WIAW #3...

For my WIAW post this week I'll actually be posting What I Ate Tuesday.  It's been another boring week of food.  I have been lacking in creativity or the desire to get in the kitchen and do much of anything.  So here we go...

Breakfast:

Breakfast was a banana, with some Greek yogurt with homemade granola and chia seeds.  I also drank some Dark Chocolate Almond Milk on the way to work.

Lunch:

I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat bread.  No picture because what could be more boring than a picture of a pb&j sandwich?  Instead I thought I would take a picture of the new peanut butter we picked up.  We usually just have creamy peanut butter around our house but we went crazy and picked up a jar of the Super Chunk.  I remember why I used to eat chunky peanut butter as a kid.  What a nice change.  I believe that sums up the food excitement we've got going on.

I also had some Doritos, and apple and one of my Oatmeal Whoopie Pies.  How about a picture of that?

I can't believe how chewy these cookies turned out.  It is my first attempt at oatmeal cookies and I was very impressed with myself.  The filling needs some work, but I'll fix that next time.  I am planning to make some red velvet whoopie pies later in the week so I'll keep you posted.

Dinner:

(source)

After a disappointing doctor's appointment, some retail therapy, 30 minutes on the elliptical, some weights, and a haircut I was home and ready for dinner.

Side note, I love my new hair cut.

This could be the worst picture ever taken of me.  Yellow really isn't my color, and the lighting in my kitchen is pretty horrific for self portraits taken on an iPhone.

Anyway, back to dinner.  I made the Pepperoni Pizza Polenta Bake from the Whole Foods website.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray
1 (18-ounce) roll precooked polenta, cut into 9 rounds
1 cup marinara sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup sliced roasted red peppers
9 thin slices (about 1 1/2 ounces) pepperoni
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh or dried parsley

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray.

Arrange polenta rounds in an even layer in the bottom of the dish. Spoon marinara sauce over the top, then scatter with oregano. Arrange peppers and pepperoni over the sauce, then top with cheese and parsley and bake until hot throughout and bubbly, about 35 minutes. Serve hot.

Here's the changes I made:

• Instead of pepperoni, I used mushrooms (I am still a vegetarian after all.)
• I didn't have any roasted red peppers so I left them off, naturally.
• I forgot to add the oregano and the parsley
• I used slices of mozzarella instead of shredding it because I was tired.
• I didn't have any marinara sauce so I used pizza sauce, we always have that in our pantry.

So basically I butchered this lovely recipe.  I have never had polenta like this and it was really good.  I might try frying it a little bit before I throw it all in the oven next time.  I even have leftovers for lunch today.  Dessert was salt and pepper pistachios, if only there was cheesecake with those pistachios...

So really my WIAW post about What I Ate Tuesday does contain a bunch of stuff that I will eat on Wednesday.  My breakfast is the same, I'm having last night's leftovers for lunch, paired with a salad, apple and another oatmeal whoopie pie.  (I believe in eating some sugar every day.)  I had a Luna Bar before my afternoon workout yesterday and I have one to eat between Pilates and spin tonight.







WIAW...

I am well aware that it is now Friday and I am just getting to this post.  It's been a rough week for me.  I left my phone at home on Monday (I could claim marathon hangover, except I didn't actually run the marathon.), and again on Wednesday.  So my WIAW post is actually What I Ate Thursday and Posted On Friday Post. 

I feel like my eating habits have been insanely boring lately.  I blame Sams.  Buying in bulk, it turns out, makes you have greater quantities of the same thing in your kitchen.  Who know?

So here's my recap.

Breakfast:

I got bored with the same yogurt that I had to scoop out of the big tub each day so I bought some Oikos at Sams this week.  I added some Chia seeds and homemade granola to it.  I didn't put any chocolate chips in this batch of yogurt, someone in my house is participating in a Biggest Loser competition.  I really miss the chocolate.  I had a banana a little later, and I drank 60 ounces of water by 10 am.  I spent the rest of the morning in the bathroom because I had to pee about every 15 minutes.

Lunch was leftover Simple Sesame Noodles from the Pioneer Woman.  I love this recipe.  I made it with rice noodles this time, and if I had thought about it I could have added some edamame or broccoli or something.  As I said before, it's been a rough week.

 

And in other insanely boring photos, I also had an apple that looked like  areal apple before I got to it, some Chipins popcorn chips, and one of my double chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

I was a little disappointed in this batch of cookies.  I swear it's the humidity, but they were flatter than I like them.  Damn Oklahoma weather.

I almost forgot my afternoon snack!

A little background for this snack.  I have recently discovered Twitter, you can find me there @oubeckyc.  I love it when I get a mention or a retweet.  I mentioned @lunabar in a tweet last week and I got selected to try out one of their Luna Fiber bars.  You can't even get them in stores yet, that will come later this month.  I picked the peanut butter and strawberry bar and it came in the mail on Wednesday.  AND they sent me some lip balm, in my favorite flavor, Chocolate Peppermint Stick.  I have refrained myself from actually eating the lip balm, it really doesn't taste like my favorite bar, but it sure smells like it. 

The new bar is super yummy, it sort of had the consistency of a cereal bar, with all the yumminess of a PB&J.  What's not to like about that.  Plus it's packed full of fiber so it's a win win snack in my book.  I can't wait to try the other flavors.



For dinner I was in the mood to do a little cooking or baking, so I decided to make English muffins.  It's not just one meal in this bowl full of dough, it's multiple meals.  Gotta love how super efficient I was being last night.

I went with a hot and fresh English muffin with a fake sausage patty, one of my frozen mushroom and spinach frittatas and some Laughing Cow cheese.  I threw in some pretzels, but they were a little stale.  I suffered through it, mostly because I was too lazy to get something else.  We were watching this week's episode of Modern Family at the time. Hate to have to pause everyone's good time.

After dinner I had some of my salt and pepper pistachios.  Seriously, we have got a huge problem at my house.  We are all addicted to these little yummy nuggets of goodness.  I might have to head back to Sams to stock up on those.

Happy Friday!  I sure hope I can get my WIAW post done in a more timely manner next week.  Maybe I'll even be able to change it up and have some more interesting foods in my diet.

April Foodie Pelpal...

This was my second month of the Foodie Penpal program, and I'm so happy I stuck around for another month.

This month my penpal was Ashley Lang.  She sent me a wonderful box of goodies.  I love that I get a box full of new things each month.

 The box came on a night that I went to the Y from work so my girls had to sit and start at it for a couple of hours.  They really wanted to open it for me, but it was still sealed tight when I got home.

 I love that it's just a surprise each time.  My treats this month were both yummy and healthy.

• First the Go Raw Super Cookies are good.  I just love a cookie that packs a healthy punch and this one definitely does.  I have not heard of this brand before but I'm on the lookout for more.
• I love apples, and the Crispy Apple Chips are just what you would want when you want something crunchy but not as bad for you as a bag of potato chips.
• The Goji Berries Almond Crunch was my favorite.  I always claim to not be a big fan of almonds, but this made me rethink that assertion.  I ate the whole bag, and only shared a little with my family.  Sometimes it just has to be like that.
• I don't usually eat Clif Bars, I usualy go with the related Luna Bars, I love that they say they are for women.  :-)  I took this as a sweet end to my lunch the other day.  I was surprised at how big it was, I ate about half of it and got my sweet tooth fix for the day.  It was chewy and yummy.

I think my favorite part is the note explaining all the stuff in the box.  It's nice to get a glimpse into why the items were selected for you. 

I can't wait to do it again in May.