Monday, July 25, 2011

Abby: Jealous of Kristen

Kris, I just read your Wednesday. I am head TRIPPING over my heals jealous of your work day.  Love my job, but knowing that others get to be paid to play outside when the weather is so nice, makes my office seem much less apetizing.  Actually since today is over 100 degrees, my airconditioned cubicle is feeling pretty good.

But whether here or home, I am a snacker.  Office work can make you just as hungry as running around and it is always important for me to keep a stocked cabinet. 
My coworkers all thought I was crazy when they first saw me sticking a sweet potato in the office microwave.

Now they are used to it.  I eat them "just like an apple" according to Kim.  Sometimes I cut them open and dump (litterally dump) a ton of cinnamon inside, reclose it up and let it smolder...that sounds weird.
but you know what, they are litterally one of my FAVORITE foods.

Another favorite food? Sloppy joes!  The other night I came home to my little (20 year old) brother complaining of having no food in the house.  Luckily I talked him out of spending money on ordering in with the proposition of an old favorite.  But since we had taco seasoning already in the cupboard, we improvised.
I present.......Turkey Taco-Joes! The last of my fresh basil and a sprinkle of cheese finished it off to Perfection.
and of course  a large heap of veggies.  After a long run it really filled me back up.  Now that I am out of basil though....I'm desperate for more!  I put it on top and bottom of this TTJ.  You are only looking at half of it.
The rest of my basil had gone to random different meals.
 
including a rather large TBM omelet a few nights earlier


Perfect recovery food after my long run that day.  I'm been having some knee issues lately.  But hopefully getting back into a better lifting regiment will help stabilize my knees. 

Today I did leg press for the first time in ages.  Good news is my strength hasn't diminished much.  205lbs bebe!!!


Friday, July 22, 2011

TGIF

HOT Friday! Saw 103 on the temp's for today YIKES... tried paddle boarding in the ocean it was awesome and probably my new favorite thing to do ever its awesome and really fun an relaxing too.  Anyways here is some catchup foodie pix I took thought you might enjoy...
Andrew got all upset when he saw that his ice cream sandwhich was smaller in size compared to Alana's bigger sized popsicle... so after trying to explain they both have the same amount of energy you get from each dessert treat I turned it around and made him super excited... had him close his eyes and turned the boring sandwhich into a superstar sprinkled with an explosion of colored sprinkles! wow was he impressed... alana definitely couldnt do that with her popsicle!














Later when I went home my sister asked me to make some bangin grilled peaches like I did for her last week so I did but I spiced it up a little and made a couple different variations...



1. One has vanilla bean ice cream in the center sprinkled with cinamon and a drizzle of agave nectar.

2. These two have raisins in the center and again sprinkled with cinamon and agave nectar

 
And this I tried dicing up the peaches and put on toasted half of a Joesph's wrap with sprinkled raisins, cinamon, and agave nectar DELISH!

Ok so now onto Friday morning... a little mid morning snack... rolled up banana in Joseph wrap with soynut butter, sunflower seeds, and cinamon... I toasted it for a minute in the toaster oven for a little crisp which I love as you can already tell haha

And for lunch had some of my barley and veggies I made the other night on top of a bed of greens and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. =) I wish my camera took better pictures your colors always look so vibrant mine doesnt seem to do the trick. Oh well you get the hint at least of what Ive been up to! ;-)

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Wonderful Wednesday

Today was beautifullll just gorgeous and a great day overall!  Trained with the 2 girls - really gave them a push today! Worked on the treadmill then weights.  They were complaining a little bit but at least the incentive was a swim in the lake after all their hard work!  We canoed out to the center of the lake then decided to tip the canoe and jump in and swim back to shore.  Swimming, weights worked up a sweat then met with the dietitian Nicole to go over the nutrition part for their day!  Time to go at 5 pm and was all excited to pickup my Dad from the airport and meet up with him and my mom at Neptune's in Boston for some OYSTERS my favoriteee and then go to an amazinggg glass blowing extravagent showing at the Museum of Fine Arts... wellll over an hour later of intense traffic when it really should have only been about 20 minutes if that... I park and find out they just finished dinner and were walking out... No at this point I was startving and did NOT want to go right to the museum. Being in a sour mood I drove all the way home (another hour and a half to home).  However, on the way I thought of what I wanted to make for dinner.... I have lots of veggies and a fillet of fish in the freezer... FISH TACOS? YUP
Slices of red, green pepper, red onion



Put into a Joesph's Wrap Wheat Tortilla with a Flounder Fillet I grilled up and topped with homemade salsa ( tomato with cilantro, onion, garlic) I added a little hot sauce too... then on the other side of the taco I added some corn salsa (homemade with corn, black beans, stevia, red onion)




I didn't know how this would hold up so I put it in foil and put in the toaster to make it a little more "toasty"



I was still in the mood to use up some more of the veggies I had so I threw on zuchinni, red, green pepper, red onion, salt pepper

Boiled barley and threw veggies with lemon juice and super FRESH mint and parsley and from the garden! Delicious for dinner/lunch/snacks for tomorrow and the rest of th week! DELISH


Abby: Marticle (Mini Article)

I've started writing these for work.  But I'll give you a sneak peak at the one written today ;)

Hungry? Are you sure?
So you think you are hungry, but it isn’t meal time.  Before you reach for that cake or candy bar, stop and think.  That feeling may actually be thirst.  Many of us easily mistake the feeling of thirst for hunger, eating more than we would like, and not feeling satisfied after.  Try drinking a glass of water first and see how you feel.  A study done at Virginia Tech showed that drinking a 16oz glass of water before a meal helped people ended up eating less.  Another trick to deciphering needless craving eating from actual hunger is to first ask yourself “if this _________ was an apple (or another fruit/vegetable) would I still want to eat it?”  If the answer is “no”, you are probably not eating out of hunger.  But remember, deprivation is no way to live.  If you have an occasional craving, go ahead and indulge a little, just remember that a reasonable amount doesn’t mean you eat the entire cake.

*this article can not be copied, quoted, or used without expressed consent from the author

Monday, July 18, 2011

Abby: pizza pizza

My mission for the week? use as much basil as possible. I bought a ton at the farmer's market last Thursday.  I love having one right out side of my office building.  Too bad every week I forget to bring money.  This time though, i was armed with $4.  So basil was just about all I could afford.  I looked very strange walking down the street constantly smelling my bag.  Even took it to happy hour for a little bit.  But I was the envy of all my coworker when they got a whiff.

First use was a personal pizza when I got home.  Not something I normally crave, but it was AMAZinG!!!
SOOOOO much basil for such little pizzas and oooohhh soooo good! I used my last sandwich thin for the crust.  so easy and so cheesy.
and of course the colors
I loved it so much I made it again for breakfast the next morning. Thank goodness someone picked up more sandwich thins. Later i got a craving for some peanutbutter.  Best kind? HOMEmAdE!!!


 

It is so easy to make! just peanuts, a little kosher salt, and I used one packet of Truvia.
 
  Of course since this was Sunday I was doing it while watching the Women's World Cup Finals.

 normally I am not a Truvia user, but I had it on hand.  And I'm willing to try things.  I used to be obsessed with Splenda. Lately I've been trying to cut back on the artificial sweeteners.  However in this house there are others to think about.  My dad is a diabetic.  So if you want him to try things, there better not be added sugars. Besides, with it running in the family I try to cut my chances whenever possible.
I used it for my pbj today.  Cinnamon raisin bagel thin, homemade pb, and strawberry jam.  THE BEST PBJ I HAVE EVER HAD! and that is saying something.  too bad I ate it before being able to take a picture :) whoops.

Great Monday

Had a great day with the kids babysitting... went to mini-golf (after repeatedly telling Miles that to stop swinging like a baseball bat and all you need to do is TAP the ball I got socked in the mouth - close to bleeding but it just turned out to be a swollen fat lip instead).  Anyways, after babysitting went to the gym for a kickass cardio class with Wendy.. got home went through the normal e-mails and sat down for a gorgeous dinner! Pasta with fresh (farmers market crisp veggies) - linguini, garlic, little parmesean with steamed broccoli, beans, snap peas, and carrots... I also added a little of leftover from the other night which was a spinach linguini with clam sauce and shrimp (I really wanted the shrimp)! YUMO



Along with fresh greens, sliced tomato, red onion and sunflower seeds drizzled with balsamic!



Sunday, July 17, 2011

Catching up on past food pix

mini turkey burger on top of toasted wheat crisp finished off with fresh beefsteak tomato and cilantro - this is what i made for our food demo for business health services!

 Homemade Pizza using fresh beefsteak tomato and basil from the garden - drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar!

Got creative with the kids I babysit... p.s. kids LOVE to decroate and dress up their food ... hmm what else could i get them to eat by having "FUN" with food? Here we have a "firepit" made of peaches.  Below we have the classic ants on a log!



This is my GO TO staple favorit breakfast ever! Greek yogurt with berries, topped with cinamon and here I have sunflower seeds and sliced almonds/walnuts... sometimes I will add grapenuts or a little granola.

Got these at the farmers market just thought it was a cool pic/ dcumentation of my FAVORITE snack: snap peas! YUM so fresh and crisp!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Abby: Breakfast when you have NO ideA what you want

On the weekends, back at school, I would always make a special effort for breakfast.  Instead of my daily oatmeal with cinnamon or a granola bar and fruit on the run, i would get up and actually make something.  Awesome packed omelet, chocolate chip pancakes, french toast, breakfast egg sandwich...all great options.  But here at home, not wanting oatmeal, i HAD NO IDEA what i wanted. nothing sounded good, nor did I want to put in much effort.  The decision?

a bowl of blueberry goodness! A huge heap of blueberry yogurt and almost an equal amount of blueberries on top.  Kashi GoLean provided a perfect crunch, not to mention whole grains.  I realize this combo may seem obvious to some people, but i NEVER think of yogurt for breakfast.
But I sure will now!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

let's do it to it

so Kristen, what should we name this sucker? let's get it up and running.
Unfortunetly we are both so busy.  But if you want something you make it happen right? That is at least my mantra for today! 
Actally my mantra in life is........
"if you should and you can, then you better"
I find it works for basically everything, daily tasks, life goals, eating healthfully, working out....Speaking of which, today I plan on testing out my knees again for a 10 miler.  However it gets done (running, walking, crawling...), I will finish 10 miles.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

test test yo

fruit yogurt parfait - Greek CHOBANI with fruit and grapenuts

First Test

Hey Kristen! look i'm blogging!!! ok this is just a test of how our blog will look and how easy it will be to get started. 
ok so the way this should look is that there is a comment/sentance above the apples and now this is below a large picture of the apples.  we will just pretend that i ate apples today.  or that i'm saying something interesting about them.
and this is just a pretty stock photo.  ironically i have these flowers, but thank you windows stock photos.  i am not sure how easy it will be to upload from a cell phone. but you should use this tester blog post to try.