The Tasty Balance

Blast From the Past

2010-03-10T05:40:00.000-08:00

Hello there! Well for whatever reason, I was so exhausted last night and went to bed after LOST instead of blogging about my delicious dinner, so I'm going to start with that dinner!

GREEK SHRIMP PASTA

I used to make this dish all the time in college! It's based off my favorite dish at my favorite restaurant, Kona, in Oxford, OH. It's really easy.

I cooked up some whole wheat pasta. While that was cooking...
I sauteed some 1 green pepper (chopped) and 2-3 cloves of garlic.
When there is only ~3-4 min left of cooking (of the pasta), I added 1 diced roma tomato and shrimp, then sprinkled all of it with oregano. Note, I had already salt and peppered the other veggies and shrimp.
Once the pasta and veggie/shrimp mixture are all done, mix together and add feta cheese.

I served mine over a bed of spinach, just to add another veggie. This dish brought back memories! It's for sure an all-time favorite of mine!

I also decided I needed dessert! So I sliced up some strawberries, scooped up some low-fat tart fro yo, and topped it all with some mini chocolate chips! Delish!!

Breakfast

I just had my typical banana and PB oatmeal this morning! I'm gotta get geared up for the day. Later!

A Foggy Start

2010-03-09T05:27:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I looked out the window this morning and it looked kind of like how my head has been feeling the last couple of day, quite foggy! Check out my foggy view this morning:

I actually switched up my oats a little this morning! And they are REALLY good! I made blueberry banana oats.

In the bowl:

1/3 cup oats, skim milk, water
1 banana
spoonful of ground flax
about 1/3-1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 handful of hemp granola
spoonful of almond butter

Daily Recap!

2010-03-08T20:08:00.001-08:00

Hello there! I'm super tired, I'm blogging from bed :) Today definitely felt like a Monday! Here's a recap of the day.

Breakfast

Today was a nice bowl of banana & PB oats. I bet you are tired of seeing this! I just love them :) So, so tasty! Plus, they keep me full for most the morning!

In the bowl:

1/3 cup water, skim milk, and oats
1 mashed banana
1 spoonful of ground flax
1 spoonful of PB
sprinkle of hemp granola (from the Whole Foods bulk bin)

Lunch

My lunch was super delicious! I had a half of a whole wheat pita filled with some pesto feta mixture (I'll post what this is leftover from soon!), spinach, and a roasted red pepper. I also had some Chobani plain, fat free Greek yogurt sweetened with agave, and topped with grapes, strawberries, and hemp granola. Soo good!

A better look of the sandwich...

and of the yogurt!

Dinner

Tonight I had a grilled sandwich (just used some Pam on the pan to make it toasty) using the whole wheat bread. The innards include: pesto, 1 piece of muenster, some feta, 1 roasted red pepper, and some mystery hot pepper that I got from work (it was so spicy, I had to take it off my sandwich!)

The side salad was spinach with sliced green grapes and slivered almonds. Sliced green grapes are one of my favorite salad toppers. They are especially good with balsamic vinaigrette, which I used tonight. I was also craving something potato chips, so I gave myself a small portion.

Nighty night!

Soupbox

2010-03-06T16:24:00.000-08:00

Hello! My friend Ann is in town this weekend, so I'm bummed that I'm not feeling too well! I did get to see her this afternoon though :) She was shopping a couple blocks away so I met her and Lindsey and we went to Soupbox for a light lunch. It was great! Although I think that it was a tad expensive- $4.99 for a cup of vegetable soup- it was tasty enough that I would definitely go back to try some more flavors!

After taste testing a couple of varieties, I chose the Fire Roasted Vegetable. I came oh-so-close to choosing the Fresh Broccoli and White Cheddar, but the heavy, creaminess just didn't sound so appetizing with my stuffed up head.

I was really happy with my choice. With a big chunk of multigrain bread that came with it, it filled me up. I'm very happy I learned about this spot that's not too far from my apt!

Coffee Talk

2010-03-06T08:11:00.000-08:00

Good morning! So I have coffee every morning, but I realize I never talk about it! I just have one mug. During the week, I almost always set it up the night before and set it to start brewing around the time I wake up so that as soon as I get to it, it's ready for me! I like it milkier than many folks, but I use either skim milk or vanilla soy milk depending on what I have on hand. Then I sweeten it up with a drizzle of agave nectar once around the mug. I love using agave nectar as a sweetener. I used to be a splenda freak but I got really grossed out once I thought about all the artificial sweeteners I was using throughout my day (some yogurts, sometimes diet coke, etc.- these are actually all habits I've improved now). When I use agave, I'm almost positive I'm adding less calories than if I was to stir in actual sugar because a little goes a long way. I've never actually measured, so I can't say this for sure :/ However, agave is much sweeter than just plain, granulated sugar so theoretically you can use less to achieve the same level of sweetness. Hmm, I now think I'm going to have to do a little experiment soon! Regardless, the taste is great!

In the past two or three I've also really decreased my spending on coffee. I used to pick up coffee from either starbucks, caribou, dunkin donuts, or wherever I would pass, at least a couple times a week. That gets ridiculously expensive! Now I just stop into Starbucks or Caribou for an occasional treat (especially during pumpkin spice season!!). Then it's special and worth the extra money. For example, the first nice day of the summer, I MUST have a frappacino and considering my pumpkin addition, I have to have a pumpkin spice latte within the first week they are available at Starbucks!

Well I recently made a purchase to make my coffee at home a little more special. For just $2.99, I bought a milk frother from IKEA. I had seen a Bodum one for $11.99 and thought that was a great price until I saw the one at IKEA.

To prepare my coffee this morning, I poured some milk into a glass and warmed it up for 30 seconds, then used the milk frother for maybe 20-30 seconds and it was frothy and ready! I had already stirred my agave into my coffee before adding the milk. And just like Starbucks, I used a spoon to drain the milk into my mug, while saving the froth to scoop out of the glass and add on top of my drink. And viola! A little fancier version of my regular cup of coffee for just a one time fee of $2.99 (*and 2 AA batteries) and about 1 min extra in prep time!

I also made a delicious and nutritious breakfast! I made eggs (1 egg + 2 egg whites) with 1 roasted red pepper chopped up...

Then I had to cut it into two pieces to fit into my half of a whole wheat pita and added 1 piece of muenster cheese and some spinach leaves. I also had a blood orange on the side- that was soo juicy and yummy.

Look at how colorful! This is a dietitian's dream to see such a colorful plate. And it was sooo tasty, as well. I love, love roasted red peppers! I'll be using them a lot since I have a jar I have to use within a week! OK well, now in addition to my cold, my back is acting up so I'm gonna just relax some more! When it rains, it pours :)

Resting Up

2010-03-05T20:25:00.000-08:00

Hi there. I can't believe it's 10:30! Well my throat is feeling a lot better now than it did this morning, but I'm still feeling pretty shabby. I did manage to leave the apartment for a little, for some fresh air. It was amazing that one errand made me feel so exhausted. My sister's bday dinner is tomorrow night and I have a friend in town, so I'm hoping that all this rest will help me kick this quick!

I wasn't hungry after breakfast/lunch until about about 6.5 hours later! I snacked on some grapes and that seemed to stimulate my appetite because I was hungry for dinner shortly after that!

For dinner, I had some leftover tortellini and that I mixed with frozen peas and parmesan (my #1 go-to dinner "pasta, peas, and parmesan").

A couple hours later I really wanted something cool and sweet, so I had a small bowl of Haagen Dazs tart frozen yogurt topped with thawed, frozen blueberries, sliced almonds, and white chocolate chips. I'm so into this tart frozen yogurt, I love it!

Well I'm just chilling the rest of the night and hopefully most of tomorrow too!

Home Sick :(

2010-03-05T10:20:00.000-08:00

Hello there. So last night I could tell that I was becoming more and more congested, then I went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night with a very painful sore throat. One of those where it feels like it encompasses the whole throat and ear region. When it was hurting just the same when I woke up this morning I thought I'd better call off sick today. I went back to sleep for about 4 hours!

So my breakfast today was at the time I usually eat lunch on most days. I read Kath Eats Real Food regularly and she always talks about her whipped banana oats so I decided to make that today. They were really great! Basically, I just broke the banana into a couple pieces and put it in bowl and hit it with the hand mixer until it was smooth (well actually I left a couple lumps- I'm very afraid of overmixing things and making them too thin). I made stovetop oats today, as opposed to microwave oats, and about halfway through the 4-5 min of oats cooking time, I stirred in the banana.

Here they are:

In the bowl:

1/2 cup oats, skim milk, and water
1 spoonful of ground flax (these are heaping and my guess would be close to 2 T)
1 whipped banana
1 spoonful of PB stirred in at the end
topped with a small handful of crumbled Kashi Cinnamon Harvest Shredded Wheat

I really like my oats this morning, not that I don't every other day :) Maybe it's in my head, but I think the whipped banana adds more of a "baked good" taste, perhaps because by whipping it is really breaking down the sugars before mixing it in. I'll definitely be whipping my bananas more often for oatmeal!

I also tried a new peanut butter that I'm really liking.

It's Wild Harvest Natural Peanut Butter, which is the generic natural brand at Jewel. I chose it because it was the cheapest brand on the shelf and I loved the ingredient list: organic dry roasted peanuts. I can't remember the price and can't find the receipt, but I want to say it was $1.99. It was not more than $2! I'll go look next time I'm at the store.

Well I'm going to just rest the rest of the day!

Lunch At Home Tastes Way Better!

2010-03-04T10:34:00.001-08:00

Hello! I'm hoping this will be the first of many lunch time blog posts from home! I may or may not have mentioned that I just moved very close to work! It has been taking me between 12-15 minutes to walk there! So today I decided I would go home for lunch! I took my lunch from the fridge at work and hit the road!

And here is what I'm eating right now:

It's a Lean Cuisine Margarita Pizza and green grapes. I used to be big on frozen entrees, but not so much anymore. They are usually expensive and I can make something way better. However, I like to have a couple on hand for convenience. So if I see one I like on sale, I'll buy it. Yesterday I saw these pizzas on sale for $1.67! So I bought 2 :) Pretty tasty!

Ok I'm gonna putz around a little before I have to head back to work! I'm taking the day off of working out to make some headway on my unpacking. It's really starting to annoy me that my stuff is still all over the place!

I'm Baaacckk!!

2010-03-04T05:31:00.000-08:00

Hi!! My internet works, hooray! Now I feel normal again! I'll have to take some pictures of my teeny tiny kitchen to show you all what I'm working with! I'm living in a small studio to start with, but man is that a miniscule space! Luckily, it's more workable than I thought it would be!

Well I did take pictures of my dinner last night, so I'll start with that. I had Cheese Tortellini with Garlicky Spinach. Pretty typical, huh? Well I had about 2/3 of bag of spinach left. I bought it when I was craving spinach earlier in the week and have not made a salad since. It was going to go bad if I didn't use it soon, so I mixed it with some tortellini! First I sauteeed the spinach with 3 cloves of garlic (I like it strong!) in some EVOO. Then just stirred it all together and sprinkled some red pepper flakes and parmesan.

That was a very lovely, garlicky dinner. I cooked all of the tortellini up so you'll be seeing it again!

Breakfast was Cinnamon Blueberry Oats:

In the bowl:

1/3 cup oats, skim milk, water
a heaping 1/3 cup of frozen blueberries (probably closer to 1/2 cup)
drizzle of agave nectar
spoonful of ground flax seed
crumbled up Kashi Cinnamon Harvest Shredded Wheat as a topper
spoonful of almond butter stirred in at the end

I think the picture looks kind of messy and a little gross, but trust me it was delicious! Btw, I'm very happy to have some almond butter back in my life. I hadn't replenished my stock in over a month! I use Trader Joe's Creamy Unsalted. It's the cheapest I've come by and very tasty. Anyone else know of a good, cheap* almond butter? (*cheap is relative here)

Yes I'm Alive

2010-03-01T05:24:00.001-08:00

Hi! So I'm moved! However, my internet is not completely figured out so I'll pick up random spurts of connection through a public hot spots on my street! Therefore, the blogging is postponed a little longer! Sorry, I'm hoping to get things up and running in the next couple days!

Dietitians Can Eat!

2010-02-24T19:11:00.000-08:00

I just got home from the Chicago Dietetic Association meeting held at Wildfire. The presentation was called: The Infamous Trilogy: Inflammation, Malnutrition, and Chronic Disease. It was pretty good! And the presenter, Patricia Fuhrman was very entertaining and engaging, which can be a very hard thing to do for certain subjects, like the one presented tonight! Most importantly, the food was SOOO GOOOOD!!!

I'm pretty tired so I'll get straight to the point :)

The service was great, they just kept the food coming! We started with bread, which I forgot to take a picture. I just had a little chunk!

After the bread came the Fresh Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil Pizza. The dough was great and really made the pizza.

Then came the Oven Baked Goat Cheese. I'm a huge goat cheese fan so I was very pleased with this offering. It came with a toasted garlic pita triangle.

Next was the Greek Salad! They also offered a chopped salad that I passed up because of the chicken. The Greek Salad was pretty awesome though!

The entree followed shortly after. They brought out a huge plate of chicken, a bowl of mashed potatoes, a bowl of broccoli, and a bowl of vegetable pasta with goat cheese (yes, more goat cheese!) Here's my plate!

Then, of course, dessert was the grand finale. The Triple Layer Chocolate Cake and Seasonal Berry Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream looked so good, so I had both!

This was for sure the best CDA meeting I've been to! Off to bed! I have the 25th Annual Pediatric Nutrition Conference tomorrow that I'm very excited about!!

I'm Ready For Spring!

2010-02-23T05:26:00.000-08:00

Good morning! Man, it is so cold. I do hate to complain on here, but I'm quite sick of this weather and I'm soo ready for spring. I'm sure all of you are with me!

Today's breakfast was a delicious bowl of berry oats.

In the bowl:

1/3 cup oats, vanilla soy milk, and water
~1//3- 1/2 cup of frozen berries (365 brand, Berry Medley)
1 spoonful of flax
1 spoonful of PB (delicious, but wish I had almond butter today!)
the rest of my french vanilla granola

I kind of feel like its Wednesday or Thursday because tomorrow is my last day in the office this week. I have a conference on Thursday that I'm really looking forward to and then I have Friday off to move!

I've Died and Gone To Heaven

2010-02-22T17:38:00.000-08:00

OMG my sister brought me the most delicious treat! But before I get to that, lunch first!

LUNCH

I had my leftover goat cheese and asparagus pasta today and a Stonyfield's low- fat strawberry pomegranate yogurt. I really liked this flavor. You will probably see this exact same lunch one more time!

DINNER

OK onto the best meal today. My sister brought me a chocolate chip cookie by Carol's Cookies. Not only is this an amazing cookie, but it is huge! I'm obsessed. I tried to eat the whole thing, but just couldn't. I'm talking about a massive cookie! I, of course, had a glass of milk with my cookie, but I also made some scrambled eggs (1 egg + 2 egg whites). I have this thing, I just felt like I wanted to balance out all that sugar with some protein.

A close up of the beauty!

OK back at packing and laundry, bleh. Can't wait for this to all be over!

Making Headway

2010-02-22T05:15:00.000-08:00

I would like to express my love for IKEA. I spent many hours there yesterday and feel like I got some great deals, especially on the big stuff- like a bed and a love seat! I'm still looking for some small things like a queen size black fitted sheet (two tries, with no luck!?!)... but pretty much I'm ready to go. As of yesterday, I also sold the last of my things I'm getting rid of. I'm finally feeling like I'm about ready to move!

Today's breakfast was banana and PB oats, back to my original portion size :)

In the bowl:

1/3 cup oats, vanilla soy, and water
1 banana
1 spoonful of ground flax
1 spoonful PB
less than 1/4 c pumpkin granola (the last of it!)

Spaghetti and Asparagus with Goat Cheese Sauce

2010-02-21T09:49:00.000-08:00

Hello there! I've been very busy with moving business. I'll be moving this Friday so I'm hoping to get back to normal after the weekend! Pretty much I've been eating leftovers and lots of repeats because I don't want to do any major grocery shopping. I want to avoid moving a lot of food!

Anyways, I made a delicious pasta dish last night so I'll share it!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb spaghetti
1 lb asparagus, ends cut off and chopped into bite size pieces
4 oz goat cheese
1 T olive oil
3 T white wine
8 oz vegetable (or chicken) broth (I used Better Than Bouillon)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
zest of one lemon
salt and pepper

Directions for Sauce

Combine broth, olive oil, and white wine and simmer until it reduces to about half
Add garlic powder, lemon zest, goat cheese and stir till blended. Salt and pepper to taste
It should thicken a little if you keep it at a low simmer for a while (I couldn't tell if this actually happened with mine!)

Directions for Pasta

Bring water in a medium large pot to a boil.
Blanch asparagus for 2-3 min then remove from pot (dont' drain whole pot so you can use the water for pasta)and run under cold water to stop cooking.
Cook spaghetti in the boiling water as directed.
Drain pasta.
Combine pasta, asparagus, and sauce!
I topped with some parmesan, which was great!

TGIF

2010-02-19T05:18:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I'm so happy it's the weekend. I got home from work yesterday and was just so out of it. I forgot to take pictures of my dinner, but it was just leftover from the night before. I did, however, remember to take pictures of my awesome dessert.

I had these 2 little bite-size pieces of cheesecake from cheesecake factory that were leftover from a work luncheon.

I think one was a raspberry white chocolate and the other must have been a turtle one - my mom would've loved that one.

Breakfast this morning was good ole banana and PB oats. For some reason I decided to make a little bigger batch, using 1/2 cup of oats, milk, and water instead of my normal 1/3 cup. I think I will stick with the 1/3 cup. It doesn't look like I'll finish this.

In the bowl:

1/2 cup oats, skim milk, and water
1 banana
1 large spoonful of ground flax
1 small spoonful of PB
topped with a sprinkling of pumpkin granola

The Lone Egg Sandwich

2010-02-18T05:15:00.000-08:00

It is a rare occasion that I don't wake up with a roaring appetite, but today is one of those days. So I decided to have just a 3 egg white sandwich on Earthgrains with one slice of american cheese. Usually I need a piece of fruit or something on the side, but not today.

Pizza With A Kick

2010-02-17T19:49:00.000-08:00

I had a really hard time picking out dinner tonight. I went to Whole Foods, wandered around for quite some time, then came back to the pizza I had eyed for a while. I actually wasn't sure what it was at first, but I asked and when the guy said it's kinda spicy, I was sold. The pizza had jalepeno, yummm. I was so hungry and bought two pieces. I still have one piece left for tomorrow though, one was enough! A really great thing about spicy food is that it forces me to eat slower. When I eat slower, I eat less! I actually have time to process what I just ate and feel full. You should try it sometime:)

Look at how huge the piece was! Behold the power of a small plate. I mean, the piece was on the larger side, but the small plate definitely help create the illusion of an enormous plate. Btw, I love Whole Foods pizza!

After dinner I had a 100-calorie pack of oreo cakesters that my sister, Hillary, gave me the other day. I also enjoyed a glass of skim milk, the perfect accompaniment. They were pretty good. I would probably never buy them, but mainly because I can be cheap with my grocery shopping and 100-calorie packs aren't very economical.

Last of the Chocolate PB :(

2010-02-17T05:09:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I used the last of my Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter by PB & Co in my oatmeal this morning. And because I vowed to have a very limited grocery budget this month, I know I won't be buying for a little while. However, it was the star of my oatmeal this morning (as usual!).

In the bowl:

1/3 skim milk, water, and oats
1 banana
1 spoonful of chocolate PB
Topped with a sprinkling of pumpkin granola ( I was tired and thought it was french vanilla at first- still very yummy)

Just Woke Up and Ready for Bed!

2010-02-16T19:01:00.000-08:00

Hey there! Man today flew by! I did not work out as I had planned, but I feel pretty productive besides that. I plan on having an awesome workout tomorrow so I'm not terribly concerned with that today.

Well I'm not sure exactly what happened this morning but somehow or another I either slept through my alarm, never set it, or some other malfunction. I slept an hour later than I had planned so I had to rush so I wouldn't be late for work. So cold cereal it was!

In the bowl:

Kashi Cinnamon Harvest Shredded Wheat (I love this stuff)
Skim milk
1 banana
sprinkle of TJ's PB&A nut mix

I'm not sure what time it was when I took lunch because it was such a blur. We were very busy at work and short-staffed, so I barely even took one and it was late. Oh well, it happens. I didn't snap a picture because it was so fast, but I had leftover pasta with pesto and peas.

Tonight for dinner, I had a boca burger with american cheese on an Earthgrains thin. My sides were oven fries (Alexia garlic and parmesan, I think!), some edamame. I know, double soy, but like I said I'm working with what I have until I move. I actually only had a few bites then of edamame because I was getting full.

After dinner, I was super excited to eat my dessert while watching Lost. My intern, Amy brought me homemade Tiramisu! Amy- you did an awesome job! It was so fantastic and I freaking loved it! Thanks very much!

When It's OK To NOT Finish Your Vegetables!

2010-02-15T16:58:00.000-08:00

Hi there. Well in attempting to use up ingredients from my kitchen, I came across a bag of frozen green beans in my freezer. So I thought I'd use these as a side to my leftover pasta dish from the weekend. These green beans came in one of those "steam in the bag" packages, so I followed the instructions and they steamed in the microwave. Bleh! I felt like they were making a squeaky sound in my mouth as I chewed them. I decided to just stop after a couple bites. Even the color was kind of grossing me out. Look at the drab green color.

Luckily, I had my go-to pasta dish (Pasta, Peas, Pesto, and Parmesan), which was delightful as usual. Guess what, frozen peas were used in this dish and they came out fantastic! I guess when it comes to frozen vegetables, you have to use them in the right way. At least I now know I don't like the microwave steamed vegetables.

Well I'm just organizing/getting rid of stuff... so far I have two full bags of clothes to donate! Of course the Olympics will be on, too. I love the Olympics if I haven't mentioned! I think hot chocolate is in my future!

I Love President's Day

2010-02-15T12:15:00.000-08:00

Hello. Having the day off has been so wonderful. I feel quite productive! So the next week there may be a lot of repeat ingredients and the meals may not be quite as balanced as I strive for because I am trying to use up as much of my food as possible before I move!

Lunch was great! I have that country sourdough bread that I'm trying to use up so I made a grilled cheese with pesto (homemade that I had in the freezer) and 2 pieces of provolone. I thought I was going to use some roasted red pepper on that but I decided to throw the jar out because it looked a little iffy. I also had a fantastic organic pink lady apple. These are my favorite and they were on sale this week at Whole Foods so you'll be seeing these a lot!

Sometimes You Feel Like a Yolk, Sometimes You Don't

2010-02-15T07:29:00.000-08:00

Hi there blogville! I'm happy to report that I am just about set on a new place, which means (hopefully!) there will be no more frantic apartment searching in my near future. Man, talk about stressful! This also means I'm back blogging! Once again, I apologize for the one week hiatus!

BREAKFAST

For those of you who follow me, you probably know of my obsession with egg white sandwiches. Well today, something inside me wanted a yolk! So I had an open-face, 1 egg + 1 egg yolk sandwich with half a piece of american cheese on a slice of [yesterday's] fresh country sourdough bread. So so delicious!

I'm hoping to take advantage of having the day off for President's Day to get some cleaning and shopping done for the move. Later!

Sorry! Be Back Soon!

2010-02-11T05:23:00.000-08:00

Hi! I just feel the need to explain my absence! Long story short, I found out this weekend that I am going to have to move by the end of the month. So pretty much every second I'm not working, I've been looking for places! By the time I get home, I just go to sleep! I've been snapping pictures all week though so I'll do a recap of my especially great meals as soon as I get a chance! Once again, I apologize!

Oh How I've Missed You!

2010-02-08T05:21:00.001-08:00

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.