Sunday. I think we're going to a concert out in Covington, La.


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Dinner was a sloppy sandwich of pulled pork on an Orowheat thin. We were disappointed by the quality of the meat. I did take a picture, but will spare you. I was so tired that I zonked out without making my lunch, breakfast, or generally getting ready for Monday!

Pirate's Booty thief!