Sunday

Today I woke up to ham and eggs and toast. The ham was underneath the eggs, and was from the same steak that we used for the split pea soup. Yum.

It was a special lunch today- My mother’s birthday!  For appetizers we had a nice Flora Springs Cabernet Sauvignon and cheese and crackers.

Birthday wine charms – Ihad the bottle!

For lunch we went to Duang Tawan, and promptly ordered fresh summer rolls.

As well as a sushi roll – the Volcano roll. It was tasty!

For my main course I got garlic stirfried vegetables and tofu. I think it’s oyster sauce that I like so much.

There was also a nice cake from Ambrosia. It’s made with real strawberries and whipped cream. Light and tasty.

I didn’t eat any dinner. I kept thinking I was going to eat my lunch leftovers, but I didn’t.

We ended up running and weight lifting, which was nice. I didn’t want to get out of bed and into the cold air, but it turned into one of our best runs ever.

Start of Mardi Gras

Ahhhh! Too much to do!

This will be short: Breakfast was an egg sandwich before class. Does it look small? It is deceptively crammed with one egg, an ounce of pepper jack, and an ounce of turkey.

For lunch we had leftover mujadarrah, which I stuffed into a roasted butternut squash half. It was a little tragic looking, so I skipped the picture. I also had one of these Planters Nut bars, which are really more like a payday.

While doing multiple errands, we put a slow cooking soup in the crock pot: split pea to be exact.

This evening was the start of the Mardi Gras parades in our neighborhood. It lasts for several weeks and culminates on Mardi Gras weekend for the Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade which is the biggest and best in Baton Rouge!

Even though it was very cold, we had to show good spirit and join the crowd. So we bundled up and met my friend Anne  a few streets down for the festivities. This was the Krewe of Jupiter. I have a hard time taking pictures at night with my camera, but I kind of let it go and just had fun. The night parades are mostly marching bands, small but elaborate floats, and dance troops from local schools.

 

We had a lot of fun, and plan to do it again next weekend. Tomorrow is the Krewe of Mutts, which we usually miss. It’s a doggy parade, with costumed pets. One of the problems is it’s during the day, and it tends to fall on my mother’s birthday.

Hawkeye Lunch & Stuffed Squash Dinner

Best sunset ever tonight! I won’t bore you with a ton of pictures, but here’s a sample: Unfortunately (?) I’ve been terribly busy lately and have neglected posting, although I have taken some nice pictures of my food lately. I also haven’t been cooking very much.

As you may or may not know, I started taking a couple of classes at night and on the weekend. I also changed positions at my job, which is mildly stressful. The worst thing is I haven’t really been able to cook or clean. Today I decided I would make time for the blog though.

This morning I had my usual oatmeal (chopped dates and walnuts) with ground flaxseed added. The flaxseed was kind of like Wheat Germ, but crunchier. I liked it. Mr. Greens picked me up for lunch, and we went to the grocery store! We both got deli wraps,  orange juice, and chips to share.

I got ham and swiss, and he got an italian, and we shared. Pretty darn good. We ate in the car with the moon roof down, and I saw a huge hawk circling above. It was so close! A moment later we saw another one. They were definitely circling the parking lot, hoping to grab lunch.

Later in the day I snacked on an unsatisfying granola bar. AND a small bag of popcorn.

I was gnawing on my arm, but not hungry. Sometimes I get bored or anxious at work and I don’t really know what to do.

Directly after work I did weights, although poorly. My legs are horribly stiff from recently getting back into weight training (SQUATS!) and running. I could hardly get out of bed this morning!

Immediately after that, the boyfriend and I went running. We’ve had a few arguments about how to start running, but we’ve settled on the Couch to 5k method for now. FYI: we’re on week 2 day 2.

Dinner was a treat and a way to get rid of leftovers, all in one. That’s always a bonus. We had leftover spaghetti and meatballs two days ago. There was one meatball left, which I smashed up, added lentils, more pasta, and voila! It was good for lunch yesterday, but too much food. +

butternut squash

=

Also on the side: a veggie plate, which my boyfriend ate most of. Confession: I bought ranch dressing, which is in a shot glass on the side. I have been wanting a dressing like Newman’s Southwestern, but I cannot find it! Does anyone have suggestions for a tangy, creamy sauce? I don’t use salad dressing a lot, but I like it in salad wraps. I digress…

I hope my legs feel better tomorrow, although it’s kinda nice feeling something from a workout. Now I know for sure my cardio at the gym has not been enough. Nothing like pounding the pavement!

The Vampire Chronicles

This is my 100th post! I should say upon viewing a few of my posts that I should’ve named my blog “The Vampire Chronicles: The Blog Which Never Sees Natural Light.” Alas, it is true, I wake up before the sun rises most mornings; my office not only has no windows, but is kept dark, and I get home after sunset. On the bright side, the risks of skin cancer should be reduced. 

This morning I had a simple omelet divided into two on a toasted Orowheat thin. Open faced style! The cheese is plain gouda, which I seem to be plowing through. We bought it on sale, which explains why we had a ton of it. Some people are sweet eaters, I like salty things. Like cheese.

I had a snack at work halfway to lunchtime. My rationale was that it was vegetables, so I could go whole hog. Carrots, tomatoes, celery, and a generous dab of homemade hummus.  

It was very satisfying, and good fuel for my lunchtime workout. [I did 35 minutes on the elliptical.]

For lunch I had a sandwich I’ve been wanting for quite a while: a veggie deluxe. I used to make variations of these last summer all the time. All you need:

pitaavocado: mushroom:lettuce and sprouts (of the radish variety) 

Hummus:

Combine, and voila:

I would like to stress that any bread and vegetable is acceptable, in fact welcome. Other ideas: cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese slices, any lettuce or spinach, onions, bell pepper, sun dried tomato, salsa, carrots….can you tell that I love sandwiches? On the side I had the remnants of what couldn’t be stuffed into the pita, made into a salad.

When I got home, my boyfriend made me a soy iced mocha with our his Bialetti.

For dinner I roasted a butternut squash along with a few other vegetables. Well, I shouldn’t say along with. The butternut squash I started first, for fear that it would take a really long time. It didn’t. I wanted some other vegetables too, so I put them in the oven, and 25 minutes later went and checked on them. They were still hard. It turns out I had turned off the oven when I pulled out the butternut squash. Ha! After a while I just ate a quarter of the squash and Mr. Greens ate squash, rice, and a burrito.

I waited another 20 minutes or so, ate a few undocumented cashews, and then ate dinner. It was white rice and roasted carrots, sweet potatoes, onion, and broccoli.

Even though this post was dark and dim, we must remember to always look on the bright side of life.

I sing this all the time.

Classy Eats

I’ve gotten in to two bad habits lately: not working out so much, and eating breakfast really late. I can’t really explain the last one, except to say that it started around Christmas break. Breakfast has always been bright and early to me, but lately I’ve been eating so late that it’s practically lunch time. Today’s breakfast was eaten right before I left for the gym. It was steel cut oatmeal with dates, almonds, and a sprinkle of ginger granola.

At lunch I had lentil soup from my freezer. It is the Giada de Laurentiis recipe that I make often.

It is filled with lentils, carrots, tomatoes, a small amount of pasta, and a little sausage. I recommend it highly. I’ve added corn which made it more colorful, and I’m thinking of making a vegetarian version next time.

At work I stuck with my no snacking rule, although it helped to know that I was having a treat later in the day.

The weather was horrible after work! Baton Rouge was under a tornado watch, and unfortunately I had to drive around from work to school. The lightning was really close and super loud. I stopped at Starbucks and bought a medium soy latte with one pump of toffee nut and an extra splash of rainwater.

It was nice to stand outside Starbucks and wait for the rain to let up. (There’s a covering, so I didn’t get wet.) I talked to a guy from New Jersey who seemed to really like the south, but was incredulous as to how short the winter is. He asked me if that was it, if that’s all our winter is, and I answered that we might get another cold spell or two, but yeah, get ready for 9 months of heat.

A Clif Mojo bar was enjoyed hastily in the car before class. 

1st day of school! My class was short, thankfully. Nothing unusual happened at school except I have to go to class one more day a week than expected. Urgh! For some reason when I was scheduling the class it was listed as only Wednesday night, but nope, it’s Monday and Wednesday! It sounded too good to be true.

For dinner I had a salmon burger with avocado slices and lettuce, on an Orowheat Thin.

It was good, but not as orgasmic as my boyfriend’s chipotle mayo, apparently. He loves that stuff, I’m telling ya’.

On the side I had a few vegetables with Mr. Greens’ special hummus.

I’m saving the rest of my veggies and hummus for tomorrow, I anticipate a killer veggie sandwich!

*Note: Interesting Article about the health effects of too much sitting.