Sep 21, 2010

Weird Combinations and Nothing Goes Right

Monday

The pain was not present when I rose at 6:30 this morning. Thank goodness! I hit the treadmill for an easy 3.48 miles in 35:00 (2:30 warm-up and 5:00 cool-down). I started to have a tiny cramp in between the second and third mile, but it wasn’t too bad and I was able to push through. Breakfast was back to the usual with only slight alterations: old-fashioned oats made in Bigelow Vanilla Caramel tea, mixed with chia seeds, flaxseed meal, and cinnamon, and topped with Grape Nuts, PB&Co. DCD, cherry preserves, and almonds in an orange mug. Mmmm,fall. The consistency of the Dark Chocolate Dreams was much better today. I usually refrigerated my peanut butters after I open them, but apparently with this baby you are better off storing them in the cabinet. It made all the difference.

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The Vanilla Caramel tea made the oats a nice, darker color and really added to the “fallness” of the bowl. The caramel flavor really shown through as I was devouring the bowl. New favorite for sure. I’m glad I took a chance on this brand and on this flavor. Caramel tea should no longer be a secret to the world! It made it worth the extra time I had to spend cleaning out the microwave because I wasn’t watching the oats cook. I had a bit of over-spillage because I cooked the oats a little longer than usual.

I spent most of the rest of the morning watching episodes from Gilmore Girls (Season 1) and every once and a while glancing at my Biology textbook. Then it was off to lunch with Lyle before class. A spinach salad, topped with great northern beans, soy cheddar cheese, artichoke hommus, and Italian dressing and half of a pita. I also brought along a banana, PowerBar Pure & Simple Energy bar, and strawberry Stonyfield Probiotic yogurt.The PowerBar was really good actually. I bought another while I was waiting between classes so that I would have one in my stash. The yogurt was a little lacking in flavor, however.

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First up was Food Safety. We finally started in on talking about specific microorganisms and we’re starting with Salmonella. Nothing truly fascinating though. Mostly growth requirements and environments. Biology Lab lecture was up next. I’m not really sure what the purpose of it was today. It seemed really disorganized and it ran longer than it was supposed to have gone. All I know is, I have to devote at least 6 hours of my time to this class this week, and it’s not all just in-class time. Much of that is required out-of-lab time that I need to put in. Bummer.

Dinner was a real culinary creation for me. I winged it and it actually turned out pretty well! Asparagus and scrambled eggs stuffed into a pita and mixed with ketchup and a banana on the side. It may sounds a little weird or gross, but it really hit the spot. I’m so glad that I grabbed that asparagus and let my fear of cooking on the stove get pushed aside for the evening. After these awesome eats, I did some work on the various binders I keep for my classes and tried my darnedest to read my boring Biology textbook.

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Tuesday

In honor of The Biggest Loser returning for its newest season tonight, I popped in Jillian for her Level 2 workout (upper body intensive). I had intended to do both Level 2 and Level 3 this morning, but apparently I fell back asleep for 40 minutes after my alarm went off at 6:30am. So, Level 3 got nixed (I wanted to do it once I got back home, but I had no energy). Breakfast was filled with phone calls and oatmeal infused with my new favorite tea. Old-fashioned oats made in Vanilla Caramel tea, mixed with chia seeds, cinnamon, and flaxseed meal, and topped with Grape Nuts, PB&Co. DCD (room-temperature!), cherry preserves, and almonds.

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I had phone calls to take before I left for the day and did not have much time left for actually making anything for lunch. I grabbed a Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar, a banana, strawberry StonyField Probiotic yogurt, and a Honeycrisp apple to shove into my lunchbox for the day and hoped it would be enough to get me through all I had to do before I could return home. Just my luck, I remembered that StonyField has a rewards program and it just so happens that I ate the yogurt that had the code on it yesterday. Boo.

My day continued to be a big disaster. I never got the call that I was expecting, and found out later that my case worker had not even opened or looked at my case yet and it would be another 3-4 days before I would actually hear from him. On top of that I felt lightheaded all day, once again underestimating how long I was going to be gone for and how much food my body would need to fuel my day. Then, I had to spend 3.5 hours in the library for a simple assignment and could easily have been done from the comfort of my own bedroom.

Being in my food-deprived state, and always in need of groceries when I actually crave something, dinner was quite uninspired: a repeat of last night. Asparagus and scrambled eggs in a pita smeared with ketchup. No picture since there was one above (and I forgot). The one good thing I can think of that makes today even worth mentioning is the premiere of Glee’s newest season tonight! As a former choir and musical theatre kid, I am a major fan of this show.

I love this show so much! It seriously gives me something to look forward to during the week and something to do throughout the week. Yes, I do watch the last week’s episode over and over and over again ad nauseum until I can basically recite every line and burst out into any of the songs at the drop of a pin. I can’t wait until next week! Britney Spears theme!

What is your favorite weird food combination?

1 comment:

  1. I appreciate the thought that getting kids cooking helps to combat childhood obesity. It makes sense to me that a person who learns to cook with real food ingredients instead of a bunch of processed shortcuts will develop an appreciation of real foods. It also makes sense to me that a diet based on those actual foods will help people, including children, to understand what they are really eating, and I think that kind of consideration is one of the keys to overcoming obesity.
    Jayme Silvestri

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