WIAW: Golden Syrup & Turkey Trot Blues

Today I wanted to throw in another WIAW post inspired and created by Jenn over at Peas and Crayons.

For breakfast I had these tasty waffles. Their stats aren’t too bad either! I added a spread of peanut butter, a sliced banana, and a drizzle of syrup.

I also spent a fortune (ok, not a fortune, but it’s definitely more expensive than ‘fake’ syrup!) to try out pure maple syrup, the ingredient list is awesome and it’s so sweet you don’t need as much, if we were big waffle or pancake eaters I’m not sure we could continue buying the stuff but since we aren’t, it’ll last us for a while!!

Mid-morning snack was the best yogurt in the world – full fat Toasted Coconut Vanilla greek yogurt.

Lunch is typically leftovers, Monday night I made this very heart soup – Chunky Turkey, Vegetable and Rice soup from Skinny Ms. I doubled it and we have tons of leftovers so Tuesday was a perfect day to warm some up quick on my lunch break.

and a handfull of these grapes that we got from my Mother in Law…they are so good but very cold on my teeth!

Mid-afternoon snack, sometimes I get this in and sometimes I don’t…sometimes it’s fruit (an apple/banana/pineapple), sometimes it’s almonds (although I’ve gotten really tired of these lately and can’t seem to eat them anymore), or a granola bar. This was sent to me from a friend, it’s fudge dipped coconut…very yummy!

For dinner I made turkey bacon BLT’s, a spinach salad, and butternut squash fries. I am trying to get all squashed out before it’s all gone. These fries are really good but last night I was off a little on my cooking because not only did I get the bacon a little too done but the fries weren’t quite crispy…at all…where normally they are perfectly crunchy and salty. My multitasking skills need some work!

My plates always look wet when I take a picture of them…I swear we dry our dishes!

I am so excited for Thanksgiving this year. Although it’s been a rough year, I have so much to be thankful for and that’s really brought me through all of the struggles in the past year!

One thing I am really trying hard not to think about this year though is that I am not able to run in our local Turkey Trot. Last year it was my hardest run of the year and a large part of why I wanted to wait to try for a baby until after the holidays. Since I was no where ready to run a half marathon, the Turkey Trot’s miles of hills motivated me to run on the coldest of mornings. Sadly, this year I am injured because that’s what it is. I will run it again though and I will probably run it even better because I will be well rested and fueled!

With that in mind, I will enjoy this year’s Thanksgiving because I am surrounded by people I love, enjoying (and not feeling guilty for) all of the food and treats I will consume, and I will remember this year as being one of the most relaxing holidays yet!

WIAW: 9/19/12

I wanted to update you all on my brother-in-law’s progress through his recovery from his heart transplant. He’s doing good, taking baby steps in the right direction. His kidneys struggled a bit but they are making a comeback and they are working on lowering some of his medications. As anyone in that scenario would be, he gets very uncomfortable when he wakes up so they are keeping him pretty sedated. Hopefully we can make a trip to visit them soon as the hospital is an hour and a half away from home. Thank you all for your kind words and support!

Today I wanted to throw in another WIAW post inspired and created by Jenn over at Peas and Crayons. Yesterday was our anniversary but my meals and snacks were that of a typical day.

For breakfast:

Of course had my steel cut oats! I had the brightest idea to mix it up this time and my sweet tooth was screaming at me so I added in some cocoa powder, the smallest bit of coconut oil, a drizzle of milk and then stirred and heated it through. It smelt great…so then I added my banana and some shredded coconut. Perfect? Not so much. I think I’ll stick to my same ol’ same ol’ next time. I don’t know what I did wrong to screw this one up so bad. It must have been too sweet for my stomach because half way through I felt like if I took one more bite I was going to be sick! Next time I have a sweet tooth in the morning maybe I’ll stay away from making my oatmeal satisfy that craving and just go right for pancakes!

Snack:

Because my breakfast was a failure, I brought a yummy snack to work for my midmorning snack. Strawberry Greek yogurt with a mix of strawberry frosted mini wheat’s, fiber one cereal, and cheerios to top it off.

Lunch:

This weekend we had celery from our CSA box to use up and I had a few cans of tuna in my pantry so I whipped up some tuna salad. Typically I will make it with mostly plain greek yogurt and just a small spoon of Miracle Whip with Olive Oil but I didn’t have any plain greek yogurt so I made it all with the Miracle Whip for a treat…it was very good. I added in some lettuce and put it all on 100% whole wheat bread. With a side of a few crackers and some cottage cheese – I love cottage cheese on crackers!

Afternoon snack:

I had a peach left at work that either was going to get thrown out or ate yesterday so I ended up eating it. Perfectly ripe! So good that I ate it before I remembered to snap a picture of it! I also stopped at my parents’ house on my way home from work and while talking to my mom, I snacked on some of her peanut/candy corn/m&m mix she had made – gotta love fall treats!

Dinner:

I started dinner off with a liquid appetizer of wine. I’m not going to lie, I purchased 4 liters – LITERS! – of wine for $14! I’m not embarrassed to say that even 4L seems to evaporate very fast……

I also made my mom’s very easy homemade chicken pot pie recipe. Someday I would love to have a pie crust recipe that is EASY instead of buying the rolled out refrigerated dough. So if anyone has one, I’d love to try it!

Dessert:

I didn’t time this meal right and we had to play volleyball last night at 7, 8, and 9:00 (it’s tournament time) and I literally took the pie out of the oven at 6:47, so we shoveled our food in but I still made time to make a microwave s’more from our leftover s’more ingredients from the weekend. This made us 5 minutes late to our volleyball game which we froze during, but the s’more was delicious!

My mom always made s’mores this way, a marshmallow between 2 fudge striped cookies. They are so much easier and just as gooey sweet!

It’s been in the high 60’s here during mid-afternoon so those late sand volleyball games the sand feels like ice, but we won and now play next week possibly at 6, 7, 8, and 9 but only if we continue to win, too bad the first team we play against is a team with half of our subs on it so we are left with no one to play, any takers?!

Random question: Do you watch the Vampire Diaries? I am half way through Season 3 since Netflix finally put up the episodes…I can’t get enough of those Salvatore brothers!

WIAW: 9/12

I finally remembered to record my meals and snacks for my very first {WIAW} What I Ate Wednesday post (created by Jenn over at Peas and Crayons).

I thought it’d be fun to occasionally throw in a WIAW post because I like to get ideas on different foods to try through other blogger’s WIAW posts, so if there is ever any foods that I eat that you are interested in the recipe for, just drop a comment or email me and I’ll gladly share if I didn’t include it in the post.

Breakfast:

No surprise here…steel cut oats! Pretty simple today, steel cut oats with ground flaxseed, sliced banana, sprinkle of walnuts, and topping it off with coconut to give it some sweetness.

This is comfort food to me and it also is a great way to start off with something healthy and filling to begin my day. The days I go with something else are usually the days I realize I’m hungrier in the afternoon and evenings.

I prepare the steel cut oats usually on Sunday nights and then they soak overnight and I divide it up between containers so all I have to do on a week day morning is heat it up and add my toppings.

Mid-morning snack:

Pineapple Greek Yogurt. I love pineapple and am sad that I am slightly getting tired of it with summer coming to an end and will probably only be eating it on occasions but this yogurt is very good. I usually get the Chobani 2% to add in some fat to my diet but I like to wait until they run a sale on them and then stock up.

Lunch:

Lunch I had some leftover steamed green beans, a low-sodium turkey, lettuce, and mayo with olive oil on 100% whole wheat bread, and a handful of grapes.

I also had a side of Ian Somerhalder 🙂

Afternoon snack:

My lunch did a good job of keeping me full but I knew if I didn’t have an afternoon snack I would give myself a stomach ache come dinner time so I had 2 nectarines!

Dinner:

We had a friend of ours over for dinner Tuesday night and he loves pasta so I made my Mom’s lasagna…mmm mmm one of my favorites! We also had garlic bread and a spinach salad with sunflower seeds, carrots, shredded cheese, and Italian dressing with a big glass of 1% milk.

Dessert:

{Imagine yummy goodness here}

I made my favorite pumpkin brownies this past weekend so I had one of those before volleyball.