Hiya my lovelies!

Everyone enjoying their weekend so far? 

Not too much going on over here, I keep thinking about painting our upstairs, but not doing too much about it! 

Yesterday, breakfast was spicy oats, and I actually forgot to take a picture for ya’ll – although – I’m pretty sure you get the idea! 

Lunch was the same salad I had the night before for dinner – I made them at the same time, and it’s amazing how much faster getting ready was for me, in the morning.

With lunch, an orange – which tasted oddly “banana-y”

Yesterday was a crazy day at work, so I wasn’t hungry for a snack until almost 4pm – and when I went to grab my favorite z-bar – I remembered I had picked up some of my favorite Larabar!

So I had one of these puppies instead!

I made a special stop on my way home, because I needed to pick a few items up at the grocery store – the most important items, being the ingredients to make Miss Gliding Calm’s tofu rub!

I used all of the ingredients listed on GC’s page – and let me tell you – this smelled HEAVENLY! If I’m being honest – when I read the ingredient list originally, I was skeptical that I’d like it – because they weren’t the standard spices I’m accustom to.  But the second I smelled everything mixed together - I KNEW I was going to LOVE it!

While the tofu was cooking – I munched on a chickpea/laughing cow wrap:

Last time I made tofu, I didn’t cook it long enough, so it was too soft for my liking.  This time – I decided to cook it a little longer…(while accidentally turning the oven to 450 instead of 400)…here’s what came out….

YIKES!!! This has happened before, and I know exactly why…our oven is old, so it does not handle 450 well – this was just 20 minutes!

I was able to salvage a few pieces…

2 0f these pieces were just right – everything else was BLEH.  Even though the pieces were burned, the rub tasted fantastic!

So, on the bright side, I’m in love with the Gliding Calm rub, and plan on trying it again VERY soon (possibly TONIGHT!).

Since my dinner was pretty non-existent, I decided a bowl of cereal would be perfect!   Here’s the combo I made:

PB Puffins which I love, and I tried out the Honey Sunshine cereal from Kashi!  Both were DELISH!  The Honey Sunshine is basically a mini version of puffins!

This morning, I had the “toppings” of spicy oats, just on bread instead!

Toast, laughing cow, eggs, and morning star – always hits the spot!

That’s about it – now I’m off to take a special trip to the post office (for who you ask?  you just might find out!), and then hit up the gym for my 5 mile run!

Have a great weekend!

I want to start by saying thank you to all my wonderful readers who provided me feedback on my camera situation. Because of your response, and all the info you armed me with…I’m pretty sure my wonderful husband may have ordered my birthday present a few months early! I’ll keep you updated!

Next up: A spicy oatmeal “How to”!

I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately as to how I make them – so I figured I’d give a description, and make a permanent post on the recipe tab.

Ingredients I use (feel free to get crazy if you have better ideas!)

• packet of regular (plain) instant oatmeal – my preferred brand is Target generic
• Morning Star sausage patty (you could use another version)
• 1 egg & 1 egg white
• Hot sauce

Now, I make this at work, so I do the whole thing in steps!

Instructions

• cook the egg and egg white at home
• throw the eggs and the frozen sausage patty in a little baggie to take to work
• make the oatmeal in a bowl using hot water
• while the oats are “plumping”, microwave the egg and sausage for a minute
• cut up the egg and sausage and throw them in the oatmeal
• add as much hot sauce as you like – in my case A LOTTTTT!

Final product should look something like this:

And this is what my breakfast has looked like during the work week for the past 2 weeks!

Lunch yesterday – a salad of course:

Paired with carrots, broccoli & hummus:

I polished off the rest of my TJ’s Greek yogurt for my afternoon snack…

Man those blackberries are delicious! And they were pretty cheap at TJ’s considering they aren’t in season in cold cold cold Cleveland, Ohio!

When I got home from work – I wanted to munch on something, but wasn’t ready for dinner.  So I had a little bowl of PB Puffins, and then took Lando for a stroll around the neighborhood!

By the time I was actually hungry for dinner, it was almost 8pm – and my stomach felt sort of weird.  I thought a sandwich might do the trick of making me feel better…

And it did!  I felt much better after my chicken/French Onion laughing cow sammy…and not to long after – I got a text from my friends – they were up at the bar near our house, drinking Strongbow drafts for $2  – I mean – HELLO – who can turn down $2 Strongbow drafts? So I went up and had a few with them, and came home and munched on some sweet potato fries that I had made early, but wasn’t hungry for at the time:

These were damn good! 

Breakfast was obviously spicy oats (pick a picture, any picture – you know what it looks like), and for a mid-morning snack – I tried a new Luna Bar!

This bar surprised me!  Most of the Luna Bars I’ve had, always have some sort of chocolate or yogurt on the bottom – this didn’t!

It was really quite good!  If you don’t like the Luna bars because they are too sweet or too artificial tasting – TRY THIS ONE OUT! I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

For lunch I switched it up since I’ve been craving carbs lately, and had a TJ’s veggie lasagna:

This is such a delicious and FILLING lunch (and ORGANIC!) – the whole thing is 290 calories! 

Snacks were carrots & hummus, and a chick pea wrap:

I forgot how much I like these wraps – I made it one day out of necessity (it was all I could pull together out of my cupboard) – it’s just a Laughing Cow wedge spread on a whole wheat tortilla, with chickpeas and hot sauce.  Seriously – SCRUMPTIOUS!  ;grin:

For dinner, I need to make up for my “no salad” lunch – so I had a salad, and another sandwich…

and the last of my blackberries for a sweet treat

After I let dinner settle, I headed up to the gym for a 4 mile run.  I’m using part of the training schedule that Andrea is using – for a 10 miler I’ll be running in April!  (I have got to post the races I’ll be running this year for ya’ll!)

When I got home, I chugged two HUGE glasses of water, but really wanted something nice and cold to eat – so I cut up an apple and an orange:

With some chocolate that I melted and drizzled over the fruit – yeah, I live life on the wild side! 

That’s about it kiddos – I’m tired and I think it’s time for bed!  Tomorrow’s Friday!  WOOHOO! 

HELP!

My camera is officially on it’s last leg!  (I asked for a new one for Christmas, but Santa forgot – and now I’m getting desperate.)

I need your advice (looking at consumer reports is the worst chore I could ever imagine) – Can you help a girl out?  Here’s my questions! 

• WHAT SORT OF CAMERA DO YOU USE?
• DO YOU LIKE IT?
• IS IT EASY TO USE??? (read – I’m REALLLY simple when it comes to cameras – it has to be idiot proof) 
• How much did it cost?

Phew – yes, I was yelling for those first few – I was stressed – I’m glad I got that all out!  

If you notice, some of my pictures are SUPER SUPER DUPER yellow and grainy because the cameras about to kick it.  I swear I’m not eating neon broccoli and taking a picture with wire mesh over it - it just looks that way in the picture! 

Yesterday’s lunch makes it a week straight – spicy oatmeal!

For a snack – I popped a few pieces of the homepage peppermint fudge I made last night – I snapped a picture since you only got to see the top in the last post!

OOOOOOH BOY was it tasty!

Lunch – a salad as usual!

This time: broccoli, tomato, peppers, olives, onions, and chicken.

I really wanted something sweet after lunch, so I tried out the dried Pomelo that I bought Sunday at TJ’s….

LET ME TELL YOU – this stuff was rotten!  Not rotten, as in spoiled, rotten as in YUCK!  When you open the container, there is this werid skunky smell, that’s almost border-line chemical smelling.  The only ingredients are pomelo and sugar, but YUCK YUCK AND YUCK.  When I tried it (yes, I did put it in my mouth, after experiencing the smell I just described for you) – it tasted pretty much like it smelled.  But with an odd hint of sweetness.  The sweetness almost tricks you and makes you think you want to eat more.  If you can get over the smell – maybe you’d like it.  Anyone interested in this?  If so – I’ll send it to you – YOU CAN HAVE IT!   For free!  

After that experience, I needed a real snack – so I went with some TJ’s greek yogurt, Kashi H2H, blackberries, and honey – THIS SNACK WAS RIGHT ON! 

Now dinner…well…dinner was the best dish I’ve made in a long time.  I can’t remember the last time I was so proud of how a dish turned out!   I made my own version of one of Roni’s ideas that she made a while back:  Turkey Taco Quinoa Stew!

Here’s what I did:

• Browned 1 package of lean turkey meat (93%) & as much onion as you would like
• Once the onion and meat are browned – add whatever vegetables to the pot that you would like – in my case, 1 can of pinto beans, 1 can of kidney beans, 1 can of corn, and some chopped up bell peppers
• Add 1 packet of taco seasoning to the veggie, turkey mixture – and make sure you coat all the vegetables really well
• Then, once all the meat and veggies are coated, add 1 can of diced tomatoes with chiles, and 1 can of broth (use whatever you have around)
• Add 1 cup of quinoa to the mixture
• Season according to your liking
• Bring the whole pot to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally

My two tricks for making this the best dish I’ve made in a while….

1. I seasoned it – A LOT!  I used plenty of cumin, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, onion salt, and Frank’s Red Hot
2. I ran out of broth after I had filled the can 1/2 way (I just use one of the empty veggie cans to measure) – so instead of being bland and adding water as the rest of the liquid - I got CRAZY and added MERLOT!  I’m telling you – that did the trick!

Here’s the finished product, I ate mine on a bed of shredded iceberg, topped with a little bit of cheese, and a dollop (such a funny word) of TJ’s greek yogurt.

SO.FREAKING.GOOD. 

And then it was off to volleyball!  My mom and brother came (how great is my family?) to watch me play – and they must be my good luck charm, because I had the best game of all season, and was awarded the imaginary “game ball” by my team! 

Hope you are having a good Wednesday!