Disappearing Act..Take 2 :)

Sorry…life got the best of me again as I am now working two jobs and trying to figure out how to get the heck out of podunk town! Volunteering at a potato booth, one too many classic car shows and I think now being able to write 101 things NOT TO do here in podunk town is the icing on the cake. However, a few good things have come my way!!

1) THANK YOU MR. JUSTIN NUT BUTTER!! I came home exhausted one day from work and found a nummy pack of his maple almond butter snack pack samples at my doorstep, what a treat, many pb and apple snacks to come! peanut butter used to be troublesome to me but it really is a great form of good fats in appropriate portions which is just what these are!

Meal wise I haven’t really done anything too exciting because I’ve been so tired. My docs think my iron is really low again, so I’m trying to get more in my diet and such, but I usually end up needing an infusion anyway…bah.

So this was some tasty shrimp, quinoa and okra gumbo, I found out I think I like okra and it has lots of good health benefits!

The mucilage and fiber found in okra helps adjust blood sugar by regulating its absorption in the small intestine.

• The fiber of okra has many superior qualities in maintaining the health of the gastro-intestinal tract.

• It helps reabsorb water and traps excess cholesterol, metabolic toxins and surplus bile in its mucilage and slips it out through the stool. Due to greater percentage of water in the bulk it thereby prevents constipation, gas and bloating in the abdomen.

• It is an ideal vegetable for weight loss and is storehouse of health benefits provided it is cooked over low flame to retain its properties. This also to ensure that the invaluable mucilage contained in it is not lost to high heat.

• Okra facilitates the propagation of good bacteria referred to as probiotics. These are similar to the ones proliferate by the yoghurt in the small intestine and helps biosynthesis of Vitamin B complex.

• For adding bounce your hair. Boil horizontally sliced okra till the brew become maximally slimy. Cool it and add a few droops of lemon and use this as the last rinse and see your hair spring back to youthfulness and jump.

• Okra is an excellent laxative treats irritable bowels, heals ulcers and sooths the gastrointestinal track.

• Protein and oil contained in the seeds of okra serves as the source of first-rate vegetable protein. It is enriched with amino acids on the likes of tryptophan, cystine and other sulfur amino acids.

Another night I had my iron fortified meal, hence the mumbo jumbo of stuff, but I wasn’t feeling that great anyway, it was Cream of Wheat (highest cereal w/iron), hard boiled eggs for protein, and some stir fried veggies with beets which have iron, i had already had spinach for lunch. Oh yes, and watermelon for some more iron and vit c to help absorb it all!!

Earlier in the week I had prepared some spinach, feta, turkey burgers that were pretty tasty with some homemade tzatiki!

My lunches are always mishmashed stuff but some of them were:

a quinoa salad, high in iron with some pumpkin seeds, almonds, garbanzo beans and other goodies…

and a tuna salad on fresh spinach another day…mmm fish….yes still having my strange pickle cravings :p

and i think below must have been a kitchen sink leftover meal :p but it was good, really it was!

I’ll try to get back on schedule this week, still working on that lovely aspect of balance. The weather completely changed today too, so we’ll see where that takes my tummy!

Reviews of Yesterday

Off to an early start today as I start training at the new coffee shop/cafe…good thing because the other little place I work at was totally dead yesterday.

Since I’m basically eating the same thing I had yesterday, here are my reviews:

THE MUFFIN: DELICIOUS!!! very moist and fluffy!! even my step dad liked it and didn’t know he was eating something very healthy so that says a lot. it’s a very good treat and not very pumpkiny at all, definitely a keeper!
TOFU: eh, it’s ok, nothing i’m crazy about, but i didn’t throw away my leftovers :p

TLC Dark Cherry Chocolate Granola Bar: another nummy treat with pretty good bang for your buck, 5g protein, 3g fiber, 120kcal.

Do You have a case of the Mondays?

I hope not, but I love that movie office space! I’m not feeling so great this morning, yesterday was sort of emotional, I’m definitely allergic to podunk land which has made sleeping difficult and I keep waking up with “sinuses” (said like the robin hood snack disney version) Nevertheless, poo on negativity, I need a good start to this week!

Breakfast was a refreshing berry treat of frozen black and blueberries with an additional mixin of fresh strawberry and raspberries, so definitely a good dose of red and blue antioxidants. And not to be unpredictable, my usual cottage, hot cereal, and flax I didn’t have berries yesterday and I missed them, everyone seems to be getting ready for fall flavors, but I think I could eat summer fruits year round.

AM Snack: Peaches and cottage cheese…this will be a definite all week because we got a huge box of VERY RIPE, near rotting peachs at the produce stand for $5, so there will be an abundance of peaches throughout especially early on in the next few days. I worked it out and think we paid around 30cents a lb, can’t beat that! No wonder they called me “leeches eat peaches” when I was a kid.

Lunch: Goodies of new fun foods from my baking sunday! A mix of asian stir fry veggies with my baked tofu to try! Plus a pumpkin choc muffin and some fruit, I’ll come back and give the review.

I tried out this site www.nutritiondata.com which is pretty nifty though somewhat tedious and annoying but has it’s benefits to get my nutrition profile for the muffins I made. This is what came out:

It offers some more nifty charts but this is all that would fit in my screen shot

Pumpkin Chocolate Flax Muffins: (i got about 10 muffins)

1/2c canned pumpkin

1 egg white or egg white subsitute

3/4c whole wheat pastry flour

1/4c protein powder

1/2 oat bran

2T flax seeds

1/2 lite plain Silk Soy Milk

dash of vanilla

about 1.5tsp of both baking powder and baking soda

about 1tsp salt

~1/3c granulated splenda

3/4 88% cocoa dark choc endangered species bar chopped

I dumped all this in the bowl (minus the chopped chocolate) and mixed it up, add the chocolate last and do it by hand if you’re using a mixer. I will have to give a taste test review today, the batter was good though I like it because it has a good balance of protein, fiber, good carbs, healthy fats (flax), and I used high antioxidant dark chocolate! So I would pretty much say this is a guilt free treat! Plus, it’s made out of things a well stocked pantry should have on hand imho…

*these are rough measurements as I’m still in my stubbourn taurus stage of “i’m not going to measure anything”

Pickles and Ice Cream

hehe okay not quite, but all these crazy emotions I have going on are making me have weird food cravings I think, for goodness knows, it’s not the immaculate conception. I did some precooking for the week since the parents were away so I could DISASTERIZE the kitchen MUUUAHHH!  Nah, I’m usually a fairly clean cook but I like to get a few projects going at once so it can look a tad bit out of hand.

I made: baked tofu! with a ginger/garlic marinade…it was smashed under a big mayonnaise jar throughout most of the day so hopefully I followed GLIDING CALMS directions okay, it came out looking good!

I also made some muffins that have yet to be named…they are Pumpkin Flax Chocolate though. i have yet to figure out the nutritional profile but you get a lot of bang for your buck and will come back to update the nutrietns and review after I have it for lunch tomorrow!

I also mixed up some tzatziki dip for my turkey spinach feta burgers which may appear later this week…

Dinner tonight was my weird craving concoction…my day sort of sucked so I just needed a visit from the produce section and concocted some strange warm salad of turnip greens, cauliflower, mushrooms, and dill relish with a dash of dressing, one hard boiled egg and a serving of fruit on the side.

No explanation really, but it was surprisingly quite tasty!

I’m craving something…

I’ve definitely in my ruts and I need some new ideas…

I got some tofu but have never cooked with it before.

I really want fish!! But I have to wait till the parents are willing to splurge on the sale so I guess I’m at their whim..

I have such a sweet tooth but I need to find good, healthy, lo cal sweets!

I bought some feta and ground turkey yesterday, now I need to decide what to do with them…

I’m usually full of ideas, I think I’ve just been around food so much lately I’m like GROSS and dont’ want anything :p

Asparagus Fries=Rancid Pee…tmi??

Hehe…yup I’m blunt and honest! I was so excited to finally find asparagus on sale though I was willing to face the consequences! So the trial day at the deli sucked big time, the manager was a total jerk, I almost made it the entire shift, and finally with my tumbling grumbling like a volcano after working seven hours with no break I said a polite thank you, no thanks this won’t work, and left. All the employess there are absolutely miserable, it runs though the place, and you get paid dittily squat, not where I want to be, I need positivity right now!

I love the new Boca Portabello Mushroom Burgers and think I’ll pick up another box while they are on sale so tossed one on my dwindling pack of crunch Ezekiel English Muffins for dinner, it’s getting hotter again so it was tasty! I paired it with some asparagus “fries” and fruit with a dollop of greek yogurt for sweetness and a little added protein since the burgers only have 12g, still decent though for 90 cals!

No pict of my snack later, I’m always so tired when I go to bed and I got super grumpy but I’ve been mixing Kashi Heart to Heart and the Go Lean together and having it with a cup of half soy and half almond milk, some fruit, and some cottage cheese. I’m in much need of some R&R before the busy week ahead.

In other good news, despite the deli not working out I got offered the job at the awesome coffee and cafe shop and I loved the manager there so I’m very excited about that! The garage sale went well but apparently everyone liked the cookie cake bars much more than the cakesters, sad

On Trial

Oy, so the fun just never ends I guess! I thought yesterday would be my “friday” but lo and behold one of the other jobs I applied for wants me to come in for a trial run so I will be working all day today. I’m definitely feeling tired and drained both physically and mentally but bite the bullet I guess. I’m not used to not having time to go to the grocery store and whatnot so this morning I was sadly scraping the last of my berries and ended up with mixed fruit, which thus ended up partly on the counter while trying to take the picture, hope this is not scenes of things to come! My fridge is never without my friendly curds though or panic thus ensues, so the usual 1/2c cottage cheese and some soaked 10 grain cereal and flax. I took a pict of the cookie cake bars my niece and I made to sell at the garage sale. Sadly, my parents will be the only ones there though because I now have to work and she has a soccer game, hehe.

Snack is the classic peaches and creamy cottage cheese, complete with glad seal indentation from previous eve packing!

Lunch: Chicken and left over veggie salad..aka roasted zucchinni, tomato, spinach, balsalmic vinegar and lime juice because mom used up all the lemon so we’ll see how that goes over, FRUIT (not pict) and a KASHI waffle with jam.

I’ll have to upload the picts later because I’m running out of time and have to cycle down the road! Thanks to Gliding Calm and Little Girl in the Black Dress for your encouraging comments! Knowing I have comments and readers keep me excited to keep working on this diligently and keep it going and keep me on track as well, thanks guys!

Oh, and these are the chocolate cream cookies my niece and I also made for the garage sale!! Sort of like the oreo cakester!

TGIF!

I don’t know if I have ever looked forward to Friday in such a long time! This has been a jam packed week with all the interviews and job nonsense! I’m hoping to switch over to the two other jobs but we’ll see how things turn out and what offers may come, though the horoscope stars were fortunate!

I forgot to take a pict of my taco salad last night for dinner, I will get this down!

This morning is my trusty:

1/2 c 10 grain cereal w/ 1T flaxseed (this stuff keeps you very regular!)

1/2c cottage cheese

BERRIES!!

Snack later will be my good ol’ peaches and cream combo of peaches and 1c. cottage cheese. The prices are going back up which means it’s time to practice radical acceptance that summer is coming to an end and it will soon be frozen fruit time

Lunch is a turkey wrap with a slice of light swiss cheese, mixed veggie salad, baggie of fruit. I love the simple dressing lately of lemon juice, balsalmic vinegar, italian seasonings, and some garlic salt. Also, if you’re having trouble with digestion you can add a dash of apple cider vinegar.

Picts to come!

energy for a busy day

Breakfast today was my new 10grain cereal from Bob’s Red Mill with 1T flaxseed spiced with cinnamon and splenda and a dash of almond milk!

Plus the usual berries and cottage cheese of course

During my interviews I got a nice coffee and soda treat which were  nice!

Mid morning snack is no surprise…peaches and cottage cheese!

Making all the sammies at my new job enticed me away from my salad kick for some tuna filled goodness!

for snack later i’m trying something new! GASP! no cottage cheese? i’m trying one of my new Kashi bars, some yogurt, and some mixed fruit for my sweet tooth which always hankers in the afternoon!

Oi! better get my duff moving, off to work!

Thank you KASHI!!

I obviously consume way too much cottage cheese and my RD wants me to work on getting more whole grains in so….what better way to do that than trying out some KASHI? I’ve tried some of their stuff, problem is it can get rather costly and I’m on a tight budget. Well, they are WONDERFUL! I wrote to them and they blessed me with a bundle of great coupons that enabled me to get a bunch of their products to try out so my mom and I went shopping and this is what we got so far:

Kashi Go Lean-Very Satisfying and tasty!!

Kashi Waffles-LOVE THESE, sweet on their own, or with topping.

Kashi TLC Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars-will be trying these this afternoon

Kashi Heart to Heart Cereal Toasted Honey-I have been obsessed with this for two months now, I really wanted to find their new honey sunshine but you can’t find anythign here in podunk land.