Cookies for breakfast

Today I had cookies for breakfast, and you know what? I'm not going to apologize for it. Sometimes you just need cookies for breakfast, and as long as "sometimes" isn't "every day" I think it is just fine. (Chocolate chip, if you were wondering. Homemade, by my mom. Delicious.)

Have not weighed myself lately so I have no idea where my weight is but my pants are fitting normally, so I'm guessing I'm about the same. Have been eating OK (well not this weekend, when we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday and went out for lunch then had a party at which I consumed many, many beers), but overall pretty well. Monday I ate lunch out because I was at a press check for work and did not bring anything with me. I had greek salad, falafel, and rice. Not the best thing I could have chosen but my options were limited. Yesterday I brought my lunch to work - small loaf of ciabatta bread, pesto, baby spinach, tomato & mozzarella. Delicious. I'm home today and will be eating the same thing again for my lunch (which I will make in a few - starving!). Yesterday I forgot to pack snacks and made breakfast in a rush, so that wasn't good. Breakfast ended up being two slices of whole wheat bread with Whole Foods' version of Nutella, and I scrounged up some pita chips and hummus at work for a snack, then a handful of potato chips. Tomorrow my office is going out for lunch, and then I will try to pack better for Friday.

I have recently discovered Laloo's goat milk ice cream, have you heard of it? They have it at Whole Foods, I'm not sure if it's at regular grocery stores. It's super expensive (about $7.50 and it's the size of a Ben & Jerry's) but is amazing. I bought two while they were on sale - one chocolate, one vanilla. Seriously amazing. And has far fewer calories than B&J's or Haagen Dazs, etc - about 140-160 instead of 280. Huge difference! I'm not saying eat it every day (who could afford to??), but it's a slightly better-for-you alternative to regular ice cream. (Am also obsessed with Magnums, but they have no health benefits.)

Next week my training plan adds a fourth day of running per week, and I am ready for it! Running three days a week doesn't feel like enough. Even if the fourth day is just an easy 2 miler I'll take it. Am trying to run before work, which is tough during summer hours b/c it means getting up by 4:45 am, so I have only done it once so far (yesterday).

Pack it up, pack it in

This is my second week of packing breakfast and lunch to take to work, and already I feel like I am doing better with my eating. They serve pretty healthy food in the dining hall, but I always end up eating too much. When I'm packing my lunch I do much better with portion control.

I tried two new recipes this week. On Sunday night I made roasted cauliflower and quinoa salad and took the leftovers for lunch on Monday. The salad also had raisins and slivered almonds, a little olive oil and a bit of red wine vinegar. It was pretty good - the cauliflower was the best part! - and the leftovers were also tasty. Monday night I made lemon couscous, with whole wheat couscous, raisins, slivered almonds, chickpeas. The couscous came out pretty dry, so I added an extra drizzle of olive oil at the end and that helped. It also packed well for lunch on Tuesday. The flavors were all good.

I'm planning to make panzanella again for dinner tonight and take leftovers for lunch one day. I'm loving the fresh basil in my garden, and can't wait until my tomatoes are ready. I have one teeny tiny one so far! Speaking of my garden, this year I have two tomato plants (both full-size, one yellow), cucumber, lettuce, basil, rosemary, chives, and parsley. I may try to find an eggplant or something else to plant in the small space I have left. I think I have room for maybe 2-3 more plants. I'm really hoping the lettuce does well, and my spinach experiment last year was a big FAIL. I wish I had room for a large garden, as I love to eat fresh, home-grown veggies!

I brought Siggi's icelandic yogurt again this week, but I had picked up some frozen fruit instead of fresh strawberries this week. It was OK, but definitely not as good. I did use a fresh banana, which helped. I think I am getting sick of this breakfast so I am looking for something new to try next week.

Last week I went back to running before work, since the heat makes it unpleasant to run after work (not that it has been warm so far this week - it's been really cool actually! - but last week was very hot). I haven't actually run before work this week because I just switched to summer hours, so I would have to get up at 4:45 am to run before work and I haven't worked up to that yet. I'm off today and will be running with Joel when he gets home. I had planned to run during the morning but Joel didn't run last night (it was raining) and asked if I would run with him. 

My plan for dealing with running during summer hours will be to run on my day off (Wednesdays) and then on Fridays, when I will be going in to work at normal time (I work 7:30 am - 6 pm Mon/Tue/Thu and 8:30 am - 4:30 pm Fri). This week that didn't work out because I had to leave work at 5 last night to go to my sister-in-law's birthday dinner, so I am going in again on Friday. That's fine. I'll make it work.

Off to look for inspiration for next week's meals!

Packing lunch

This will be the first week without meals this summer. Well, actually we will have meals Tuesday and Wednesday (when there are faculty meetings), but not the rest of the week. So tomorrow I have to pack breakfast and lunch (because I never get up early enough to eat breakfast at home - I love sleeping too much).

Here is my plan for tomorrow:

Breakfast: Siggi's yogurt (it's Icelandic yogurt - similar to Greek but different texture) with 1 sliced banana, sliced strawberries, & slivered almonds

Lunch: salad - arugula w/dried cranberries, goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette, 1 apple

I've been on an iced tea kick, so I made sun tea this weekend (my neighbor didn't know what that was, so I will explain in case you are unfamiliar - put several teabags in a glass jar, fill with water, and leave in the sun all day for it to steep). I will have that with lemon, and water for my drinks for the day.

My normal afternoon snack is one small Dove dark chocolate piece (the really small ones - six to a serving), but we will be celebrating my boss's birthday tomorrow and I am making sour cream chocolate chip coffee cake, so I will have a slice of that, hopefully a small one if I have any willpower.

I'm a little worried my lunch isn't substantial enough. If I have time I might heat up some chik'n to put on top, or I may add some pecans or walnuts, but just a few as they are high in calories. In the future I may bring a tablespoon of peanut butter to eat with the apple, but I forgot to get more of the unsweetened all-natural peanut butter I like when I was at Whole Foods the other day, so that will have to wait. Ooh, or maybe I will get almond butter for a change. We'll see.