Back in the game.

I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to get back into the swing of this! I haven't taken food pics in months or had to think about writing. It's very strange. I want to play catch-up and talk about what I've been doing since May, but I think that's going to have to come bit by bit.

We went to see Where the Wild Things Are last night. It was pretty okay. It really wasn't a kids' movie in my opinion. Pretty serious and deep. I'm not really sure how I feel about it, but it was definitely interesting. I slept in this morning and then needed to get up to start studying for the 3 midterms I have this week. Breakfast was a whole wheat english muffin with PB.

Lunch was leftover from Friday night. I've made this lemon pepper shrimp pasta like 4 times in the past 6 weeks. It's good, but I make it more for G.

We went for a much needed grocery shop at Wegmans (I love Wegmans!). Loaded up on a lot of stuff. I'm definitely trying to think a little more healthy. I haven't really gotten too bad, but I'd like to get some more fruits and veggies and less artificial stuff. Since we moved, I've been trying to plan dinners out for the week to make shopping a little smoother and less wasteful. So far it's worked pretty well! It's nice to live with another person who will eat the leftovers :)

I was super hungry when we got back from the store. I had some Kashi crackers (sort of like Triscuits) with Laughing Cow.

For dinner, I made a recipe that I found in Every Day with Rachael Ray in the November issue called Cheesy Rice Fritters. The recipe that they have has a LOT of cheese and oil, so I cut both in half and used turkey bacon instead of real bacon as the recipe had called for.

They turned out pretty well! The fritters are served on top of sauteed spinach with red pepper flakes. We also had a couple of little crescent rolls.

My snack was a bowl of dry Raisin Bran Extra.

This is an okay cereal, but Raisin Bran really has a lot of sugar and addititives that don't need to be there!

Alright, that felt a little foreign, but it'll all come back to me! Thanks to you guys for sticking with me :)

Game of catch up!

Yikes there's been quite the hiatus! I've been enjoying my first weekend off for break, but I've been wanting to catch up here! It's still kind of nice that I've been away from technology for the most part. I think I'll be a little more able to catch up this week because I'll be around the computer more.

Friday night:

Waiting for Gustl and our friend James to come up for the concert, I snacked on a Cranbran Vitamuffin (seen here in it's partially eaten state...):

Once they got up to CP and we got settled, we decided that we should probably get something pretty fast so we could get to the club when the doors opened. This meant going to one of my guilty pleasures:

Chick-fil-A tenders and waffle fries. Yummm. I try not to eat fried foods very much, but I'll make exceptions :)

The concert was fun. REALLLLY LONG. Modest Mouse didn't go on until midnight and we didn't get to sleep until 3! Yikes. Needless to say, my sleep pattern has been pretty weird.

Saturday:

In the morning/afternoon, I decided to make everyone breakfast. I made banana flax pancakes with smart balance and maple syrup. Totally forgot to take a picture until I gobbled them up, but trust me, they looked like pancakes ;)

Stopped in Annapolis at Whole Foods to get a few ingredients that we can't find on the good ole eastern shore. I picked up some Lara Bars to hold me over for the week and ate the Pecan Pie one on the ride home.

I also picked up some freshly baked Irish Soda Bread and had some at home. This is both mine and Gustl's pieces.

This is really good bread. Nice and dense and chewy.

Gustl made dinner from this recipe in Men's Health for Chile Chicken and Basil.

It was amazingly spicy, so I'm glad that I had the multigrain baguette to cut some of the heat. It was really good though, as long as you can take the heat!

Finished off the night with Stonyfield Farms Vanilla Frozen Yogurt.

I've been dieing to try this, but I wasn't too impressed. The texture wasn't great, and the vanilla flavor was a little off. I might try the other flavors, but probably not unless they're on sale.

Sunday:

Today I worked all day at the restaurant where I work at home. During the day I was making sundaes and at night I was waitressing. It's a fun job, and I seriously feel like I'll be working there forever. I've been there since I was 17 and always seem to get some shifts in when I'm home.

Breakfast at my parents' house was Irish Soda Bread. One slice was with crunchy peanut butter and one with almond butter.

With an apple on the side. This kept me full for a long time. I've been loving big breakfasts :)

Lunch at Dumser's was a turkey sandwich on wheat toast with lettuce, tomato, pickles, sweet peppers, hot peppers, and mustard.

Not a whole lot of excitement at work. Just catching up with everyone.

Dinner was pulled chicken barbecue with green beans and macaroni and cheese.

Not a whole lot of healthy food at the Dum's. And homemade ice cream doesn't help. I had a mini chocolate malt, one of my favorites. I also had a little bit of my mom's Texas Sheetcake when I got home.

Now I'm just relaxing and ready for the rest of the week. I hope the weather gets nicer! I've done yoga every day, but I'd like to get some action in outside. Have a good week!

Weekend 3/6-3/8

First of all, thanks to everyone for the congratulations about my acceptance! I really appreciate the support and have my fingers crossed for the other program I applied to, too :)

This weekend was insanity. Not so much in what I did, but definitely in what I ate. If this blog is meant to be about health and wellness, this weekend was the antithesis. Oh, well. It was fun, though!

Friday night:

For traveling, I packed some carrots and a Kashi Pumpkin Pie bar.

I got stuck in traffic and was delayed an extra hour, so I'm so glad I brought these.

Since I had something to celebrate, Gustl and I decided to go to Carraba's for dinner. I think this has become our standard celebration place when I'm in Ocean City. Plus I wanted CARBS like CRAZY.

Started off with the best bread ever (and oil):

Caesar salad:

1/2 bowl of Tagliarini Picciu Paccau (sp?) (pasta, tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil, and chicken):

Of course celebrations also call for sweets! We headed to Denny's and split a Cinnamon Apple Crisp:


Saturday:

Breakfast was Kashi GoLean Crunch w/ skim milk:

And a side of cinnamon raisin bread with Smart Balance:

After that, we went for a 5 mile walk/run on the boardwalk. The weather was sooo nice and I am not a runner, but I tried! I'm going to get better!!!

Of course we were ravenous after that, which called for Carraba's leftovers:

A Kashi Oatmeal Flax Raisin cookie:

And 1/2 a cantaloupe:

We went to a friend's birthday party, so I wanted to make cookies for a gift. While baking, my Momma put out some snacks for everyone:

I definitely ate quite a few of these Magic Peanut Butter Surprise cookies:

Before the party we ate at Captain's Galley. Seriously, the BEST crabcakes on earth. The Best. We started with steamed shrimp:

There's my beautiful, lovely crabcake (ate about 1/2 chips, 1/2 slaw):

We also had a slice of Lemon Lust pie by Dessert's by Rita, also one of my favorite things in the world, which is prob why I was too excited and forgot to take a photo. The party also contained a vodka and diet coke and too many baked goods. Seriously WAY too many. And of course I left my camera in the car, so I didn't capture any of this... Note to self: the camera helps you to NOT eat 10 desserts...

Sunday:

When I go out at night, I typically want Denny's the next day. It's become engrained in me and I don't fight it. So brunch was a Grand Slam:

Luckily that kept me full all day. On the ride back up to CP, I grabbed a Kashi GoLean Bar and a cup of fruit:

Dinner was a quick microwaving of Kashi Lemongrass Coconut Chicken. Good, but still a frozen dinner:

Plus, I've gotten yoga in every day! We'll see about tonight, though...
Oh my goodness, I am glad that I updated. Sorry it's so succinct, but I need to prep for the week. 2 exams and a major project this week. Yikes! Have a good night and a happy Monday!!

Weekend 2/20-2/22

Phew! What a weekend! I seriously thought that I was going to have more down time, but the good thing is that I finished BOTH of the papers that I have due in the next couple of days! Yay! Hopefully that means that I get to catch my breath.

Friday Night:

Before I headed home, I grabbed a Pumpkin Pie bar and an apple for the road.

For dinner, we decided to go to Plaza. Plaza Tapatia is my favorite Mexican restaurant, period. They have the best homemade salsa and everything else on the menu is amazing. One of my favorites is the shrimp quesadilla, but I decided to go for the two chicken tacos with rice and beans.

We started out with that amazing salsa and chips. Plus the white sauce, which no one really seems to be able to identify, but it's soooo good :)

And the main course (there are 2 tacos).

For dessert (not pictured), I was fed some cookies and cream ice cream. Definitely didn't need it, but it was good :)

Saturday:

We woke up ridiculously, embarassingly late, so the whole day sort of got skewed. Breakfast was a bowl of Raisin Bran crunch with 1% milk and 1 1/2 pieces of cinnamon raisin bread with margarine.

Gustl and I both needed to get school work done so we headed over to campus. I had a Soy Vanilla Latte and a Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Almond Granola Bar for my study snacks.

After a few hours of work (and finishing my first paper!) we decided to FINALLY see Slumdog Millionaire. Before the movie, we picked up some Japanese Take-out. We both got the Chicken and Shrimp Terriyaki with vegetables and rice. I hadn't had it for a while and it was delicious!

The movie was so good! Everyone should see it. During the movie, I had some chocolate, but it was too dark for pictures :(

Sunday:

Today we made sure to wake up earlier! Gustl made french toast with the cinnamon raisin bread. I had it with margarine and a Fiber One peach yogurt. He's a good cook :)

Back to campus to study again. I had another latte, and finished my other paper.

We were so excited, because today we decided to use the one-day Sam's Club pass. Gustl is in love with their pizza, so we'd had a plan to eat that for lunch.

The funny thing is that we didn't buy anything. I just couldn't see myself actually finishing anything! Plus, I'm so fickle and I need to switch up my products a lot.

On the way home I grabbed a fruit cup and an Oatmeal Walnut Raisin Clif bar from Wawa. Again, I didn't get a picture because of travel (I've been bad about it this weekend!!).

For dinner, I was feeling pretty lazy and tired, so I just had a SmartOnes Thai Style Chicken and Rice Noodles. Not wonderful, not horrible. More sodium than I'd like, but what can you expect from most frozen meals?

I really need to pull my stuff together for tomorrow. Still need to proof my paper and print. Have a good week!!

Weekend 2/14-2/15

I am choosing to update instead of catching up on my reading for classes. Again, the senioritis is striking!

Saturday:

This weekend was filled with a lot of food and excitement. Especially sweets! Saturday we got up and decided to make the standard oatmeal from KathEats (minus the flax).

It was sooooo good. I want to eat oatmeal 24/7 now. Especially because it keeps you full so long! We were trying to keep our appetites at bay for our 10:30 dinner reservations. However, I did buy Gustl some French Truffles from TJ's for V-Day and I had a couple of those.

These are the best truffles. So addictive.

Lunch was a veggie sandwich with lettuce, avocado, sprouts, and hummus, with an apple and a 100-calorie pack of pretzel goldfish (my mom sent me a bunch of Pepperidge Farm stuff for V-Day-- she has a connection).

We were pretty much the laziest people in the world, since we wanted to leave a lot of wiggle room for getting ready for dinner. We went to downtown Silver Spring to walk around for a while, and went to Whole Foods (yes, again). I picked up some dried figs and had one on the ride back.

Finally! Melting Pot! We got their on time (yay!) and got seated pretty quickly. Our meal consisted of the Garlic and Herb cheese fondue; California salads; shrimp, center cut filet, teriyaki sirloin, chicken breast, and spinach gorgonzola ravioli in a coq au vin style cooking broth; and white chocolate chambord dessert fondue. Here are the only photos that I could remember to take (I was a little overwhelmed).

So... Basically we came down to the consensus that it was good, but not great. We felt rushed and were disappointed in the atmosphere. The food was good, but we could make it at home. Also, this was the first time that I have ever (yes EVER) had steak, so I was not the best judge of the entree. Bottom line was that we would maybe go again for dessert or drinks, but probably just try to replicate at home. Oh well, it was still really fun :)

Sunday:

Yup, more oatmeal. I bought coconut flakes, so I thought I would try to make a Samoa type oatmeal. I was pretty darn happy with the results.

Banana, brown sugar, a little cinnamon, toasted coconut flakes, a few chocolate chips, and almond butter spoon. I want it again!

We went out to a mall to walk around. We also wanted to go to a Wegman's (I'd never been). We got Five Guys and I got a Little Cheeseburger.

OK. I did not eat beef for 10 years, up until about 2 months ago. Beef still doesn't sit well with me. It's too heavy. Basically, I felt full/disgusting until about 11:00 tonight. No more burgers for a while.

Like I said, not too hungry for dinner. The only other thing I ate today was a BlueBran Vitamuffin and a Pomegranate Berry Stonyfield Farm yogurt. I bet I'll be ravenous in the morning.

I am pooped! I need to sort through my life for the upcoming week! Anyone have any good V-Day stories? I'm sure there was some good eating going on :) Bye bye, weekend!