Hello, Choreography!

So, I've been taking step aerobics classes for more than a decade now. I don't practice regularly, but I consider myself rather skilled in the art of step aerobics. Tonight, I decided to take the "advanced" step class at Healthworks. Honestly, I thought I would easily navigate the "advance-ness" of it, but this class was a different animal! The actual choreography wasn't that tough, but the instructor whizzed right through the routines, stringing 5 or 6 together to make a much longer routine, but without much review at all. The rest of the class had no problem keeping up, but, for some reason, my brain couldn't remember the moves that fast! I must have looked like such a fool bouncing around and making up moves as I went along. I definitely got a good workout-- it just didn't look pretty! :) 

After an hour of advanced step aerobics, I took a 15-minute abs class offered by the Fitness Specialist on duty. I figured it would be beneficial to see how the class is run since I'll be running it myself pretty soon! Oh boy! 

After a quick shower at the gym and a long commute home, I was famished! My Larabar did a great job holding me over, but my stomach started to seriously grumble about 20 minutes from home. As soon as I walked in the front door of my apartment, I immediately started munching on baby carrots while I put together a big-ass salad for dinner. Tonight's salad included romaine, grape tomatoes, green pepper, baby carrots, and topped with Claire's relish and leftover pasta from dinner last night. It filled me right up! 

Our previously-frozen wedding cake is still sitting in our fridge from last week, so I decided to have a small piece tonight. I pretty much love ALL cake, but this cake is definitely on it's final day. The cake was a tad stale and the frosting had lost its creaminess. :(

I'm planning another early morning study session tomorrow, so it's just about time for bed. Good night, folks! 

Canned and Frozen Foods

As you can see, our food situation is bleak....

(Our kitchen cupboards look pathetically similar.) 

Despite coming from a can, dinner was rather awesome tonight. We purchased a can of Amy's Organic Chili months ago, but never got around to eating it. (I actually forgot we even had it.) Tonight, it was finally put to good use! I portioned-out about half of the can (1 cup), added my own hot sauce, heated in the microwave, and then topped with shredded cheddar. I was surprisingly wowed by this meal! I love when meals unexpectedly come together. 

On the side, I had some Kashi TLC crackers (Fire Roasted Vegetable flavor), which I used to scoop up the chili. 

With zero options for dessert, I decided to defrost a piece of our leftover wedding cake. (Not the top layer, but leftovers from the reception.) The cake is a zesty lemon flavor with strawberry filling and covered in a creamy, buttery frosting. It was almost as delicious as our wedding day! :)

It is most definitely bedtime for me! I spent almost 2 hours reading, studying, and making flashcards tonight. I haven't been a student in years, and my brain needs to seriously step it up! 

Cupcakes Make Everything Better

I've been bumming all day. I have no reason at all to feel down, but I'm feeling all around depressed. Ugh. Hmmmmm... maybe it's lack of exercise and those feel-good endorphins? I dunno... but half a cupcake for dessert tonight did make me feel a little bit better.

Dinner tonight was a cannellini bean and gruyere sandwich with buffalo sauce on French bread. 

The French bread completely made the sandwich... and I guess the buffalo sauce helped too! :) With my sandwich, I also had some baby carrots dipped in hummus. 

Mal and I shared the last Babycake cupcake. It was chocolate with dark chocolate frosting and a strawberry on top. 

Here's my half... so delish! Eating it actually cheered me up. Cupcakes are such a happy food! 

I hope that I snap out of this crappy mood ASAP! How I Met Your Mother is on TV right now, so let's hope a little sitcom comedy will push my mood in the right direction.

Afternoon Delight

Yowzahs! The work day has flown by! Time flies when you're having fun... or a To Do list that is a frickin' mile long!

Today's lunch was homemade by Mr. Mal himself. He was making a sandwich for himself last night, and offered to make me one as well. What a guy! My sandwich was sliced deli turkey on whole wheat bread with mayo. I'm typically not a huge mayo fan, but it was a decent sandwich addition today. On the side, I had a few baby carrots and green pepper pieces with roasted red pepper hummus.


Also with lunch, I enjoyed a sliced banana with a packet of honey drizzled on top.

Mmmmmm... I love the combo of banana and honey! Last summer, I used to make banana-honey smoothies like it was my job! I probably drank one 4-5 times a week. I'd make them with 2 bananas, a generous amount of honey, a lot of ice, and some milk, then just blend well in the blender. Next time I make one, I'll be sure to write down the exact measurements to share.


LOOK at this cake! We celebrated my coworker's birthday this afternoon, and we bought her an ice cream cake from JP Licks!


The flavor of the cake is Almond Coconut Chip with vanilla frosting, rainbow sprinkles, and Oreos on top! My coworker was so happy that we remembered her favorite flavor of ice cream for the cake. (I was also glad it was Almond Coconut Chip!) Eating a slice of this cake was heaven!

Hump Day Happenings

Lots to catch up on, but not a lot of time. Tonight's post will be brief, but I included a lot of photos, so hopefully, the pictures will be "worth a thousand words."

After lunch, my friend and I grabbed coffee and chatted at Starbucks. Before going to Starbucks, I almost always plan what I am going to order. Today, I got to the head of the line, and my mind went blank. I had no clue what to get! I ended up blurting out: iced tall soy misto. Not bad for being put on the spot, huh? It ended up tasting wonderful-- pretty much an extra milky iced coffee. I'll have to remember this drink for the next time!


Around 3:30, my stomach started to grumble. Snack time! I ate a couple pieces of Ryvita Fruit Crunch, which is sweet crispbread made with fruit, oats, and honey. I also added a few squirts of Olivio spray to each of them.


Delicious crispbread up close... check out those whole grains!


My banana was super ripe and sort of beaten up from my morning commute, so I decided to mash it up and add a spoonful of peanut butter. It didn't look pretty, but it was tasty and filling!


Dinner

Dinner tonight was a mix of semi-random ingredients. Pasta was tentatively on the menu for this evening, so to jazz it up, I added steam collard greens, cannelloni beans, green olives, garlic, olive oil, and feta. Overall, I enjoyed the combination of flavors. However, I could have done without the olives-- they didn't seem to mesh well with the rest of the meal. Oh well, I ate everything else, except for a few random olives.


Meals always taste better with feta!



And no meal is complete without something sweet. My treat this evening was a Lindt chocolate truffle and 5 pitted dates. Yum!

Catching Up

Sorry that I have been MIA all day. I had a morning meeting, followed by a long office lunch, then played catch-up all afternoon, so I wasn't able to fit in a mid-day post.

After my commute home, I was still jazzed from the day and had a ton of energy! I already exercised this morning, but decided to go for a quick run on the treadmill. I was in the mood for running and upbeat music! I did a quick 4 miles on the treadmill. It felt great!

While I was running, Mal, being the wonderful guy that he is, offered to pick up some groceries for us. He asked me what I wanted him to buy, so I suggested a few things, but told him to just "surprise" me. He came back from shopping with 2 bags fulls of nutritious food... nothing junky! Love him! I think that my healthy eating habits are finally starting to rub-off on him!

Dinner tonight was stuffed grape leaves with a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and black beans.


Stuffed grape leaves up close... yum! Mal and I are going to try to make these from scratch some day soon.


All together...


Dessert was a slice of Pumpkin Maple Carob Chip Bread. I'm glad that I put sooooo many carob chips in this batch. Delicious!


Here's a shot of Mal's grocery shopping. He bought all of my favorites; he's the best!


I didn't take any photos during our office lunch today. We were "talking shop" and there just wasn't an appropriate time to take photos and explain my blog. Our group ended up splitting a bunch of different dishes, so I tried a little of everything. Lunch was at my favorite Thai restaurant ever: The Brown Sugar Cafe. Everything on the menu is wonderful! Mal and I used to go here all the time when he was working on his Master's at BU (Boston University) right down the street. If you live in Boston (or near Boston), you need to try Brown Sugar!

Just Do It

Mal was already working out in the gym when I arrived home, so I boogied upstairs, changed into my gym clothes, and joined him for a workout. I wasn't at all motivated to workout on my commute home, but I am so glad that I chose to "just do it" and get my butt moving. I did 25 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes walking on the treadmill. Towards the end of my workout, I was getting hungry for dinner, so I only did about 1/2 of my back and biceps workout, which I'll finish tomorrow morning.

Mal cooked dinner for me tonight. He made me a BLT on Ezekiel bread before I even got back from my workout-- all I had to do was sit down and eat it! What a guy! It was a delicious sandwich too!


After eating my sandwich, I still wanted something else to eat... I was craving sweet, nutty carbs. I decided on Ezekiel bread, toasted with peanut butter and wheat germ sprinkled on top, and a few squares of a Hershey's bar (baby shower favor) broken into pieces. I'm a big fan of this combination. The wheat germ added a natural, crunchy texture to the peanut butter, and the combo of chocolate and peanut butter is always a sweet treat. It was totally what I was craving! Off to watch How I Met Your Mother... then bed! Good night!

Saving Room for Dessert

When we were grocery shopping this afternoon, Mal snuck 2 pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream into our shopping cart. I had planned to cook a nice, big dinner, but since I really wanted some Mint Chocolate Cookie ice cream, I decided to keep dinner light and save room for dessert! Life is all about balance, right? :) 

For dinner, I ate a spinach salad with 2 stuffed grapeleaves.  

Here's the glorious pint of Ben & Jerry's Mint Chocolate Cookie ice cream... even the photo looks delicious! 

My bowl... I'm estimating that Mal served me a little less than 1 cup of ice cream. Dessert was a lot of calories (and saturated fat), but sometimes dessert is just worth it! (I'll make sure tomorrow morning's workout is a good one.) 

I'm off to de-stress with my Sunday night ritual: reading the Sunday newspaper in bed with Mr. Mal. I swear this is the only thing that makes Sunday nights bearable for me. I usually dread Sunday nights. Ugh, I can't believe the work week is starting already! Yuck. Good night, all! 

Baby Shower Recap

There was no shortage of delicious food at the baby shower today. Everything looked and tasted wonderful, especially the cold "pizza," homemade sangria, and cupcakes, which I purchased from BabyCakes (aka the "most amazing cupcake place ever") for the shower.

Here's part of the shower spread, including the cold "pizza" and cupcakes...


Babycake cupcakes!! These are AMAZING, and the shop is not even a 5 minute drive from our apartment. My favorite was a pumpkin flavored cupcake with a huge frosting top!


More of the spread... check out the baby carriage basket with veggies. So cute!


The shower favors were chocolate bars...


The whole shower spread...


It was such a fun time, especially for a baby shower! We played some party games and watched the mom-to-be open gifts. We definitely laughed a lot this afternoon! :)

Omelette Evening

Mal has parent-teacher conferences at school tonight, so it was just me for dinner. I wasn't really in the mood for anything specific, but there was a red pepper in the fridge on its last fresh day... so it became the center of my meal. I decided to make an egg white omelette with spinach, red peppers, and swiss cheese.


I ate the remaining pieces of raw red pepper with 1/2 tbsp of peanut sauce drizzled on it.


All together with soda water with lemon...


Dessert was fun tonight! I made Kath's Pumpkin Pie Cake recipe to which I added my own addition: "crust." I crushed-up a serving of Stacy's Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips and sprinkled them on top of the pumpkin pie cake mixture. After 1 minute in the microwave, I squished the pita pieces down into the mixture, which, after another minute cooking, cemented the chips into a crust of sorts.  (This might also work with graham crackers!) I loved the cinnamon sugar flavor of the chips with the gooey, warm pumpkin! Yum-o! 

1/2 cup egg whites: 60

Raw veggies: 30

1.5 pieces of swiss cheese: 150

1/2 tbsp of peanut sauce: 20

Dinner total: 260

Pumpkin pie cake: 105

1 serving pita chips: 140

Dessert total: 245

P.S. Yoga turned into 10 minutes of stretching, followed by pumpkin pie cake. Sometimes, dessert helps improve my mental state more than anything else! 

Worked Through Lunch... Again!

Ugh. This work week has been hell! Make it stop!!!!! Today's lunch post is going to be short and sweet, but I'm sure you guys understand.

I ate the final 2 pieces of leftover homemade pizza and a small spinach salad with balsamic vinegar. (I really never get sick of pizza!)


Spinach salad with cucumbers, red peppers, olives, carrots, and onions...



My dessert was apricots and chocolate chips-- eaten together. Sadly, they weren't chocolate-dipped apricots, but they were still yummy!


Stress-induced decision: Molasses Clove Cookie from Dancing Deer Bakery. Hey, at least it was an all natural baked good!


2 slices pizza: ~400
Salad: 60
5 apricots: 85
1 tbsp chocolate chips: 70
Lunch total: 615

Molasses cookie: 250
Snack total: 250

Working Lunch

I worked through lunch again today. I have lots to do, but I am also taking a 1/2 day tomorrow, so I need to make up the hours somewhere. (I'm leaving early tomorrow to go to a "Bridal Preview" at our wedding reception site. We get to taste all of the potential foods and cakes for our menu!)

Lunch today was a ham and swiss cheese sandwich with a "salad" of brussels sprouts, grape tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, pressed garlic, and balsamic vinegar. We didn't have a great selection of veggies in our fridge, but I wanted to include them in my lunch somehow, so this is what I came up with. My "salad" turned out alright, but it needs something... maybe some spices and/or feta to jazz-it-up next time. It was a little too bland for me.



And of course, dessert: chocolate-covered figs! Delish times 10! (Haha, how dorky!)