Yesterday, I didn’t get a chance to post my eats or events…so here they are.  Not too much happened yesterday, just work and then the gym.

Breakfast: Delicious Green Smoothie (226 cals)

Green Smoothie

• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 Large handful of spinach
• 1 Tbsp Nutribiotic Brown Rice Protein Powder
• 1 Tbsp Almond butter

Snack: 1/2 PB&J Larabar (105 cals)

1/2 PB&J Larabar

2 Lindt Truffles (147 cals)

Lunch: 1/2 sweet potato, 1/2 cup steamed broccoli, 2 stalks of celery + 1 Tbsp Naturally Moore PB (191 cals)

1/2 Sweet Potato

Celery + Naturally More PB

Broccoli

After work last night, I got home and changed into my workout clothes and headed to the gym

Workout:

• 15 min walking on an incline
• 30 min personal training session – core work, legs, abs and a little bit of arms – we also did some dreaded burpees
• 5 min cool down
• Earlier in the morning, I also went to the gym for cardio
• Warm-up – walked for 10 mins
• Run: 15 mins -10 mins at 5.5, then 5 mins 5.7
• Run: 20 mins – 1:1 intervals – 5.7 mph then up to 6.7 mph for 20 mins 
• Cooled down for 5 mins

Dinner:  Chicken, Sweet potato, broccoli, yellow squash & onion casserole a.k.a cozy comfort food!  Tonight the hubby decided to surprise me and cook us up some dinner. And here is the result!  A delicious casserole filled with chicken and yummy veggies – and let me just tell you how awesome this was.  (362 cals)

I had this serving and then a little more – it was amazing and I was hungry!!

Delicious comfort food

Ingredients:  I’m not sure of the measurements since I didn’t cook this, but the hubby doesn’t really measure anyway.

• Chicken Breast – probably about a pound
• Onion – 1/2 chopped in large chunks
• Broccoli – 1 cup
• Yellow Squash – 2 
• Grated cheddar cheese – 3/4 – 1 cup
• Panko Bread crumbs – 3/4 – 1 cup
• Olive oil for sautéing chicken and veggies

The hubby sautéed the chicken in a large skillet until it was no longer pink and then added in the veggies.  After ingredients are added and cooked for a few minutes – the hubby placed everything in a large casserole dish and topped with the cheese and bread crumbs.  This was placed in a 400 degree oven for 20 mins.  Then he stirred the casserole at this point and checked the veggies for doneness.  This went back into the oven for an additional 15 mins and was checked again, the sweet potatoes were still a little firm, so we cooked for another 10 mins.   

I can’t believe how simple this dish is, but how great it tasted.  I love casseroles and there’s probably not a casserole out there that I don’t love.  I mean…somehow, when all of these single ingredients are combined into a glass casserole dish and then popped into the oven, a magical conversion happens and you have a warm delicious meal that’s reminiscent of  mom (or my mom anyways) and will comfort any type of mood or event that might have occurred that day.  I usually love comfort foods and casseroles when it’s cold and/or dreary outside and usually find them too heavy in the summer months, but this casserole hit the spot and was just what I needed and wanted last night. 

I love when the hubby gets in the kitchen and cooks for me – he’s very inventive with his recipes and it’s always a delicious treat…I told him needed to do this more because he’s awesome at it…he just kind of laughed.

Dessert: 2 Lindt truffles (147 cals)

UH-OH – I was really bad with the chocolate truffles today…which is another comfort food, huh?  My boss had me run a few errands at the mall and next to one of the stores I needed to go into was the Lindt Chocolate store and they were having a 50% off sales on basically EVERYTHING, so what’s a vicious sweet tooth person to do but stop on in and make a purchase – I bought a rather big bag of assorted truffles and I told myself I was only going to have 3 the entire day…but I caved after dinner while sharing my purchase with the hubby!!!  I must show more restraint in the future!!! Not so sure it was a good idea to buy this temptation while just recently deciding the day before to pick up calorie counting…sometimes ignorance is bliss…I’ve told myself and the hubby that I’m keeping these in the freezer to resist the urge to consume the entire bag in one day. 

Total Calories: 1205 cals

So, I ran lots of errands and didn’t finish them all, so I’ll either do it this weekend, or during lunch next week. No biggie

This morning, I started things off on a healthy note with a green smoothie.  I used the dinosaur kale that I got at the farmers market last week.  I put a good amount in there this morning and it was, well, really bitter. I haven’t really had this happen before.  I can always taste the kale in there, it’s definitely not like spinach where you wouldn’t know it was in there but it’s green so you know.  I drank it anyway because I know the kale would be good for me, but I’m not going to get that type of kale next time.  Like I say, you live and you learn.

Breakfast: Green Smoothie: 1 cup of Tempt Unsweetened Vanilla Hemp Milk, 1 large handful of dinosaur kale, 1 Tbsp raw almond butter, 1 small frozen banana and 1 tsp of agave nectar.

It was a nice morning, so I sat outside with my smoothie and read my magazine

Green Smoothie

Bentley joined me outside as well

Bentley

Snack:  Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake

Apple Pie Larabar

Apple Pie Larabar

Lunch: Salad topped with tempeh and goat cheese.  I marinated the tempeh with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and braggs liquid aminos.  And topped it with goat cheddar cheese.  For my salad I had arugula, cucumber, blueberries, peppers and guac.  Topped with TJ’s goddess dressing.

Mixed Green Salad, Tempeh and Blueberries

Workout: Yay! I made it to the gym today

• 5 min walking
• 60 min stationary bike lvl 6 resistance
• 15 min elliptical

Dinner: Tonight I decided to make the stuffed eggplant dish I made not too long ago – super yummy.  Instead of stuffing it, I just cut everything up and let it cook. I served the hubby’s over basmati rice and had mine over raw zucchini noodles. We also had sliced cucumbers.

Eggplant over raw zucchini noodles

Dessert: Non-fat TJ;s Greek yogurt with blueberries and 1tsp of maple syrup

Greek Yogurt + Blueberries

Today, I got in a lot of green veggies, which makes me happy.

Alright y’all….the hubby and I are watching more of season 2 of Dexter.  See you guys later.

It was back to the grind yesterday morning.  Sad to see the long weekend go, but liking my job so it’s ok.  This morning, I started off with a hearty breakfast

The hubby and I finished up watching Dexter last night. Between Monday and last night, we watched the complete 1st season.  It’s an interesting show.  We started into the second season last night, but only watched 1 episode and called it a night.  The hubby and I have been total couch potatoes these past 2 days.  I guess you need those days sometimes and it’s really been fun hanging out together.

Here were yesterday’s eats…

Breakfast: 1 egg + 1 egg white, green smoothie

My smoothie: 3/4 tempt hempmilk, 1/2 frozen banana, 1 Tbsp Almond butter, a large handful of spinach

Egg + Green Smoothie

Lunch: Mixed Veggie Salad + 1 Carrot Cake cupcake

Salad

In my salad:

• Arugula
• Grilled zucchini & red peppers
• Broccoli
• Cucumber
• Cauliflower
• Goat Cheese
• Avocado
• TJ’s Goddess Dressing

Snack: 100 calorie pack of craisins

I also snacked on a few tortilla chips and homemade guac I whipped up after work

guacamole

Dinner: 1 mini turkey pattie + raw zucchini and beet noodles, raw sundried tomato marinara topped with a little guac.  Can I tell you how much I LOVE my spiralizer?  I’ve been buying a lot of zucchini and beets and then just spiralizing them at the beginning of the week.  The hubby likes his veggies this way too.  

Raw Zucchini & Beet Noodles + Raw Marinara Sauce

Dessert: carrot cake cupcake x2 – these things are seriously delicious and addicting!  

Carrot Cake

Nothing to crazy going on here as you can see.  But you should definitely make the carrot cake today.  You won’t be disappointed.

See you guys later…

First, in honor of yesterday being Father’s Day, I wanted to share this song with you.  This is the song that me and my dad danced to at my wedding and it’s super special to me.  Hope you like it.

SATURDAY:

Saturday, we got up to hit the Peachtree Rd Farmer’s Market where we picked up delicious salsa that my hubby loves so much because they use real chilies from New Mexico.  We also picked up fresh goat cheese – a sweet assortment with fig, strawberry, cranberry and plain.  We also bought gourmet popsicles to eat since it was soo HOT out there!  I had peach chipotle and the hubby had lime mint.  Yummy!

Breakfast: Goat cheese, egg, spinach and tomato crepe – made by one of the vendors at the market – so yummy

Then we headed to scope out the Dekalb’s Farmers Market.  This place is awesome!  It’s huge and they have a huge variety of international foods.  It was super crowded when we got there Saturday morning, so, we had to make our way through the crowds, but we got to check out almost every isle.  We bought a lot of produce and they have really good prices.  I will definitely be shopping here more often.  We even found my favorite new beer – Triple Karmeliet and another type of Belgium beer – score!

After returning from the Farmer’s Market, I had to stop by Publix to get ingredients for my father’s day menu that I intended to make – just a handful of things and then I had to finish getting my dad his gifts.  His birthday is next week as well, so I went ahead and did shopping for both.  Before heading home I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up a bag of vegan chocolate chips for my sister.  It was a busy morning/afternoon.

Then I got to work on the menu:

• Vegan Lentil and Walnut Loaf
• Haricot Verts, Edamame and Toasted Walnuts
• Tomato, Cucumber and Avocado Salad
• Almond Cake

VEGAN LENTIL WALNUT LOAF

The Vegan Lentil and Walnut Loaf is from this recipe from Eat, Live, Run.  I really wanted to make something a little different and something that I knew everyone could eat – my mom is a vegetarian, my hubby needs to eat wheat free, etc.  So, I thought this would be a good dish to try – it’s hearty enough for my dad, but fits other criteria as well.  The only change I made was substituting a beet for the carrot, which made it turn pretty red, but tasted awesome.

I started cooking the lentils since they take about 25 mins to cook

Lentils Cooking

Next, I prepared the “flax egg” to bind the mixture together

Flax Meal + Water

And set it aside to work its magic

Flax Egg

Next, I grated my beet and chopped up the other veggies

Grated Beet

Then I cooked the veggies

Cooking the veggies

Adding Toasted Walnuts

Then it’s time to combine the ingredients into a large bowl

Combining flax egg + bread crumbs

Mixing Lentils

After mixing all of the ingredients together, I poured it into a small pyrex dish and packed into the dish with my hands.

Walnut Lentil Loaf

Then I mixed up the sauce for the top

Tomato sauce added

I then baked this at 350 for 40 mins

HARICOT VERTS, EDAMAME + TOASTED WALNUTS

This recipe is based on the one from the book Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser – I also added a handful of edamame to change it up a bit.

Haricot Verts, Edamame + Toasted Walnuts

TOMATO, CUCUMBER + AVOCADO SALAD

I just threw the veggies together and added a little olive oil, salt and pepper to the mix.  I also added a couple of sprigs of Thai Basil I picked up

Tomato, Cucumber + Avocado Salad

ALMOND CAKE

This cake is also from Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser.  This cake was AMAZING and I recommend you make it ASAP.  This cake is dense and full of delicious almond flavor.  This cake was a hit with my family

Almond Cake Ingredients

I prepared the springform pan by lining the bottom and the sides of the pan.

Prepared Springform Pan

Then, it was onto the cake – I started out by cracking and separating 4 eggs to use the yolks only and then set them aside to get up to room temp

Eggs

Next, I cut the Almond Paste into smaller pieces

Almond Paste

Next, I combined the baking soda and sour cream and set aside

Almond Cake - Sour Cream

Next, I sifted the flour and then measured it.

Sifting Flour

Flour measured out

Next, I creamed together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Added the egg yolks one at a time and then added the almond paste and extract.

Creaming Butter & Sugar

I then added the flour in a few batches until well combined

Adding the Flour

Then I poured into the prepared springform pan

Poured into Pan

Almond Cake - Before going into the oven

Baked in a 350 degree oven for 60 mins

After Baking

After completely cooled, I dusted it with powdered sugar

Almond Cake

SUNDAY:

Breakfast: Green Smoothie

Green Smoothie

My green smoothie contained a large handful of fresh spinach from the farmers market, 1 frozen banana, and 1 Tbsp Almond Butter – this tasted amazing – the frozen banana really made it creamy and sweet.

The hubby and I drove up to my parents to have lunch with my dad.  I brought all of the food that I had prepared on Saturday so we could eat early because my dad had to go to work later on.  So, I brought the ingredients for the tomato, cucumber & avocado salad and made up at my parents, but everything else we just unpacked once there.

My dad also picked up a watermelon for our lunch – it was so yummy!

Watermelon

Here’s how the table looked

Table Setting

I had a little of everything.  It was so yummy!  My entire family really enjoyed it, even though it was a very different meal than they were used to.

My Plate

After eating our meal, we sat around the table chatting and catching up on things. Once our food had settled a little bit, we sliced up the Almond cake – it was awesome!

Almond Cake - Sliced

After dessert and cleaning up for my parents, we said good-bye to my dad and saw him off to work.  Then we all sat around outside and talked for a while.  Then me, the hubby and my sister said bye to my mom and hit up the outlet malls for a bit.  The hubby was in need of work shoes and I love to shop.  We found amazing deals and ended up working up an appetite.  We were a little hungry and decided on Ruby Tuesdays.

I had the salad bar and some of the shrimp appetizer the hubby ordered. I had this big salad and then went back for a smaller one.

Salad Bar

Shrimp Appetizer - Shrimp 3 ways

Yummy!  After dinner, we drove back to Atlanta and I cleaned up the kitchen a bit and then hung out with Bentley and the hubby by watching Law & Order!  Then we crashed out.  It was an awesome day.  So much fun to be able to spend time and actually cook my parents a meal.  I haven’t cooked for them since I got married and moved to Florida.  So, it was great to take part in the things I love – family, food and shopping!

Well guys, gotta run.  Hope you’re Monday afternoon is a good one – be back later!

Mine was pretty good, although the hubby was under the weather.

So this weekend I had a group interview at Lululemon on Saturday and then I got a call back for another interview for Sunday evening @ 6:00 pm.  Well, I didn’t know that the interview for this position was going to be a group one, but I started seeing people getting out of their cars with their black binder/portfolio and then I figured it out.  I think I  might like the group interview better, but I’m not sure.  Somehow, not knowing the competition might be a little less intimidating when you’re trying to impress the boss/hiring manager.  But I’m starting to think that it makes me a little less nervous…but it definitely can cast a lot of self-doubt knowing that there are a lot of good candidates all fighting for one position.  I guess, all I can do is be myself, prepare for these interviews and then pray that if this is the position I’m supposed to have, that it will work out the way it’s supposed to.  We’ll see.  I really want both of these positions.

My sister said she’d hate to do a group interview, but It seems more opened and relaxed, which I think helps the person in charge of hiring be able to see a little more who the real you and see what type of personality you have when thrown together with others.  You can definitely see the more outgoing ones speak up more and quicker and the shy, reserved ones hold back a bit.  Interesting.

Now, let’s back up to the earlier part of the day.

Sunday morning, the hubby and I decided to check out the 11:00 am service for Christian Church Buckhead.  I’m really liking the pastor a lot.

So, I made a quick smoothie before heading out the door

Green Smoothie

After church, the hubby and I decided to try a new restaurant near us called Verde Tacqueria y Cantina in Brookhaven

We started with their chips and salsa – the salsa was quite good – sweet and spicy with a little garlic kick to it at the end.

I had 2 tacos – the Grilled Veggie on the left (grilled zucchini, squash, onions, peppers and black beans with a cilantro sour cream) and the Buffalo Tofu (fried tofu cubes, tossed in buffalo sauce with diced celery with a jalapeño ranch) – I asked for both sauces on the side

Verde Tacos

I definitely enjoyed our meal – it’s definitely not like our favorite taco spot – Tacqueria Del Sol, but I liked mine very  much.  The hubby had the special which was a ground chorizo w/ potatoes and a fried fish.  He liked his a lot, but also commented that it’s no Tacqueria Del Sol!!

After lunch we headed home and met my sister who drove down for the afternoon.  It was so fun to have her down.  She brought us house-warming gifts – one for me, the hubby and Bentley – she’s so sweet!  Bentley got a cardboard scratchy thing so he will be less likely to keep destroying our couch.  We put lots of cat nip…It was funny to see him get all hyped up.

After my sister caught up on the hubby’s trip to London, we decided to hit the pool.  Oh my goodness….could it be any hotter right now in Atlanta??!! Yikes.  Not only is it hot, but the humidity is outta control!! Our plan was to stay there for about 2 hours until I had to come back in and get ready for my interview, but I think we only lasted about 1.5 hours.  It was just HOT!!  But we both got some sun – I really needed some color!

Snack: Cashew Cookie Larabar – delish!

Cashew Cookie Larabar

Then I got ready for my interview and wore my new Coach shoes – sweet!  They were pretty comfy.  I <3 them!  At our interview, I sat next to a cute girl wearing some Gucci’s.  I said “I Love your shoes, they’re fabulous” and she said “well, they are NOT comfortable at all, but thank you”.  It made me laugh…what we do for fashion and the love of shoes/clothes!

The interview lasted about an hour and then I headed home to make me and the hubby some dinner

Dinner: Another all veggie creation – thankfully my hubby will practically eat anything I fix for him.

The hubby fixed me a nice adult beverage while I prepared dinner – nice and refreshing.

Shock Top w/ an orange

I decided on tomato and mozzarella stacks and drizzled it with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, Roasted yellow summer squash stuffed with TJ’s Multigrain pilaf, and then I boiled us haricots verts to round it out.  This meal screams summer to me and it was amazing if I do say so myself – nothing gourmet, just simple veggies!

Tomato + Mozzarella Stack

Tomato + Mozzarella

Summer Feast

Dessert: My last piece of chocolate that the hubby brought me from London – I’m sad it’s all gone! + 1/2 an orange

Chocolate Mousse Truffle

While eating dinner we watched another documentary – Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - man was that a crazy story or what!

Then we crashed out.

Have a great afternoon and I’ll be back later….