Oh How I've Missed You!

Good morning! As I'm sitting here eating my pumpkin oats, I keep thinking to myself "Oh How I've Missed You!"  It's been a while since I've had some pumpkin oats and boy are they delicious!

In the bowl:

• 1/3 cup oats, vanilla soy milk, canned pumpkin
• ~ half of 1/3 cup of water (filled the measuring cup of half way)
• drizzle of agave nectar
• 2 spoonfuls of ground flax seed
• spoonful of PB  stirred in
• ~1/4 cup maple pecan granola

I had a great workout this morning. I had an hour, so I did 15 min of the stair climber, 15 min of the elliptical with arms, and 1/2 hour of lower leg workout (lunges, plie squats, leg press, abductor, adductor).  I have a busy/stressful day ahead of me so I'm glad I started it out with a workout.  

Sweet Satisfaction

Hey there!  After almost a week of feeling quite unsatisfied with my meals, I'm happy to report that I loved all my food today and feel very satisfied at the moment.  

LUNCH

I didn't bring lunch today so I walked over to Dominick's to pick something up.  I decided to go with a slice of the veggie pizza because it just looked so good!  I was picky and made them give me the piece with the most veggies.  I did bring fruit with me today so I paired the pizza with some grapes. 

SNACK

I had one of my homemade granola bars for a snack today.  Actually I had half in the morning around 10:30 and the other half around 4:00. 

DINNER

Tonight's dinner was a "use up what I have" dinner.  I had the end of a bag of multigrain tortilla chips (Food Should Taste Good), red pepper and zucchini from the other night when I made pizza, and I still have this Mexican 4-cheese blend.  So I decided to pick up some canned black beans and an avocado to make some nachos!

This is so easy! I did saute the zucchini for a couple min first because I like that texture better than raw zucchini, but otherwise I just put it all in the microwave for 1 minute. I may do this more often!

DESSERT

My roommate made banana walnut bread this morning, so I had a slice of that with some hot chocolate for dessert.  

I did it!

Good morning!  I feel great this morning!  Know why?  Because I set my alarm for 5 am and actually got up to work out when it went off instead of resetting it for an hour (or more!) later.  And somehow I still have time to be blogging right now!  

Before my workout, I had one slice of Right Wheat bread with some PB and a small glass of milk.  I know some people have issues with drinking milk before they work out but I am definitely not one of those.  As a matter of fact, I think milk is a great mix of carb and protein for a preworkout "snack". 

At the gym, I did 4 miles on the treadmill and some abs.  I really slack on doing ab workouts because it is just not my favorite but I think I need to incorporate this into my week more!  Any suggestions?  

Breakfast was some tasty banana oats. 

In the bowl: 

• 1/3 cup oats, vanilla soy milk, water
• 1 banana
• 2 spoonfuls of ground flax
• 1 spoonful of PB stirred in at the end
• Sprinkle of ~1/4 cup maple granola (yum!) 

Red Pepper and Zucchini Pesto Pizza

Even though this is a day late, I wanted to share this dish since it turned out so tasty.  I love making veggie pizzas.  Here's the step-by-step instructions for last night's pizza.

• Chop up your veggies.  I used about 2/3 of a red pepper and 2/3 of a small zucchini. 

• Sauce it up.  I had a store bought (365 brand) whole wheat crust.  I topped it with the last of my pesto, which I heated up to make it spread further.  This was a great trick! I also added some red pepper flakes to the crust here.

• Toss on your veggies.  I tried to strategically spread them out.  Before I put the veggies on, I did sprinkle a very small amount of cheese on the crust first.  I just find it makes everything stick together a little better. 

• Sprinkle the cheese.  I had a Mexican 4 cheese blend that I wanted to use up so that is what I used.  

• Bake it. This pizza took about 12 minutes to cook, which was so nice that it was quick. Just go by the instructions on the package of the crust you use.  

• Enjoy.  The best part! 
  

Soup and Sandwich

Hello!  After a rather hectic day, I needed a comforting dinner.  I had some soup in the cabinet that I wanted to use so soup and sandwich seemed to be the logical choice tonight.  

GRILLED CHEESE AND TOMATO SOUP

I started with 2 slices of Natural Ovens Right Wheat bread then added some colby jack (from a block) and shredded 4 cheese Mexican blend on.  Whenever possible, I use as many different cheeses as I can to make a grilled cheese. I like to mix the flavors up!  Instead of butter I a little cooking spray.  

The soup I had was Pacific Natural Foods Organic Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato. I'm pretty particular about store-bought soups and I found this one to be pretty tasty.  I topped it with some freshly grated parmesan cheese, as well.  

I'm going to post last night's dinner sometime soon since it was delicious.  Sorry I skipped out on posting because I was so tired after watching 3 hrs of Lost! 

The Start of a Very Important Day

I'm quite sure I have not mentioned this on the blog yet, but I am a HUGE Lost fan! After months and months of waiting, the season opener -of the final season- is tonight!  I have a feeling today is going to be a long one as I wait for the exciting event!

Today's breakfast is a 3 egg white sandwich with colby jack on an Earthgrains thin with an tangelo. This tangelo is especially tangy and I like it!

Have a good day people!  Go Lost!

Homemade Classic Granola Bars

Hello everyone!  Well I completely spaced and didn't take any pictures of my dinner!  I had some whole wheat pasta with spicy marinara.  It was pretty darn good :)  Anyways, instead of dinner, I will blog about my granola bars that I made yesterday.  

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups oats (quick oats)
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 1 cup Nasoya silken style tofu, mixed with 1 tsp vanilla extract (*could also use the Vanilla Nasoya Silken Creations that Whole Foods seemed to be out of!)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Spray an 8 X 12 (or 9 X 11) pan with cooking spray. 
3. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir. 
4. Spread out on pan. 
5. Bake for 40-45 min. 
6. Let cool and enjoy!

Here's a picture of the silken tofu mixed with 1 tsp vanilla: 

Here's the finished creation: 

These turned out really great!  I started out with a recipe that I found on Nasoya's website but I altered it to include all the ingredients I like.  I cut it into 12 granola bars, but that's up to you how big you want them.  I froze some and have some in my cabinet for this week.  It's so easy to make granola bars.  I think I'm going to experiment with this some more in the future!