Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts

Chicken Sausage & Veggies with Rice Noodles

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Dinner was delicious & filling- the best kind!


I started by cooking up some rice noodles (about 3 oz.), and then microwaved some Green Giant "Steam in the Bag" potatoes, green beans & peppers. I cup up two chicken sausages (stuffed with gouda cheese & apples) that I'd bought from Wal-Mart last week. I sauted them in a pan with garlic & onions. Then I added the veggies & rice noodles, along with (finally!) the last of my canned diced tomatoes. The "sauce" was a mixture of Sundried Tomato Pesto & Honey Dijon Mustard. I grated some parmesan cheese on top and garnished with some fresh parsley.

YUM YUM! I am exhausted though, and yoga is less than 12 hours away. OH, by the way... my run today was FANTASTIC. I keep getting further and further everyday without feeling tired at all. I love it.

Goodnight everyone!

Dessert: First or Last?

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Kris was just telling me a story about a friend of his he had in college. Apparently, this friend would always eat dessert first. His reasoning? "In case I die during my meal."


That's a very interesting idea! However, I prefer to let myself look forward to something at the end of the meal. In fact, I feel that it helps me to not overeat, as I'm "saving room" for dessert, even if it's something small.
Tonight's dinner was soup, sandwich & a cookie from Erbert & Gerbert's. If you've never eaten at one of their sandwich shops, you need to! I think they are only in the midwest though. But the best thing about them is that they scoop out the middle of their made-fresh-daily bread and give it to you on top of the sandwich. It's called "The Guts." DELICIOUS! And perfect for dipping in soup! They also have really funny sandwich names, like the "Boney Billey," "Narmer" and "Girf." I had the "Flash" tonight- an Italian sandwich with tomato, lettuce, oregano, oil & vinegar. My soup was a cup of Chicken Tortilla. I was in the mood for something a little creamy.)



I only ate half of my sandwich, and I'm going to save the other half for lunch tomorrow. I did eat (or slurp) every last drop of the soup though, it was super yummy!


I'd bought a chocolate chip cookie, too. I've been craving a cookie for a while and I decided to give in! It's not often that I crave sweets, but I guess tonight was one of those rare times. I toasted it for a little while so the chocolate chips were all warm & gooey. Very good.


Earlier today I snacked on a Kashi Chewy Honey Almond Flax granola bar and a piece of toast smeared with a little bit of natural crunchy peanut butter and some Polaner's blueberry preserves.



Alright, back to the Twins/White Sox game. GOOOOOOOOO TWIIIIIINNNNSSSS!!!!!!

Home, home on the range... where the BUFFALO BURGERS roam...

Monday, September 29, 2008

I am fully satisfied and very happy! A belly full of a delicious buffalo burger, sitting on my couch watching Gossip Girl and blogging! This is the life...

For those of you who've never had buffalo (aka bison) burger, you are MISSING OUT. Luckily, I come from a family of avid hunters, and I pretty much always have frozen buffalo burger, or buffalo sirloin or SOME sort of buffalo meat on hand. It is a very lean meat, not "gamey" tasting at all, and is absolutely delicious. I seasoned the burgers I made tonight with a Chipotle-Cinnamon rub, cumin and chili powder. I topped the burgers with part-skim mozzarella cheese, canned organic diced tomatoes, lettuce and "fried" onions (chopped red onions that I dipped in egg beaters and covered in bread crumbs, then baked at 475 degrees for 15 minutes). The kicker was some Chipotle Honey Barbecue sauce!



I served them with steamed garlic-seasoned asparagus and grapes.
Well I'm going to relax for a while, then pack tomorrow's lunch, pick out my clothes and GO TO BED!

F-R-I-D-A-Y!

Friday, September 26, 2008

I live for Friday's. There's just something so rewarding about coming home on a Friday afternoon after a long week's work and just sitting on the couch, drinking a beer (and blogging about it). Haha.

I had a pretty good day today. The kids were much better today, and my breakfast held me over fantastically until lunch. I brought with me a salad of romaine lettuce topped with red onions, celery, feta, tuna mixed with a little light mayo and carrots. No dressing, the tuna & mayo was good enough! I brought a diet dr. pepper for an afternoon caffeine kick and a nectarine, which I was actually too full to eat when I was done with my salad! So I brought it back home with me, maybe I'll eat it later.




I haven't really even thought about dinner yet, but you guys will be the first to know what I had! (Or third I guess, after me & Kris). Have a great weekend everyone!

Chivarly is dead

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

I must start out with a rant. If there are any men out there who read my blog, take note of this.

Perhaps I am just spoiled with a chivalrous boyfriend. He opens car doors for me, always reaches for the bill at dinner first, lets me out of the pew before him when going up for communion during mass, and always always always opens a door and holds it open for me to enter first. Now, I am definitely not saying that all men should do this. However, I do think it is incredibly rude when a man will just let a door slam shut in a woman's face. This happened to me TWICE today, just going to my one class. Two separate guys just opened the doors, let themselves in, and immediately let go of the door letting it shut without even bothering to stop and look back to see if anyone was behind him. EVERYONE should at least do that! I DO THAT! Hold the door until you see the person behind you grab it. Ugh.

I actually had a guy talking on his cell phone walking ahead of me today stop at a door and wait for me to open the door. Ridiculous. Where have all the Cary Grants of the world gone?!

Anyway, on to food.

I was feeling a little anxious after class. I'm not sure why (maybe it was my frustration with the rudeness of today's college generation) but I needed something to take my mind to a calmer place. So I swung through Starbucks and ordered a tall, nonfat pumpkin spice latte with no whip.

It was delish! Not bitter at all, as some nonfat lattes with no whip can be. I will definitely be getting another one of those before the fall season is over.

For supper I FINALLY used the shrimp that I'd defrosted in my fridge on Monday. I made a spicy Thai shrimp stir-fry. I used a bag of steamable Asian veggies (with sugar snap peas, green beans, carrots and broccoli). I added a can of bean sprouts (a staple in my cupboard, as I often use them for "sprougetti") and some chopped fresh carrots and mushrooms. The sauce was a mixture of Sweet Red Pepper Thai Sauce, Teriyaki Sauce, Honey Dijon Mustard and Wasabi Hot Sauce. Spicy, sweet and delicious!


Back to work tomorrow. I think I might try to premake my breakfast so that I can just heat it up quick tomorrow. We'll see.

Feeling slightly better

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Well it's 6:30 in the am here in Minnesota. I'm about to leave for work but I thought I'd try to blog quickly.

I started to feel a little better in the afternoon yesterday, so I snacked on some dark chocolate-covered blueberries and some strawberry yogurt-covered raisins. The raisins were kind of gross so I didn't eat much of those. I also made a pitcher of sugar free lemonade. Later on, I had a Kashi crunchy peanut butter bar.



This morning I had one of my favorite breakfasts: a toasted English muffin smeared with fat free cream cheese and smoked salmon. Lots of protein and Omega 3's. Just what I need to get me going this morning.


(Okay so I wrote this blog entry this morning at 6:30, but my pictures wouldn't load fast enough and I needed to get to work! So that's why it's not posting until now, sorry!)

When the moon hits my eye like a big pizza pie... That's amore!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Well, shopping went really well today! (Or really bad, if you're counting the amount of money I spent!) Here's everything I bought:

* 3 pairs of shoes
* cute top to wear to work
* 2 fall jackets
* a new lunchbag that looks like an adorable black quilted purse!
* earrings
* grey & pink Nike zip-up sweatshirt
* Mexican Beer & Chipotle Barbecue Sauce
* Thai sauce
* dark chocolate covered blueberries
* roasted garlic & herb focaccia sticks
* a Halloween hanging decoration
* soy milk
* red onion
* white button mushrooms


After I was done shopping I grabbed a Light Pumpkin Cooler from Caribou Coffee to celebrate the start of fall. I was going to get a pumpkin latte, but it was 80 degrees out and I was HOT.

When I got home, I snacked a few of the focaccia sticks I'd bought.


For supper I decided to make a Hawaiian pizza with red onions, pineapple and canadian bacon. I also made some stuff white buttom mushrooms. I stuffed them with a combination of fat free cream cheese, leftover mexican-flavored shredded cheese, leftover canned diced tomatoes and some fresh parsley. YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY! I love mushrooms!



I served the pizza & mushrooms with some fresh veggies and the rest of my homemade buttermilk ranch dressing. I washed it down with a glass of pineapple juice, which I'd drained from the canned pineapple that I put on the pizza. (No use wasting that refreshing juice!)

Well, back to the daily grind tomorrow! I can't wait for my yoga class tomorrow morning.

Whiskey River Buffet

When we moved to St. Peter a little over a year ago, we were a little sad that we were leaving Mankato and all of it's restaraunts. However, St. Peter has a few gems, and Whiskey River is definitely one of them! When I was growing up, I remember Whiskey River to be mostly bar food-- burgers and fries, etc. Now it's alot different!


Sunday brunch there is absolutely amazing! There are so many yummy dishes to choose from. We hadn't been there in a while and we were starving after church, so we decided to go for it!
I started with a make-your-own omelette, in which I put onions, green peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and cheese. Very good.


Then I went through the main buffet line and got a bunch of different things! Some of them I only had a bite or two of, but I loved the variety. Pineapple, watermelon, strawberries. Eggs benedict (I'm a sucker for hollondaise sauce). "Pineapple chicken" wing, breakfast potatoes and a piece of ham. For dessert I had an oreo M & M bar, which was so amazing, I NEED to find the recipe for it!


Well, I'm about to head for Mankato to do a little bit of shoe shopping. I'm pretty full so I doubt I'll eat again until supper. I'm feeling good today though, I got a whole 12 hours of sleep last night and church this morning was very uplifting. I'm not sure what I'll make for supper, but you will definitely find out!

My attempt at curing my hangover

Saturday, September 20, 2008


Drank a bit too much last night. So for breakfast I knew I needed something with alot of antioxidants. What better than berries? I had 1 1/2 cups of Strawberry Light 'N Fit Yogurt, topped with some microwaved strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. Then I threw on some Fiber One for crunch and made the mistake of crumbling a blueberry Nutrigrain bar on top of it. The taste of it made me nauseous for some reason, so I ate around the pieces.



A few glasses of water later and I'm feeling good to go!



I'm heading to the Renaissance Festival! A little later than I had wanted to, but oh well. At least we're going.

Turkey Burger Mania!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Oh, I am STUFFED. My turkey burgers tonight were amazing!! Check 'em out:





I mixed 1 pound of ground turkey with minced garlic, garlic salt, red pepper flakes, sea salt, a little bit of teriyaki sauce and some freshly ground black pepper. I made 4 burgers total, and had about 1/5 of the ground turkey left, which I'll brown up a bit and refrigerate it to put in eggs, salads, etc. for the next few days. I served the burgers on Village Hearth Light Wheat hamburger buns, which have only 80 calories in each, but are still plenty big, soft and delicious! I toasted them for a few minutes, put the burgers on top, added a slice of provolone and stuck them back in the oven at 325 degrees for a few more minutes to melt the cheese. While I was browning the burger, I carmelized some white buttom mushrooms and red onions with some balsamic vinegar. I piled those on top of the cheese, added a few slices of roma tomatoes and made my own chipotle aioli with Hellman's Light Mayonnaise. Steamed up some fresh asparagus, and it was ready! Super quick and easy and AMAZING.


Washed it down with a Grainbelt. Gotta love my Minnesota beer


Kris and I might go out tonight for a while. We can't be too hung over tomorrow though, since we're going to go to the Renaissance Festival! YAY, turkey legs! Lots of pictures, I promise.

I'm off to sit on our deck and drink beer. TGIF!

'Cause you had a bad day

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Ugh. Today was such an off day. I woke up late because I had pressed the snooze on my alarm and then fallen back asleep, which is something I never do. I was absolutely exhausted. I had planned on making a microwave egg sandwich with Egg Beaters, mushrooms, tomatoes on one of my Village Hearth light English muffins. But I was running way too late, so I settled for a bowl of cereal (a mixture of Kix and Barbara's Bakery Peanut Butter Puffins) with half of a banana sliced into it. And I completely forgot to take a picture of it! In fact, I forgot to take pictures of ALL of my meals today.

Actually, that's a lie. I did remember to take a picture of my lunch, which was a delicious turkey and veggie wrap made with one of my favorite Flat Out wraps. But when I took my camera out, I remembered that I left the battery charging in my kitchen!! Ugh.

My preschoolers (who were OUT OF CONTROL today) had Egg McMuffins w/ tater tots for lunch. It smelled and looked delicious. So I made one for myself for supper. Which I also didn't take a picture of. Talk about a bad day.

So I decided to take my brain-fart of a day and use it to display the contents of my fridge to you guys! Kris and I keep pretty much the same things in stock at all times. We buy alot of fresh fruits and vegetables, and we always have liquid egg whites or egg beaters on hand.


Main Fridge:
Top shelf is mostly bread products. Flat Out Wraps in Light Original, Village Hearth Light English Muffins and Hamburger Buns (the buns are a little abnormal for us, but I'm planning on making turkey burgers for supper tomorrow). Kris eats Brownberry multigrain bread (middle), but I tend to stick to Sara Lee delightful wheat for sandwiches and toasts on the rare occasions that I have them. Eggs are op there with the bread, too.
Middle shelf has our big pink veggie tray. We buy alot of fresh vegetables, bring them home and immediately cut them up and put them into a tray. That way when we want veggies to snack on, they are all right there ready for us! Right now it's filled with cucumbers, baby carrots, broccoli and mushrooms. On top of it my salad for lunch tomorrow. There's some cut up fresh parsley in the back, along with some leftover canned diced tomatoes. Light 'n Fit strawberry yogurt, 8th Continent Light Original Soy Milk, Egg Whites, Egg Beaters and Kris's Vanilla Soy Milk.
Bottom shelf is pretty funny right now. Kris stocked up on beer last weekend. (We already drank alot of it watching college football all day that day! Yikes.) As you can see, we have quite a variety. Miller Chill, some random Russian beers, Miller High Life, Keystone Light, and Grainbelt Premium. Cheap. Good. There are also some edible things there. Apples and nectarines, and some ground turkey breast that I'm thawing out for my burgers tomorrow. Also there right now is my smoothie that I made for breakfast tomorrow. (I like to sleep in a little on Fridays, so I try to make my breakfasts as easy as possible).


The Door: Ketchup, fresh salsa, sugar free maple syrup, fat free miracle whip and light mayo, yellow mustard and honey dijon mustard, marinated artichoke hearts, natural crunchy peanut butter, grated parmesan and romano cheese, dill pickles, minced garlic, sugar free blueberry preserves, Polaner All Fruit, teriyaki sauce, homemade buttermilk ranch dressing, 1/3 less fat veggie cream cheese, Brummel & Brown, and of course all of my salad dressing- Wishbone Bountifuls in Hearty Italian, Santa Fe and Tuscan Romano Basil, Kraft Light Zesty Italian and a Balsamic Dressing I got from the dollar section at our local store.

The Drawers:

Left Drawer is our meat and cheese drawer. Butterball pre-cooked chicken breasts strips, Athenos crumbled Feta Cheese and Block Feta Cheese, Turkey Snack Sticks, deli pepper turkey and honey ham, fat free cream cheese, pepperjack and colby jack block cheese, Part-Skim mozzarella cheese, and Provolone sandwich slices. There's also some leftover cocktail weinies from when Kris treated me to "supper" last week, as well as some Mexican-spiced shredded cheese from our steak enchiladas the other day.
Right Drawer the veggie drawer. Spinach, Romaine lettuce, asparagus, chopped red onions and roma tomatoes.

Freezer:

Our freezer food is kind of our "back-up food", with the exception of things like chicken breasts, which we buy, wrap individually and then freeze. I have a few lean cuisines for fall back meals when I just don't feel like cooking. Frozen waffles for the occasional "treat" breakfast. Frozen shrimp we use quite a bit, as well as the frozen berries. I put those in yogurt, cereal, smooties, etc. Frozen veggies we'll use for stir frys and when we're low on fresh ones. There's also some frozen fish in there that you can't see (tilapia), as well as a whole frozen chicken (from my parents' farm) and a few pounds of ground buffalo burger (courtesy of my avid game-hunter of my grandpa). And of course, a battle of Jagermeister!

WHEW! That sure looks like alot of food for just two people! However, Kris is a big boy and has a HUGE appetite. (6'4 and 205). Not fat at all though! He plays minor league baseball and takes his health and nutrition very seriously. In fact, he's the reason I am so focused on nutrition now. When we first started dating (almost 3 years ago), I was more concentrated on just calorie content of food, always making sure that I wasn't eating over my limit. But he's taught me that it matters more what kinds of foods I'm eating. Plus, he always loves everything that I cook, so it's much more fun than cooking just for me! I like to try to impress him. :-)

I'm beat. It's already after 10pm. Until tomorrow....

Yoga and NOODLES!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Ahhhh... what a good day.

I woke up at 5:30am as usual. Made it into town for an 8am yoga class. I haven't taken a yoga class in over a year! I forgot all of the muscles that it uses... much different from my usual elliptical/bike routine. I am going to be SORE tomorrow. But it will be a good sore, for sure.

I did not eat breakfast before yoga. I know I should have, but I was in a hurry and I don't like to eat much before I work out because then I always feel like I'm going to throw up! So after I got to work, around 9:30 I had a nectarine. Very juicy and very good. I felt energized from yoga, and surprisingly, the nectarine kept me full all the way until lunch!

I also had a few cups of coffee. This morning when I brewed my coffee, I added a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg in with the grounds. Delicious! I will definitely make that a habit.


(I know it's not Christmas but this is my favorite Starbucks mug, I use it all year round!)

Around 10:30, Kris sent me a text message asking me if I wanted to go to Noodles for lunch. The math department had given everyone "Buy one meal, get one free" coupons in the beginning of the school year, and he wanted to use it. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Noodles, so of course I said yes. I love it because they have such excellent options for delicious, HEALTHY meals!

I had packed a lunch for the day, of course: A Bumble Bee Tuna Sensation in lemon pepper, some celery sticks and leftover tomato and cucumber salad from last night's dinner. This is what it looked like:

I'm sure it would have been very good, and I meant to bring it home after work to bring to my other job for lunch tomorrow. But I forgot it in Kris's minifridge in his office, so he gets to eat it tomorrow. Darn. Anyway, what I DID actually have for lunch was a small "Bangkok Curry" dish, which I added shrimp and hot sauce to. It had lots of yummy vegetables- cabbage, carrots, onions, mushrooms (my favorite)! Kris had a "Pasta Fresca" dish with parmesan-encrusted chicken that I also took a bite of and it was very good too. He also bought us a big, soft Snickerdoodle cookie, which I ate about 1/3 of. Snickerdoodles might be my favorite cookies.






I had marinated two chicken breasts in balsamic dressing over night. I decided to stuff them with a mixture of fat free cream cheese, spinach and garlic. I also whipped up some spinach spaghetti, tossed it with my new favorite salad dressing (Wishbone Bountiful's Tuscan Romano Basil) and some garlic, oregano and basil seasoned diced tomatoes.

Kris and I washed dinner down with a Miller Chill. Apparently they are being discontinued, so when we stopped at the liquor store last weekend we bought 3 cases of it for super cheap! We'll be drinking Miller Chill for a loooooooooooooooong time.

I am EXHAUSTED! Goodnight :-)