Baking Failure :(

Hey Guys,
Good morning. Hope you guys had a great day yesterday! Thanks for all the encouragement yesterday about my feelings on the meals of other healthy bloggers. As silly as it was, it was wholehearted honesty. It really helps to know that you guys are listening and are willing to offer your words of wisdom! So keep reading! I always like to know who is reading and would love to follow you, your meals and your thoughts! Making new friends for me is what my blog is all about, and I am so grateful to have made a faithful few (Christina, Sarah, Haphazard Inspiration, Laurie and Kelsey) in the last few weeks! :-) You guys rock!

So onto my yesterday...

Notice that I have not been posting many meals on my blog this week like I did last week. That is because I work one heavy week (70 hrs) and a light week (10 hrs). When I work a heavy week, all of my meals usually take place right before work and during work. It's easy to photograph all of them when they are grouped together like that, and I am still getting used to blogging and developing my own style. When I am on my light week, I tend to make dinner every night as well, and usually (very badly) skip lunch....which is something that I need to work on! And when I do eat lunch, it's usually, yep you know me well now...leftovers from dinner. I decided to shake things up a bit! So this week you guys are seeing my experiments with healthy foods at dinner time with my husband!

Yesterday though, I decided that I was bored midday, and wanted to bake something. Lo and behold, Tina had a recipe for Sweet Potato Blondies around lunch time that I decided to try, sounds great, huh?....epic fail.

I got all my ingredients together from her list: EXCEPT that I only had white flour.

Then I looked around and realized that I didn't have the right pan that her recipe called for, so I decided to double the recipe and make kind of a bread of sorts instead of bars (because this pan was waaay bigger).

into the bowl they went...

swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, mix, mix, mix...

into the bundt pan...looks good so far, right? you just wait...it's comin'

yuummy? not quite, hold tight...this is only what it looked like right out of the oven.                    fluffy, doughy goodness...

...then it happened...it fell dramatically in the ten minutes that it was cooling

...and turned into this weird kinda flat doughy thing that fell right out of the pan, and was pretty much uncuttable...I had to rip it up in pieces.

looks ok, but tasted verrrry funky.

I guess the flour choice really does make a huge difference. Lesson learned. On to more tasty things: Dinner!

I had been weirdly craving hot dogs lately (nope, not preggo yet, but thanks for thinking of me), and I literally have not had a hot dog in years and as an adult coming to know what they really are, have grown to be quite disgusted by them....but cravings are cravings...so I decided to try something new for our meatless options: Veggie Dogs!

...and with only 45 calories, no fat and 8 grams of protein, how can you beat that?

I split one for myself on a whole wheat bun, half with mustard and relish, and the other half with some shredded cheese. I paired the dogs with a side salad and some roasted butternut squash. This was the first time we had this also, and surprisingly they tasted a lot like sweet potatoes, with waaay less calories! More bang for the buck, sign me up!

The dogs tasted like a light version of a real hot dog, and smelled exactly like one. So we were very happy, craving satisfied! :-)

This was a nice and light dinner, and a happy ending to my cooking disaster of the day!

My Question for You: What was your biggest cooking disaster? ;-)

Fast Food at Home

Good morning Bloggy Friends,
So here is the deal. I read food blogs a lot...A LOT. I learn from them and try to utilize the recipes in my life in order to incorporate more healthy options for my husband and I on a daily basis. I try to help him not feel as deprived as one would think when the words "eating healthy" come out of someone's mouth. Reading blogs have really helped me in that sense. Granted this reading (and posting of my own) is very time consuming, it has become very rewarding as well.

I will say this one thing about reading other food blogs, though....sometimes I get a little jealous of the more popular ones who seem to...I don't know...have this healthy eating down cold. You know what I mean? Like I still have to convince myself that I should eat this and not just order a pizza or just eat cheese for dinner. Is that a crazy feeling or what? Obviously these people have their stories about how they have come so far in their journeys, but I just sometimes don't see an ending to me craving the worse things and craving a nap instead of the gym. I don't know. I just feel sometimes like I may be the only one who feels these strange things.

Anyways, onto something that I have recently learned from a blog....Emily's blog! I took the recipe from her blog, along with the tofu tutorial to enhance our meatless dinner options. Here's my crack at it last night.

First I used Trader Joe's Extra Firm tofu, drained and cut it into 8 pieces, then laid it on a towel.

I folded the towels over it and put books on top of it to press more liquid out.

I cut them into more cubes.

I put them into a pan sprayed with olive oil and salted and peppered them.

Then I popped these bad boys in the oven.

After that, I started the brown rice.

Zapped my frozen veggies for a couple minutes

Then I went back to my browning tofu and turned each piece.

Emily made a sauce from scratch, which I thought was good the first time I tried this, but my husband REALLY likes this sauce. It does have more calories, but what are you gonna do? My husband agreed to eat tofu....need I push for more? So last night, into the pan it went!

...in goes the veggies.

...and then we plate it all together.

...yuuuuummmmmmy

 Thank.You.Emily! Cheap, healthier fast food at home. To die for!

My Question for You: Have you experienced any negative self talk while reading blogs? How have you dealt with that?

Free Cheese!

Hey Guys,

Okay, so if you're anything like me....and you are because you are reading food blogs...you have that one thing that is just so decadent to you and amazingly wonderful that even if it is not healthy, you wonder if you will ever have the courage to give it up. Well folks, my one thing is cheese.

I have been doing so amazing lately in not having cheese very much, if at all because my husband is trying to cut dairy completely out of his diet (more on that later). However, when something like what happened this morning to me happens, it is literally impossible for for me to resist. Literally.

I went into the grocery store for my weekly trip, and low and behold, there is a sample lady. What does she have sitting there as glorious little cubes of heaven on a toothpick? Cubes of cheese. That's right. Cubes of cheese. I love, love, LOVE cheese. You don't even know how much. My thighs sure do know, but well, you get the point. My pounds have been on a steady decline for the past few weeks; which is great! I haven't even been buying real cheese, which makes me want it less. So there she was, free cheese, whatever kind that was on sale. Get your free cheese sample, right here! I mean really how does she sleep at night knowing she is delivering drugs to innocent thighs like mine?! Really. So guys....I HAD to have just one....how many of you know I didn't just have one? Right....I had another and another, and oh, one of the ones that were baked and covered in a sinful peach glaze...and another....So granted they were only like a half inch cube each, but I am sure she wishes that I never got off work this morning and came to her cheese department. I mean who takes 5 (yeah, 5) samples from the poor grocery store lady? I guess I do. Pathetic.


Oh well, I gave in. Such is life...and this morning, for about 2 minutes...it was very good. ;-)


Yesterday's Eats!

the snacks were a banana, a brown rice cake with peanut butter, strawberries and pineapples

...which included this awesome new better peanut butter

then I made this yummy friend, which was a multigrain flaxseed wrap with spinach, kidney beans, red pepper and a little rice cheese

...it was one of my better ideas ;-) pretty dang good.

...more on the rice cheese topic to come...

so of course I added that to the leftover veggies from last night

then I had 2 multigrain waffles with agave and 2 egg whites...yeah I know, at 9pm...I get a little crazy with it sometimes. It's all good, luckily my body has no idea what time it is :-)

My Question for You: What is your one thing?

Tension

Good morning Friends,

Ok, let me just say that blogging everyday (my goal for the week) is very rewarding this week, but WOW am I getting some serious neck and shoulder tension from being on the computer for so long every morning after work! I am not sure if it is the slouching or the combination of the fact that I have been awake all night + the slouching. Either way, I'm pretty sure my shoulder blades are on fire.

In other thoughts, I am running low on snack options that are "real food". You know how you hear that you should not eat as much fruit because it has too much sugar, hence more calories than veggies....or maybe that's just me hearing this nonsense? Then of course you know that the sugar in fruit is much better than the sugar in processed sugary snacks. So, I am at a loss. I am kinda worried about what I will eat snack-wise in the winter of Illinois because I worry about everything a million light years before they actually happen because what is in season in the dead of December in the midwest? 

Snow.

That's what's in season. I have been seriously trying super hard to eat as many whole foods as I can, but in this day and age, working and schooling take up so much time, that who has time to chop veggies and wash fruits, and go to the grocery store several times a week so that your stuff doesn't go bad faster than you can eat it (a problem we have around here).  Every single day Sometimes I really wish that I lived in an all year round state that I can get local fresh fruits and veggies from!

Have an amazing day!

Yesterday's Eats!

some snacks...a banana, plum, clementine, granola and Greek yogurt

the breakfast usual...oats and almond milk

 then I tried something new from Caitlin's eats...a sweet potato with vegetarian baked beans! DElish!

 ...added that to a basil butter frozen veggie mix

then I ate the last of the can of baked beans for dinner before heading off to work....
(in my rush of mad hunger, I forgot to take a pic)

My Question to You: What are your usual fast go-to snacks when working? Help me out! I need some ideas! :-)

Happy Hump Day!

Today will be short and sweet, as I am a bit fuzzy in the brain. I did not get enough sleep yesterday, and now I am most certainly paying for it. I have heard the many theories behind weight loss and adequate sleep...or in my case, lack thereof. Sometimes it is a bit tough to work the overnight shift, and I think that you never really get used to it. It is also a time when I start to crave crazy things. Today I think I am doing pretty well with that, so I should congratulate myself I guess. (shrug)  Anyways....

I had better get to bed before I pass out! Have a great day, you normal daytime workers!

Yesterday's Eats!

a banana, clementine, grapes and some triscuits for snacks

almond milk and oats for the morning

then I used this new yummy deliciousness....

to make this yummy deliciousness...a whole wheat English Muffin with hummus, red pepper, cucumber and spinach

I then added that to leftovers from yesterday

...and packed it all away, ready for my shift!

after that, I ate the last of my leftovers from yesterday for dinner

My Question to You: I am currently trying to eat the very last crumb of everything in my house before moving onto the next box, container or recipe in an effort to save money and feel less wasteful in general. What are your habits with leftovers?

More and more naysayers...

Good morning friends,
So I had an earlier post about going to family gatherings and dealing with your choices for healthier options...or lack thereof at these gatherings. Today my mind is along a similar path, but dealing with the workplace. I try very, very hard to eat the best that I can while I am working, but working with aisle after aisle of junk is tough when the fatigue sets in and the inevitable mindless hunger then tries to take over your body. Fighting that off alone is enough of a chore on it's own without the endless comments of the coworkers who often share meal time with me and often times...in past times...share my decisions about what to eat that day. It is often hard for me to deal with the comments as of late about all of my healthy choices and the fact that I have lost about 14lbs since April. I am super sensitive, which makes it all much more worse than it needs to be. The comments that I get the most are "oh, you're gonna eat that...aren't you on a diet" .... "no, don't ask Monique if she wants some, she is trying to lose some weight" ... or my favorite (from someone who is drinking a bottle of completely non diet Coke, as I am drinking a Gatorade) "isn't that non-healthy food? there's too much salt and sugar, right?" or wait, better yet here's one (if I decide to have a bite of a brownie in the office someone brought for everyone) "oh Monique, you're falling off the wagon honey, you better watch it"....

I am literally going to lose my mind. I know, I know, I should just ignore these people, focus on myself and move on, but sometimes it is so very hard.

You don't even have to tell people that you are on a diet. They automatically assume that you are dieting when they see anything green in your lunch box!!! Someone please give me some nice and polite (maybe a little saucy, just kidding) comments that I can deliver in return to this nonsense!


Yesterday's Eats! (since I just got off work, this is nighttime for me right now and is the end of the day for me)

First I pack the snacks! My shift is 10 hours long with a 30 minute commute, so I gotta be prepared! Then I gotta make my "lunch" which is really a dinner at 3AM, then I pack a breakfast for around 7AM, off at 8AM!

• Dried Apricots
• Plum. Tangerine and Banana
• Brown Rice Cake

• Vegan Burger w/Whole Wheat Bun
• Sweet Potato Fries
• Grilled Squash and Zucchini 

• Almond Milk
• Country Choice Multigrain Oats

Then after packing my lunchie lunch, I ate dinner at home before I left, black beans and brown rice with veggies. Yummmmmy.

 Anyways, it's off to bedtime for me now folks! Have a great day! Check out yesterday's post for an awesome discussion!

My Question to You: What do you say to the people who are "monitoring" your weight loss or healthy eating choices at your workplace?