Guac rocks!

It is nice to spend the afternoon relaxing and catching up on e-mails and blogs! Around mid afternoon fiance and I made tacos! I made ground turkey with taco seasoning. They were served on whole wheat tortillas with lettuce some cheddar cheese and some spanish rice. On the side I had some premade guacamole. I remember reading about it in a magazine and thought it would be a good time to try it. 

It is called wholly guacamole and is made of all natural ingredients. I tried the pico de gallo style kind and it was REALLY good for packaged. It tasted really fresh and had great flavor. It also only has about 40 calories for for a 2 tbsp. serving. 

I just ate a snack of a spoonful of peanut butter and a cup of milk. 

Since I had a larger late lunch I will probably have just have a small dinner later while watching the Bears game tonight! Have a great evening bloggers! :)

Back to the cold!!

Fiance and I just got home from Fl today. It was beautiful and warm there. I didn't take pictures of food and drinks as I just wanted to relax and enjoy my entire mini vacation!!! 

I definitely ate more than regular, but luckily we did a good amount of walking and went swimming on both Friday and Saturday. 

It is nice to be home, but it is COLD! 

'Blog for your health!'

Mid morning I had a snack of a GIANT apple. A coworker even commented on its massive size. However, I forgot to put my memory card back in my camera so no picture!

I had a simple and light lunch consisting of a ham and cheese sammy on wheat with some green pepper slices and a blueberry yogurt.

In my Self magazine 'monthly news and tips' e-mail they had a section on the benefits of blogging! They said:
"Keeping a Web diary—even one that's for your eyes only—is good for you! Writing about your feelings can help you relax and get a good night's sleep. Expressive blogging may also encourage growth of white blood cells, which fight off infection, and lower blood pressure and heart rate."

I can already see improvements in myself since I have started blogging. I am more focused on the health goals I want to achieve and have learned great nutrition tips from other bloggers!!

Well I hope everyone has a good afternoon and blogs away to improve their health! :)

Wednesday = Friday!

Morning! Sorry for no post last night I was too exhausted!! I am SUPER pumped that today is my last work day before the holiday. :)

Yesterday at work for a snack I ate a Clif Bar. I also had a few walnuts, but no picture of them.

For dinner fiance and I got a Brooklyn style pizza. It had HUGE pepperonis and a really thin crust. I had two slices along with a salad topped with green pepper.

This morning I had a whole wheat english muffin with pb and some pineapple chunks. When I got to work I made myself a cup of coffee. My office has free coffee available ALL day long! It is nice on really cold mornings or days when I am really tired and need a pick me up.

Today after work I have to run home finish packing and am then meeting my family for dinner!! My mom, dad and younger brother live in northern IN and are coming to Indianapolis to have Thanksgiving at my sister and brother-in-laws house (They also live in Indy). Since I will be gone with fiance's family for turkey day we will be going out to eat tonight. I'm really excited to get to see them!! I am super close with my family and love spending time with them :)

Well I hope everyone has a fabulous 'friday'!

busy day.

Good afternoon! Today has been a busy day and it's only 12:30! I woke up pretty early this morning got in a short workout then ran some more errands, did laundry and got mot of my packing done. I just got to work a while ago and am here until 9!
AND NOW FOR THE EATS:
For breakfast I had a bowl of crispix



For lunch I was trying to use up some leftovers in the fridge. I made the last of my mini asparagus along with a chicken wrap. My wrap included:
Whole wheat wrap
leftover chicken
mozz. cheese
some fajita seasoning
black beans
lettuce

I also had a side of my homemade cranberry applesauce.

TASTY!

Chili round 2.

Good Evening! By the time I got home from work I was STARVING! I needed food FAST so I just warmed up some leftover chili for a repeat topped with cheese and with 1/2 a whole wheat english muffin .

After that I was craving something sweet so I had a small handful of Special K chocolaty delight cereal and a tiny glass of wine. 
Now I am going to head to bed. Tomorrow I am planning on hitting the gym early and then finishing packing and getting organized for Florida! GOOD NIGHT!

Pumpkin oats

So recently I have been seeing bloggers everywhere eating pumpkin oats! As pumpkin is one of my FAVS I just had to try some for a breakfasty lunch today. Mine consisted of:

1/2 cup of oats
1 GIANT scoop of pumpkin
1 banana
1 cup water
splash of milk
cinnamon and pumpkin pie seasoning to taste

AND a cup of pumpkin flavored coffee....YUM!
The oats were pretty good, but I think next time I will use less water and more milk for a creamier taste.

I just ate some snacks here at work. I don't have pictures since I forgot to bring my camera down to the staff/faculty lounge and was too hungry to trek back up to the library before eating! I had my FIRST EVER Oikos. I tried the blueberry and was VERY impressed. It was so creamy and I loved the actual little blueberries in the bottom. I will def. be eating more of these! Along with my yogurt I had 2 ryvita crackers with some laughing cow cheese spread on them.

Work has been slightly boring! Since I came in on Saturday it seems I have gotten most of my stuff done for this week. The one main thing I was working was ordering some new books, but my boss said he wants me to hold off until December. So I will just be inching along through the next two work days dreaming about sunny and warm FL!

:)

Egg Sammy.

Good morning! For some reason I am just dragging this am. For b-fast I made an egg sammy. I made 1 egg over easy and topped it with a slice of cheddar cheese and 2 pieces of ham lunch meat. On the side I had some pineapple chunks.

I also had a glass of berry blend V8 splash. 

YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a perfect breakfast to energize me on a Monday morning. I know I should go to the gym, but I have TONS of errands to run before I leave for FL on Thursday morning. What to do?!?!

Leon Millot!

GOOD EVENING! I hope everyone is having an enjoyable Sunday! The Bears won...YES! Fiance was out of town this weekend so i spent the afternoon spending some quality time with him! For dinner I had some more mini asparagus with tilapia. Tilapia is one of my favorite kinds of fish...it has a mild, yet still fishy flavor. If that makes sense!?! 

I cooked the tilapia in a pan with a little bit of olive oil and salt and pepper. It fell apart when I was taking it out of the pan with tongs! I also had a side salad with a tiny bit of reduced fat cheese and sun dried tomato vinaigrette dressing. 

Along with dinner I had a glass of Leon Millot red wine. It is only available at the French Lick winery in French Lick, IN. It is by far my FAVORITE red wine! It is comparable to Chianti, but just so amazing!!!
For dessert I had a 1/2 of a whole wheat english muffin with pecan pumpkin butter on it! This stuff is SO good. It is normally kind of pricey, but I got this jar last year for 75% off when I was working at Williams Sonoma! 

Now I am just relaxing and watching the American Music awards. Enjoy your evening!!!

chili for a chilly day!

Hi guys!! Sorry for my posting delay! Last night my camera battery died and I couldn't find my recharger anywhere! (turned out i had left it at fiance's apt.) So I couldn't take any pictures of my eats last night or of breakfast...SORRY! 

This morning I had my regular oatmeal with a cup of coffee. I just lounged around this morning and ate a snack of "crispy pears". I bought these at the Fresh Market yesterday. This package was 1 serving and had about 30 calories. The package says that the pear pieces go through a freeze drying process to remove the water. The only ingredient listed was Asian pears. I thought that they were really good. Very crispy and flavorful! I also bought a package of pineapples that I will try sometime soon :)

For lunch I decided to make chili! It is one of my favorite cold weather eats :)

My chili included: 

1 1/2 - 2 lbs. of ground beef (I would have preferred to use less meat and use ground turkey, but fiance had ground beef that needed to be used up....at least it was lean!)

1 onion

1/2 large green pepper

2 14 oz. cans of diced tomatoes

I can corn

1 can red beans with chili seasoning

1 can of tri-blend beans

chili powder to taste

I couldn't decide what other kind of beans to include with the chili and then I saw this can of mixed beans including black, red kidney and pinto!
Here is the finished product! It was a little meat heavy, but I really liked having the variety of beans!

I topped mine with some reduced fat cheddar cheese and had 1/2 of a whole wheat english muffin on the side!

Now we have tons of leftovers which we can store in the freezer for another lazy cold Sunday! I am currently watching the Bears game and they are KICKING the Ram's butt! WOO WOO! Enjoy your Sunday afternoon :)

The Fresh Market

Hi there! While I was working away I ate a z-bar as a snack. 

After work I went to run errands. I had to go to campus and get some stuff from the bookstore. I am taking my graduate classes at IUPUI which has terrible parking! While I was trekking across campus in the FREEZING cold I decided that I needed a warm drink so I stopped at Caribou Coffee in the campus center and got a nonfat mint chocolate coffee. It was actually cheaper and better tasting than Starbucks! I wish there were more Caribou's around! Isn't the cup adorable!?!
After errands on campus I sopped at a few stores and went to the Fresh Market grocery store. It is like a fancy Whole Foods. I normally prefer to do some shopping at Whole Foods since they have a wider selection, but it is farther from my house and the Fresh Market is like 2 mins. away! They have some really nice stuff there and I found these mini asparagus! I just had to get some and use them for lunch. 
After running my errands I was STARVING! I made a simple meal of couscous with chicken and some reduced fat colby jack cheese as well as roasted asparagus. I drizzled some olive oil over the asparagus and topped with some salt and pepper, then roasted them in the oven for around 10 mins at 450 degrees. It was very satisfying!! :)

brrrrr....

Good morning! It was so nice to just be able to lounge around last night! This morning I am off to work for a few hours. Since I was out of the office for all of weds, thurs and fri I need to catch up on a few things especially since next week is a short week! For break fast this am I had oatmeal with a banana and some cinnamon sprinkled on top as well as a cup of coffee. I like using this mug because then I only have to drink 1 cup, but it is large enough to get me going! (plus it was free from my last apt. complex!)

It was COLD this am!!! I had frost all over my car and had to bust out my really thick mittens! Winter has for sure arrived! After work I am going to run some errands and do some shopping to prepare for my upcoming mini vacation! For Thanksgiving I am going with Fiance's whole family to FLORIDA! His grandparents live in Ft. Lauderdale and were nice enough to pay for all of their kids and grandchildren (and me!) to fly down there and stay in hotels! (WOO WOO!) It will be so nice to get away and enjoy some warm weather with his fam. for the holiday!

TGIF!

Hi there! Today was once again super duper long. This morning I ate a bowl of crispix (was running late so no photo :( ) Today at work we were having an ALL DAY meeting. I work for a small career college that has locations throughout the state. Today we were having a system wide librarians meet so we have TONS to discuss. When I got there our director had ordered a fruit tray! (SCORE!) I filled my plate up and went back for seconds later on in the morning. 

For lunch we went to this nice Italian restaurant downtown (Milano's). I ordered the scallops since I had really been craving them and rarely buy them to cook at home myself.  It came with a salad (I ordered a vinaigrette dressing)

When my main dish came I was bummed because I didn't realize they were fried!!!! I meant to not eat all of the breading, but it was SO good I couldn't resist. I only ate like two bites of the pasta...the sauce was so thick and kinda sick.
After work I went to the gym! I biked 14 miles and then lifted some weights and did ab work. 

For dinner I made a chicken burrito! 

I took some leftover chicken and mixed it with fajita seasoning, corn and black beans. Along with my burrito I had a side salad with some ranch. This was REALLY good, but I will defiantly be hungry for a snack later!

The burrito had some of the chicken mixture, a tiny bit of mozz cheese and lettuce. YUM!
Tonight I am just RELAXING since this has been a busy week full of meetings. Have a good one :)

ILF day 2.

Hi there! Today was another long day at the ILF conference. I had some time to kill before the first session so I got a nonfat peppermint mocha twist coffee with a lowfat cranberry orange muffin. It was all SO good!!

For lunch I went to the food court at the main mall downtown. With not a ton of healthy food choices there I decided to get something from frullati cafe. I got a pecan chicken salad sandwich on wheat bread. It had lettuce, tomatoes and red onion on it. It came with chips and a tiny cookie. I ate almost all of the sandwich and about 1/2 of the chips. It was alright, but I'm not sure I would get it again. 
These were the snacks I packed for today! I only ended up eating the nectar bar...it was my first one ever! I have to say it was pretty good, but I think I would like the cacao nectar bars better. (The banana got smashed in my bag!!)
For dinner Fiance and I made whole wheat spaghetti with a HUGE side of broccoli. I attempted to portion out the spaghetti, but I was STARVING so I think I went a little overboard. OOPS!!! I also had a glass of red wine and will probably have something small for desert later tonight!

LONG DAY!

Whew...long day!!! I was at the Indiana Library Federation conference today! Everyone at the conference got this cute bag for free!! I was so pumped!! I used it to carry all my conference info, notebook and snacks. (we also got a flash drive, pens and TONS of materials on books and databases....woo woo! Super cool librarian swag. ha)

This morning I ate a big bowl of oatmeal and a cup of my pumpkin coffee!

I had a z bar at around 11 in between sessions at my conference. At 12:30 I went to an academic librarian's luncheon. I didn't take pics since a presenter was talking through the whole meal. It was really good though! It was at the Westin in downtown Indianapolis (Fancy!) There was a salad topped with carrots, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes. Our main course was chicken with asparagus and mashed potatoes. Dessert was AMAZING! A chocolate chip cheesecake. SO YUMMY! When the conference was over I ate an apple.
For dinner I ate some rotisserie chicken, backed zucchini and white cheddar mac and cheese. YUM!
Have a good night!!

New Couscous!

On my way to work I ate a chocolate brownie Z-bar. This flavor is the PERFECT dessert bar. 

At work I had a snack of peach yogurt with granola and raisins mixed in to hold me over until I got home at 9.
For my UBER late dinner I tried this new kind of couscous. 
I mixed in some reduced fat cheese, tuna fish and olive oil. I love mixing some cheese and meat into couscous. It is probably one of my favorite quick fix meals. I had a small side salad that I basically mixed in to give each bit a little crunch. This was a great combo and I really liked this couscous. 
Tomorrow and Thursday I will be at the Indiana Library Federation conference for work all day, but will do my best to get some photos of my eats! Have a good night! 

Tuesday Morning!

For breakfast I had oatmeal with a banana and some cinnamon.

After breakfast I worked on hw  (attempting to finish my project!!) and then had a snack of pineapple chunks before going to the gym. I got in some good cardio as well as squats and ab work. 

After the gym I ran a few errands and was STARVING when I got home. I ate a cracker while I was making lunch.
For lunch I made a black bean and corn wrap with carrot chips and some of my homemade cranberry applesauce (One of my favs!)
The wrap had black beans, corn, some mozz. cheese and lettuce. It was VERY good!