I added in a banana, some brown sugar, a pat of butter, some almonds, and dried cherries.  It was quite delicious, and it made 4 servings, so I also had it for breakfast 2 days this week.  I just added some milk and reheated with a few more toppings.

I also prepped for the week by planning out our meals:

Sunday: Veggie Lasagna, sweet potato fries, corn on the cob

Monday:  Italian Beef (made by the husband) in the slow cooker

Tuesdays: Chicken Enchiladas (I made shredded chicken to prepare for this dish.)

Wednesday and Thursday:  Leftovers

Lunches: Mainly leftovers

I spent $60 on groceries.  This amount is less than I typically spend, so I feel pretty good about my plan.  We will be out of town this weekend (Colorado Springs), but I got a few extra things for backup meals too.

We were not thoroughly impressed with the Veggie Lasagna on Sunday, but it was much improved by lunchtime on Monday and Tuesday!  For veggies, I chopped up zucchini, eggplant, spinach, and tomatoes.  I had way too much, so I made an extra casserole without noodles.  The sweet potato fries (2 sweet potatoes chopped with olive oil, cinnamon, paprika, and salt and baked at 400 degrees) and corn were quite good .

Nice active weekend:  20 mile bike ride on Saturday and a dip in the ocean; 3.5 mile run on Sunday.

I love short weeks, and I can’t believe that it’s already Friday!  Since we went camping last weekend and spent a lot of money on groceries, I wanted us to survive on what we had.  It worked, kinda, but we still had to pick a few things up at the store along the way.   I’m doing well with my goal of avoiding frozen dinners — still none in 2 weeks!  I will say that my lunches have been pretty mundane – think PB&J, Turkey and Cheese on WW  bread — but I still feel better when I eat real food.

No big plans this weekend.  We are babysitting tonight for one of Jimmy’s sisters.  She has 3 kids under 7, so it will be a good test for us…We might go on a bike ride on Saturday.  It will be nice to relax a bit, and then we are going to Colorado Springs next weekend! I can’t wait.  We are considering moving there, so we are going to check out the neighborhoods a bit.  I’ve already got a list of places to eat and visit.

Also, my sister is so talented. Check out this piece about her work.

We unpacked and set up camp,

and put all of our food in the bear box.

During the weekend, we explored down by the river,

and Hume lake.

By the end, we had a very tired pup.

Of course we hung out around the campfire and had S’mores.

Lots of fun. We are going to go camping again soon — maybe to Anza-Borrego (it’s only a 2 hour drive from San Diego).

Time to get back to the real world…

Jimmy had class last night, so I got inspiration for dinner from Carrots ‘N’ Cake.  I had some Flatout bread in the freezer and made a yummy broccoli, onion, spinach, tomato pizza and a side salad.

I picked up some last minute food for our camping eats after work, and we prepped the veggies late into the night  We have way too much food, but we have some yummy meals planned for the long weekend.  I was craving something sweet, so I had some cinnamon toast.

Have a good weekend!

After work, we took Banjo on his usual loop, and I did about an hour of the YogaX DVD.  I’m definitely improving since my first go at the DVD.  It was a good workout for me, especially since I was low on energy.

For dinner, we went the simple route:  a grilled cheese sandwich on WW bread, minestrone soup, salad, and some broccoli.  I had some watermelon and a few chocolate chips to satisfy my need for sweets.

I had to rush out the door this morning, so I grabbed some Trader Joe’s instant oatmeal for breakfast and slapped together some PB&J’s for lunch.   I hope the work day goes quickly!

For breakfast, I’m having overnight oats (1/3 cup rolled out, 1/3 cup nonfat milk, 1/3 cup nonfat plain yogurt prepared last night), and I added 1 banana, some toasted almond slivers, and dried cranberries.

For lunch, I brought pasta salad that I made on Sunday.  I combined tomatoes, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, and avocado with whole wheat pasta and added some low-fat Italian dressing.  Quick and easy, but does the trick.

I need to start taking more pics, as they make these posts much more exciting. I will work on that too…

Recaps:

Friday night:  I did a shortened version of the Legs and Back DVD, while Jimmy grilled some veggies for dinner.

He made us a yummy grilled veggie sandwich on Asiago cheese bread.  He spread some light cream cheese on the bottom half and then piled on the veggies.  Then we topped it off with some balsamic vinegar.  (He had a few too many jalapenos on his sandwich though and had a hard time finishing it!)

Later, we took some beers down to the beach and watched the waves.  Then we watched our newest obsession – Weeds. We are finished with Season 1!

Saturday:  Busy, busy day.

Jimmy went fishing with his dad early, so I got up around 7:30 and took Banjo on a walk.  Then, I went on a 4 mile run near our house.  Luckily, it was not too hot yet, but I’m still glad I put sunscreen on for the run.  I had downloaded a podcast from Indie Soup Runner, which made the run fly by.  I rinsed off, had some Accelerade and PB toast, and went to the beach to meet up with Jimmy and his dad.

We all went surfing when I got there. I’m still a beginner and haven’t gone very much this summer, so I was struggling a bit. Also, the surf was stronger than I liked, but Jimmy helped me after he was done, and I had fun in the shallower waters.  After that, we went home and had some grub — leftovers from last night’s sandwich, a salad for me, and jimmy had a fried egg sandwich.   After a bit of relaxation, we went on a bike ride.  Surprisingly, I still felt great on the ride.  We rode for about 40 mins near our house (about 10 miles) and then got ready for a BBQ at a friend’s house.  We brought the albacore that we caught on the fishing trip last week.   We had fish tacos, grilled tri-tip, salad, grilled corn, and garlic bread.

Sunday:  We got up around 8:00 and had coffee. I really wanted to make pancakes, but we were out of milk, so I tried this recipe for banana oatmeal pancakes.  I was very impressed!  Though not quite pancakes, I was happy with the results.  I doubled the recipe and was able to make 4 pancakes for us.  I only had regular oats (the recipe calls for quick oats), but they still turned out great!  I put PB on one of mine and syrup and butter on the other one.   We did a lot of prep work for our camping trip this coming weekend – menu planning, grocery shopping, gear check.  I cleaned the house as well.

We have dinner with Jimmy’s family pretty much every Sunday, and this Sunday was no exception.  Jimmy has a big family with multiple nieces and nephews, so the family dinners can be an experience.  This one was pretty mellow, and it was super nice out at his sister’s place in Escondido.  One of his sisters (he has 4!) made Greek chicken, and we also had watermelon, a strawberry poppy seed salad, and some rolls.   It was really good!  I got the recipe for the chicken, so I’ll give it a try soon and post my experience.   When we got home, I made pasta salad for our lunches this week, and then we watched some T.V. (and another episode of Weeds), and off to bed.

Whew, long weekend, but super productive!

We did each have a glass of wine — Coppola’s Director’s Cut — best wine ever! (This wine is more expensive than we usually spend, but my parents bought us some last time they were out here. The best deal is at Costco.)  I also made some banana bread last night, since we had 2 ripe bananas.  I used a Cooking Light recipe for Banana Oat Bread.  I substituted a small amount of vinegar (2/3 teaspoon vinegar to 1/3 cup fat-free milk) in the milk for the buttermilk, and I didn’t notice a difference.  Very yummy, but the center took longer to cook, so the outside is definitely quite crispy.

Last night, I prepared Overnight Oats (courtesy of Kath Eats).  I am out of fruit, so I brought some almond slivers and cranberries to add.   The verdict:  Tasty, and a nice change from my typical hot oatmeal breakfast.  I will definitely have this again.

I have a few goals to focus on for the next month:

1. Eat More Food – I’ve realized that I’m slacking in terms of calories because I’m famished by the time I’m off work, and I get shaky after a workout.  That’s not good, so I’m going to bring some extra snacks to eat during the day.
2. Eat Less Frozen Dinners – I’ve already been doing quite well on this goal too. I have had 0 frozen dinners this week.  I usually pick some up with my groceries as a back-up for lunch at work, but I’m going to try hard to plan on the weekend, so we can eat real food during the day.
3. Shop Smarter – I’m trying to conserve money at the grocery and become a smarter shopper.  Part of that is for us to really use what we have and get creative and part is to focus on more fresh produce.

That’s all for now…

It’s going well, but I may need to modify a bit, since we have a few trips coming up (YES!).  I feel much stronger already, though the scale is moving the wrong direction.  I like that the program has kept me doing something every day after work, but the hour a day is quite a big time commitment. I’ve always been a consistent exerciser, but I fall in the 3-4 days per week range.  With this program, you are working out 6 days a week, with lots of weight workouts.  We will see how long I last, but I’m happy to have more motivation for working out.   After the wedding, I couldn’t get back into a consistent workout schedule, so this program is at least doing that for me.  Over time, I’ll probably transition back to my classes at the gym, but I just get so frustrated when the classes fill up, and I have to try to get a machine.

I have steel cut oats that have just been sitting in the pantry for some time now. After being inspired by some recent blogs, I think I’ll try slow cooking some for the week. or I could try this concept of overnight oats, where you soak regular oatmeal overnight and eat cold. I’m sure that would save money in the long run too.

I made hummus this weekend.  The recipe was from Bon Appetit and super easy, but there is no call for Tahini. Most recipes use tahini, so I think I’ll buy some and see if it gives the hummus more flavor.  If a make a batch on Sunday with 2 cans of garbanzo beans, it lasts through the week for my lunches.  I’ve been bringing in Sandwich thins, spreading hummus on both sides, and then filling in spinach, red pepper slices, and cucumber.  Once I get some avocados in the house, I’ll add those too and maybe some tomatoes.

Jimmy made some yummy homemade burgers on Monday. He added chopped up onions, oatmeal, and egg.  The oatmeal and onion gives the burger such a nice crunchiness.    I had one for dinner on Tuesday as well, since Jimmy was at a work party.

I realize that this post doesn’t flow so well, but I figure that I should just start writing in the beginning and the quality will improve over time.