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.