Protein Power

Another busy day. Friday can't come soon enough. Sheesh! I'm such a cliche. Just call me Cathy. Lunch was good, but even I am getting sick of green vegetables:

• tuna and salmon salad with spinach and bell pepper on a whole wheat wrap
• frozen pineapple chunks
• broccoli
• Brussels sprouts

Oh! I think I mentioned this before, but I don't eat these vegetable raw. I rinse them and then drain off some of the water and nuked them for 1 minute in the office microwave. I also drape a wet paper towel on top of the container. I think of it as a makeshift steamer. Anyway, they come out perfect for me. However, I didn't eat any of my vegetables today. Partly because I was too busy to get to the microwave and also because breakfast was so filling.
I had a hard-boiled egg and the cheese stick first. I wasn't even remotely hungry until after 1:00. Amazing! I gave the other egg to a co-worker and left the yogurt in the fridge. Good stuff. I guess protein in the morning is working for me. Do you eat eggs in the morning? What other protein is good for breakfast?

Barely Made It

Has this been the longest week in history or what? I can't believe it's only Wednesday. Anywho, the chaos of this week has got me all out of whack and forgetful and TIRED. Luckily I prepared a lot of food over the weekend in anticipation for it. Today was another favorite go-to lunch:

• sugar snap peas
• Trader Joe's Just Sauce turkey bolognese with whole wheat pasta and lots of veggies
• broccoli
• tangerine

Not to get bog you down with the nuts and bolts of my blog process, but normally I take pictures of my boxes at home. This morning I was in such a rush that I just threw the camera into my bag thinking that I'd take pictures at work. As you can see:
I tore into breakfast before I remembered to take a picture. I got the remains of my egg white veggie omelet and the whole wheat bagel thin that I ate with it. The rest is just grapes and a tangerine. Oh! I also started eating these light cheddar cheese sticks as a midday snack. They're pretty good. I think I needed a protein pick me up as the day dragged on.

Off to bed. Goodnight!

Munch Monster Attack

Lots of green food for lunch today. Don't be envious though.

• tuna and salmon salad with dill and light mayonnaise on a bed of baby spinach
• 2 kiwis
• broccoli
• sugar snap peas

I made a 4 fritattas yesterday so that I would have a immediate protein and veggies after my spin class this morning. The clementine and grapes were good too.


I also had a couple of slices of Ezekiel bread. 1 slice toasted in the morning and the other toasted for the fish salad. And after all of that, I still had to break into my my stash of oatmeal packets at 3:30. Either my meals are too tempting or I'm a mild compulsive overeater. I scarfed down the contents of both these boxes by 1:20 today. I also drank about 50 oz. of water by that time too. Yet, by 3:30 I had the munchies. Ugh! So frustrating.

Also, I've realized that I turn into an alley cat as soon as I walk into my apartment in the evening. Seriously. I'm poking my nose into every little nook and cranny to see what I can nibble. I'm too tired to put together a real meal on a plate and I find myself eating nothing but "lasts." The last slice of cheese, with the last slice of bread, that last blood orange, and the last spoonful of Nutella. I might as well have mange and eat out of garbage cans. Anyway, I'm off to check the dumpsters.

Viva Los Bentos!

I made a run for the border at lunchtime.

• Trader Joe's chicken and cheese tamale (cut to fit)
  
• mini bell peppers
• 2 practically bloodless blood oranges
• 1 carrot
  
• balsamic vinaigrette dipper

This tamale was really good! I was very surprised. It thawed out in my lunchbox in the morning and I nuked it for just 1 minute. Perfect. I'm not going to lie. I like the fact that the mini bell peppers look like spicy chili peppers. It seemed very festive.
Weird breakfast and snacks today. I'm actually still liking the Ezekiel bread. So I popped a slice into the office toaster this morning and had it with a piece of low fat cheddar cheese. Oh! My new sweet treat this week is this Greek yogurt (with caramel on the bottom). It's got 16 grams of sugar so I don't want to go overboard with it. But, there are 10 grams of protein. That's something, right? Anyway I tried to make it a bit more healthy by adding some strawberries and TJ's High Fiber Cereal.

Hasta la vista!

I'm Awake!

I have fun plans this evening so I'm posting this before I go to the gymbo. It's 5:30 in the freaking morning. Ugh! Also, is it weird that I'm already looking forward to lunch:

• garlic chicken with broccoli and 1/4 cup of brown rice
• 2 carrots
• 2 kiwis
• 1/2 cup grapes

My Hunny Bun made his signature garlic chicken again and I've loving it for dinner and now lunch today.

Yikes! I'm watching the morning news and they say it's going to snow tomorrow. What the heck! It's springtime, Mother Nature. Get with the program!
Breakfast is another veggie fritatta. I've become a little concerned that I don't eat enough vegetables. Or, actually, that I lean to heavily on fruit for my daily "6 servings of fruits and vegetables." So, I figure if I bung in a ton of veggies at the start of the day I've done half the work.

• egg white veggie fritatta (spinach, zucchini, bell pepper, mushroom, onion)
• 2 slices Ezekiel bread
• 1 Tbsp Nutella (just in case)

Have a great day!

Muhndy Miracle

Back to the grind. Nothing too spectacular about today's lunch. There is one new (to me) element, however. Take a look and guess:

• 2 blood oranges
• broccoli
  
• roast turkey slices with herbs and lite harvati cheese on Ezekiel bread

I've been reading a lot of healthy food/fitness blogs and it seems like everyone is eating this Ezekiel bread. so, (always one to jump on a good bandwagon) I got myself a loaf. It's not as high in fiber as the last loaf of bread I got but it is a lot more hearty and rich tasting. I think it's gluten free or something and the ingredients are all recognizable so I guess that's why health nuts like it. Anyway, the jury is still out about it, as far as I am concerned. I don't have any gluten allergies so I don't think I need to eliminate it. On the other hand, I do like eating bread that I could have made in my own kitchen. Maybe that will be my next project.
Moving on. I packed another breakfast today. It's becoming a pretty regular habit now that I'm exercising in the morning and the evening. Yep, that's right, I'm turning in to a 2-A-Day gym goer. I'm not sure how long I'll be able/willing to keep it up. For now, it's cardio (spinning, swimming, aerobics) in the morning and strength (yoga, pilates, kettle bells) in the evening. I think all the hard work is paying off in surprising ways. For instance, breakfast was indulgent on purpose but I chose not to indulge.

• 1/2 cup fat free vanilla yogurt
• 1/2 cup steel cut oatmeal with cinnamon
• 1/4 cup blueberries
• 1 Tbsp of Nutella
• 1/3 cup strawberries

I actually DIDN'T EAT THE NUTELLA! There is no way for me to describe how unheard of this is. I just didn't feel like putting all that chocolate in my gob after busting my hump on a spin bike this morning. Shocking! Usually, I Hoover up any morsel of chocolate withing a 50 foot range of my cake hole, but not today. It's a Christmas Miracle, Charlie Brown. Keeping myself on the straight and narrow in the face of temptation has always been impossible for me. Somehow, today I managed to get a grip. Maybe I'll celebrate this mini milestone. Maybe a Nutella sandwich. Just kidding! I'm eatin' a mango.

It Has Come To This

So much great stuff today. First it's 75 degrees and sunny in New York City. Next, it's FRIDAY!!! I've got a fantastic weekend ahead of me filled with dinner and brunch plans and a theatrical event which promises (warns?) that "audiences will experience intense psychological situations." Whoopie! I kicked off the weekend by enjoying today's lunch in the park across the street from the office. Midday picnic details below:

• 3 bean turkey chili
• grapefruit cocktail
• strawberries
• Brussels sprouts (I finally figured out how to spell that properly)

The big light bulb announcement today is this:
2 boxes in 1 day! Genius! I figured that with all the food I've been lugging around (breakfast, lunch, snacks, etc.) I needed to consolidate and prevent that God awful clanking of little boxes in my gym bag. Anyway, I've decided to approach this new development as a positive, more healthy and efficient thing. And not as further proof of my gluttony and more depressing evidence that I'm so slammed at work that I eat 66% of my weekday meals at my desk.

Sunnyway, for breakfast I packed another egg white veggie scramble with a whole wheat English muffin. 2 juicy clementines for a late afternoon ended my Friday perfectly. Now I'm off to be entertained (terrified?) at a hotel in Chelsea.

Happy Weekend!

Power Up

Today's lunch kept me going and going. The supercharged details below:

• broccoli florets and sugar snap peas
• 3 bean turkey chili with lots of veggies
• mini bell peppers with balsamic vinaigrette dipper
  
• strawberries

My Beloved made this slammin' chili on Sunday night. Even though we shared it with 2 other people that night there was still plenty left for this week's lunches and dinners. He used black beans, kidney beans, and pinto beans. Delicious! However, those mini peppers were the highlight of my lunch today. I picked them up at Trader Joe's over the weekend and I was looking forward to pairing them up with the sharp salad dressing all week. They did not disappoint. So crunchy and a little sweet.
I've been trying to make more of an effort in the breakfast department. This one really hit the spot:

• egg white frittata with a zillion vegetables (onions, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, brussels sprouts)
• 1 slice whole wheat bread

I didn't even have to pack snacks today because both meals were so filling. I think I'm getting the hang of this thing.

Juiceless

My camera ran out of battery juice last night. So here's a picture of breakfast at my desk that I snapped. I got too busy/hungry to photograph lunch and snacks before I ate it. Sorry! I've got new batteries and will be back tomorrow with the real deal.

Hurry Hurry

When I woke up at 5:30 this morning I was already behind schedule for my spin class. (It's getting to be a thing. Yay, exercise!) So here is a speedy rundown of all the food I packed for the day.

Post Exercise Pre-Breakfast

• banana (19 cents at TJ's. They charge a buck at the gymbo. Ha!)

Breakfast

• 3/4 cup steel cut oatmeal with cinnamon on top
  
• 1/2 cup strawberries
• 1 tbsp Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (don't judge me)

Lunch

• Grapefruit cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, honey)
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pasta with 1/2 TJ's Just Sauce turkey bolognese (I added shaved brussell sprouts and bell pepper to it)
• broccoli
• 1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt

Late Afternoon Snack

• grapes
• sugar snap peas

Sheesh! That seems like a lot of food. But it's actually pretty reasonable if you think about it. Those little boxes and baggies kept me satisfied for about 13 hours. I will be honest and say that sometimes it is a pain to pack it all up every night (or morning) and lug it around with me on the subway to work and then they're clanking all over the place when they are empty on the way back home. But, in the end it's worth it. I save a ton of money and I really get to eat food that I like. Well, I also like cupcakes and candy and barbequed spareribs...just imagine how wonderful THAT lunch would be! But, I digress. Like I said, it's worth it.

At Last

Fridays feel like a some sort of accomplishment to me. Like a goal I've been trying to reach and I finally get after a long struggle. Plus, I'm tired as ever tonight! I did another early morning spin class today this morning and barely made it to work on time. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Let's get to the food:

• burrito with TJ's pesto chicken sausage and sauteed spinach/mushroom/onions/etc.
• broccoli
• 2 blood oranges
• strawberries
  

Breakfast again. Egg whites scrambled with veggies and a slice of bread destined for the office break room toaster.
Grapes and the last of the gross butternut squash muffins. Have a great weekend! Is this the weekend we change the clocks? If so, yay! If not, boo. I'm looking forward to sunshine when I wake up in the morning.

In For The Long Haul

I left the house at 5:30 this morning to make it to a spin class all the way downtown. Was it worth it? Well, the jury is still out. But, the early start meant that I had A LOT of packing to do last night to make sure I'd have enough to eat for the entire day. Like this:

• 2 blood oranges
• burrito with TJ's pesto chicken sausage and sauteed spinach/mushroom/onions/etc.
• broccoli
• yellow string beans

The highlight was the burrito (obviously). The sauteed spinach and mushroom thing had a bit of kick because I added some of the dried chili we got from the CSA. The sausage was scrumptious too! I'd never tried this flavor before.
I guess I've got burrito fever. I made a breakfast burrito too.
It was another attempt to use stuff up. There are still a ton of beans left from the big cooking session I had the other night.

• 1/4 black beans
• egg whites scrambled with mushrooms, peppers, onions, brussell sprouts, and cilantro
• whole wheat tortilla

So, after microwaving 2 burritos today I'm still surprised that I ate them both. There was an inevitable sogginess to parts of it where the moisture from the veggies got the tortilla wet. Wet bread! A food aversion if there ever was one. The very idea of something like bread pudding makes me shiver, so when my tortilla got wet I had to buckle down and deal with it. I can say that it was worth the strife because both burritos were winners!
I also packed snacks! A dreaded butternut squash muffin and some strawberries and grapes. These hit the spot around 3:30-4:00 when I was getting peckish for something sweet.Like I said, it was a lot of packing. I ate the banana on the train to the spin class. I'm not sure if it helped me pedal better. But, it was tasty.Oh! Here are the tortillas I use for all my wrapped up goodness. They got a little moldy on me once when I didn't use them up in time so that's why they feature heavily in my lunches when I buy a packet. I'm also a bona fide burrito maniac so when I get my hands on these things, inspiration hits...BIG.

Little Donkey Lunch

Oh, I'm loving this meal today. Fruits, veggies, little bit o' meat and the healthy burden I created this weekend. I'm smugly patting myself on the back for this one:

• 2 blood oranges
• Leftovers Burrito: 1/4 cup homemade black beans, sauteed kale/mushroom/onion/garlic/chili pepper, 3 oz. rosemary rubbed pork chop
• butternut squash muffin
• strawberries

My little donkey (burrito, get it?) was packing a lot today. It was basically parts of our last 2 or 3 dinners.
I used the "black turtle beans" we got in our last CSA box finally. They came out perfect. Tender but firm. I also managed to use one of the dried chili peppers we got in the CSA box. I chopped it up and sauteed it with the kale and portobello mushrooms.
Breakfast was a cup of Kashi Good Friends cereal with a few raisins for extra sweetness. Oh! By the way, this cereal has 46% of the daily recommended amount of fiber in 1 serving. Not trying to give TMI, but, consider this my official warning to your colon.

Jicama and Slaw...Two Scary Words

Carrot Jicama and Sweet Pepper Slaw

A quick mid-day post because I saw something I would normally never dream of eating but the picture is so enticing. I'm not sure what jicama is. I think it's crunchy and watery, but it's also white. I have issues with white wet foods. Also, "slaw" is something I usually avoid because it's inherently white and wet, right? But, this salady thing looks good despite the name. Maybe I'll try it.

What A Dump!

I was cooking all day yesterday yet the only thing that made it into my lunch today was a poor excuse for dessert. Oh well, it was still a pretty good meal:

• smoked turkey and lite havarti cheese with lettuce and red bell pepper on a whole wheat tortilla
• 2 blood oranges
• broccoli florets
• vegan butternut squash muffin

First off, I should just let it be known now that as long as they keep selling blood oranges at Trader Joe on 72nd Street, I'm going to keep buying them. It's not so much the taste, because, let's face it, they aren't nearly as delicious as a cara cara orange at it's peak. It's more the color and the convenience of the blood oranges. They look so great in my lunch box and they are small enough for me to fit 2 into a compartment. So, I hope you aren't sick of seeing them because I think they are going to be making a lot of appearances. Moving on...

This pitiful muffin is one of a dozen that I made last night in an attempt to use up the butternut squash we got in last month's CSA box and some other stuff I had lying around. I can't even give you a recipe for them because I basically just dumped a few cups of squash puree into a bowl and proceeded to dump a whole bunch of other stuff in there too. Instead of applesauce I used pineapple pulp that was left over from a pineapple I juiced last weekend. I used about a 1/4 cup of maple syrup instead of sugar because I thought that, combined with the pineapple pulp, it would be sweet enough. And, in case the maple syrup and pineapple were sweet enough I threw in a fist full of raisins. Yay! No sugar. I'm so righteous! Oh, I also put in about a cup of cooked steel cut oats because I made a huge pot last week and have been slowly trying to eat my way to the bottom. So, there, oatmeal. More fiber. Now I was getting smug. Still no butter, eggs, sugar, or oil. I'm so perfect and healthy. I rounded it out buy putting in a half teaspoon each of baking powder and baking soda and then 3 cups of white whole wheat flour. Oh yeah, I also put in all the different spices that make up a pumpkin pie mix (ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon). Anyway, I won't bore you with any more details because as I've already revealed they were...bleck! Well, not totally inedible obviously, but really no "treat" at all. I'll continue to eat them through the week because I'm a mosochist who can't stand to throw away food (especially experimental food I busted my hump making).

These muffins remind me of when my brother first became a vegetarian and my mother (always the embracer of new things) wanted to be supportive when we visited him in Northern California (yes, that's code for hippie town). He would make us eat all kinds of bland and insane mung bean twig cake or sprouted pistachio stew. Yes, these muffins I made taste like every bad vegan food joke you can think of. Major fail.
I packed breakfast too. There is brown sugar on the bottom of the oatmeal (that's cinnamon on top). I think I put the sugar at the bottom of the container in an attempt to hide it from you. But I just outed myself. AND, I put too much cheese on my wrap (well, too much for someone who is supposed to be reducing). So there, now that's out too. My lunch was too fatty and sugary even though I intended on it being wholesome and virtuous. Story of my life!

Disco Lunch

Yay! I made it through another week.

• turkey bologna and low fat cheddar cheese with lettuce on a whole wheat sandwich flat
• sugar snap peas
• green grapes
• party time

Let's all go out and dance and be silly because it's Friday. Questions? Comments? Let me know what you're thinking.

Have a great weekend!

Now That's What I Call Lunch

After all those dinner lunches I finally had a good ole' lunchy lunch. Well, sort of. What do you think of this?

• turkey bologna and low fat cheddar cheese with lettuce on a whole wheat sandwich flat
• sauteed kale with onions, garlic, and red pepper flakes
• green grapes
• strawberries

Sandwiches are great, aren't they? I was looking forward to this one all week. Bologna is not something I grew up eating but the few times I did have it as a kid I loved it. Now that I've discovered turkey bologna I feel like I can live out my childhood lunch fantasies. Ok, I didn't fantasize about bologna sandwiches but I did like to trade my PBJ for them when I could.
Same breakfast again. I had a big cocktail party a couple of weeks ago and couple of the drinks called for a sugar cube. Now I'm stuck with a ton of them. But, theyactually seem to be coming in handy with my packed oatmeal.

Toodle loo for now.

New Soup. Old Psychosis.

Oh, the winds of change are ablowin'. I was so excited about today's lunch that I started nibbling bits of it before the crack of noon. Here are the details that had me doing the Jesse Spano I'm So Excited Dance:

• turkey meatloaf
• celeriac soup
• garlic croutons (made from whole wheat baguette)
• strawberries
• sauteed kale with garlic, onions, and red pepper flakes

Wow! How do I begin to tell you how awesome this was? The meatloaf was made by My Beloved and so was the soup and croutons. It took every ounce of willpower I could muster to not gobble up the meatloaf on the first night we had it. It's so moist and savory. And he snuck in some spinach to add some extra veggie power. Speaking of veggies...

source

Guys! That's what celeriac looks like! When we got that thing in our CSA box last month I was terrified. So much so that I was happy to "forget" that it was lurking in the back of the fridge. Mr. Man, however, laughed in the face of fear and got to work.

He used this recipe and even made the garlic croutons to go with it. I loved the flavor of this soup. The texture, on the other hand, was a bit difficult for me. You guys know I have texture issues. The smooth yet grainy consistency of the soup coupled with the fact it looks like wallpaper paste make it difficult for me to mentally enjoy it. I wonder if I'll ever get over this. Oh well, I'll keep trying.

I also packed breakfast today. Steelcut oatmeal, cinnamon, 2 sugar cubes and more strawberries. Yummers tummers.

Giving The People What They Want!

Hey there! Remember me? I'm the woman that packs a lunch for work everyday. Great! Now that we are reacquainted let's talk about what I've been packing lately:

• FREAKING BLOOD ORANGES!!
• FREAKING SUGAR SNAP PEASof !!
• FREAKING BROWN RICE!!
  
• SOMETIMES SOME FREAKING FROZEN SPINACH!!
• FREAKING BORING ROAST CHICKEN!!

Guys, I lost my creative mojo for a second and went on autopilot. Life has been so chaotic and fitful the past couple of weeks that I took refuge in the monotony leftovers and the banality of eating to clean out the fridge. I figured such boring and repetitive meals would be of little interest to you guys.

But, lo! What is that I hear? The clamoring and yearning of masses. I heeded the cry from the throng of lunch zealots who hollered: "We don't care if it's boring. Show us anyway!"

So, there you have it. I ate more of less the same lunch every day last week and this week too. Have I learned a lesson about buying huge bags of fruits and vegetables from Costco? Oh, yes indeed! Am I sick of any of these foods? Not really. But I at them all up so now it's on to something different. I feel a sandwich moment coming on.