My Day in Food

Today I had another pretty good day!

I took a much needed rest day from the gym, and woke up without my alarm! It always feels nice to wake up on my own :)

Breakfast was the usual.

Ezekiel bread with almond butter, banana, and cinnamon. Served with hot lemon water. I haven't had any coffee in almost a week! Not that I think anything is wrong with coffee, but I know I had been over-doing it with the caffeine. Hot lemon water is so refreshing!

I enjoyed this while having some me time, blogging, reading, getting ready for work, etc..

Then I had my first snack at work.

An organic apple and 12 almonds - which is half a serving. I eat a nut + fruit combo pretty much every work day for a snack. It's a great carb/fat combo that helps keep me satisfied. 

Then before I knew it - It was lunchtime!

4 cups of romaine, 2 tbsp of light zesty italian dressing, 2 carrots, another apple, and a clementine. Lots of delicious raw food!

2 hours later I had my last break and another snack.

Another clementine with the other 1/2 serving of almonds. 

It was so sunny outside!! I always pick the spot in the break room that's in the sun when I can. I miss the sun! It's been such a long winter.

After I got home I was feeling lazy, so diner was pretty uninspiring.

A sandwich thin with 1 tbsp almond butter and 1 tbsp jam, some tortilla chips, and salsa (shared with Dillon, of course)

Then I wanted something sweet - Banana Ice Cream!

1.5 frozen bananas, 1 tsp cocoa powder, and a splash of soymilk. Process until smooth!

It's just like soft-serve! And only 100 calories - so much healthier and cheaper!

Calories consumed today: 1255 - I may end up having another small snack during Parenthood. We'll see if I get hungry again, but overall, a good food day for no workout!

Parenthood is almost on, so I'd better wrap this up. I'm loving my iPhone for taking these pictures. It's so easy. I just can't get enough of it :)

I have tomorrow off (Woo!) because I have training on Saturday, and I already have a list of things I want to get done. It should be a good, productive day!

Hope you had a great day!

~Kasey

How To: Peanut Butter

Good Morning!

The last time I made peanut butter I took a bunch of pictures to share with you! It took me awhile, but here's how you make fresh peanut butter.

Put about 1.5 cups of roasted, unsalted peanuts into a food processor. I buy them from the bulk section of my grocery store.

Start to blend.

It will start getting chunky - keep blending.

Scrape the sides as needed.

It forms into this big clump of peanuts - that's good! You're almost there.

Keep blending - you can see it's getting smooth.

Smooth!! You can stop it to add a pinch of salt here if you like, and blend a bit more.

All done!

Make sure to keep blending until it gets nice and drippy like this.

Then put in a jar and in your refrigerator. 

See? It's so easy. With peanuts, this whole process only take about 5-8 minutes. With almonds, it takes more like 12-15 minutes to get smooth, but it's the same process. You just need a bit more patience with almonds. 

This is way cheaper than buying natural peanut butter and a lot less wasteful! Plus, fresh anything is better than the alternative! I haven't bought a jar of nut butter since I started making my own. I make a batch every Sunday because we usually go through a whole batch each week! I'm a nut-butter-aholic, what can I say ;)

See you later tonight for a recap of my day - Hope you make some nut butter!

~Kasey

Good Day!

Its nice to start out the week with a good day!

I had a great run and lifting session this morning.

I was able to keep my eating well under control - I wasn't very hungry very much.

Work was pretty mellow.

I ate a BUNCH of fruit! 2 bananas, 3 clementines, 2 apples.... yum!

I got my iPhone!!! My wonderful hubby picked it up from our apartment office and set it all up for me.

The one little snag in the day was that I lost my car key - hopefully I'll find it at work tomorrow. Good thing is that we only like about 2 blocks from work, so Dillon was able to bring me my spare really quickly!

And I made a fabulous dinner!

A delicious strifry! Photo taken from my iPhone.. not bad, eh?

Serving it up!

Served over 1 cup of brown rice. So satisfying.

Dillon found this cool thing you can do with WolframAlpha. Just add your ingredients with "+" signs in between them, and you get this:

Nutrition facts! This made 3 servings, so 442 calories per serving... and you get all the great vitamin values and such.

Dillon always discovers cool things like this - I should really listen to him more!

Well with that, I'm going to go have him teach me more about my new phone!

Au revior!

~Kasey

Yesterday...

The Packers won!!! ... And I over-did it food wise.

Remember when I said we were having trouble getting reception from Fox? Well not even 5 minutes into the game we lost it. The only way it would come in is if it was propped up strangely and I kneeled or stood in a certain place.

Well that was not going to work, so we quickly walked over to one of our favorite bar and grills - Granite City, to watch the game. Luckily it was really slow there, and we had a good view of the game. Of course we ordered some food and drinks, even though we'd already had a couple drinks at home and had some of the Spinach Artichoke Dip I was excited about - which was very good!

3 hours, 1 football game, a couple soft pretzels, more beer, and half a cookie dessert later - I'm too full, and I knew I over-did it.

But you know what? That's ok. Its taken me so long to not feel guilty over times like that, but really - its ok.

I had a wonderful time with my husband, and indulged in some foods I don't normally eat. I'm human :) I did go over on calories (obviously..), but I used that as motivation to have a great workout today! I'm up on the scale a bit, but that's due to bloating, not real weight gain. It would be very difficult to gain 3 pounds in one day! I'm sure the bloat will go away in the next few days as I focus again on fueling my body with whole foods.

I guess the point of this post is to say that its ok to indulge sometimes; its not something to feel guilty about! I try to live by doing things that make me happy, and outings like this are fun! Now we'll always have good memories about this Superbowl to look back on.

Sorry there was no pictures today, hopefully tomorrow because today is iPhone day!! My iPhone will be delivered by 3pm today, so expect more meal pictures to come soon. I'm so excited :)

Have a great Monday!

~Kasey

Superbowl Sunday!

Go Packers!!!

I can't wait for the Superbowl, and especially to eat this Spinach Artichoke Dip form Oh She Glows. It's dairy free and looks soo good! I can't wait to make it in an hour or so.

We're currently watching the Pre-Game show, mostly because we just spent like 30 minutes trying to get our antenna to pick up Fox, so now we don't want to change it! I hope it stays.. I really don't want to go to the bars because they'll be super packed, and I want to eat my dip!

Yesterday was a good day. Work was slow; my eats were good. I also had a great run/bike workout again in the morning. I won't do a huge recap, but here are my numbers.

Calories Consumed: 1575
Calories Burned: 550

Still kind of on the low side for net calories, but I was listening to my body and it didn't tell me to eat more. I was satisfied at that. I'm sure that means one of these days my body will want more - and I'll honor that :)

Some food pics over the last day or so ~

A Green Monster - though its not very green because I added blueberries. I had a similar one this morning. Eaten post workout both times.

I had hummus, carrots, and pretzels for lunch yesterday.

Last night after work I enjoyed this delicious sandwich. I vegan grilled "cheese" - with Daiya vegan cheddar. My favorite kind of vegan cheese; you can hardly tell a difference!

This was lunch today - Gardein Seven Grain Crispy Tenders, roasted broccoli, and Bell's Cherry Porter. All of this was so good! We don't eat meat substitues very often because they're still not very healthy, but once and awhile it's a nice treat. Dillon said you could definitely fool people into thinking they were real chicken strips. As for the Cherry Porter, it is very rich and cherry-ful - tasty, indeed.

Well I need to finish my food prep for the week and get going on my dip! Soon I'll be sipping some Rogue Chocolate Stout, eating spinach dip, and watching Packer football. I love Sundays :)

Hope you have a fun evening!

~Kasey

Happy Saturday

Hello!

I hope your work week ended well. I had yesterday off from work, but I have to go in today. Oh well, I was very productive yesterday!

I went for an hour long run outside! It was a lovely 28° and sunny - I had forgotten how much running outside is much better than on the treadmill. I can't wait for spring!

I did other random errands and cleaning, and then Dillon and I went to our favorite beer place, JL Beers. Even though I'm trying to lose weight, I was able to plan for this outing, and I enjoyed 2 beers and shared an order of their homemade chip with Dillon. I'm a firm believer that I shouldn't have to give up stuff like that because I really enjoy it! I just need to work it into my plan, so I'm not going overboard.

A brief recap of some of my eats yesterday:

Calories consumed: 1670
Caloried burned: 785

Breakfast was the usual, toast, banana, and nut butter. - 285 calories

During my errand running, I picked up one of these bars to hold me over until lunchtime.

I think this might be my new favorite bar! I don't like to eat too many bars like this because they are pretty high in sugar, but this one was quite delicious. It had 230 calories and 13 grams of protein! A good way to refuel my muscles after my run.

Then I had a light late lunch -

Romaine with 2 tbsp of light zesty Italian dressing, Ezekiel bread with hummus, and 2 tbsp of dried cranberries for something sweet.  - 237 calories

Then Dillon and I went to JL; I didn't take any pictures, though we talked about how when I get my iPhone (hopefully on Monday!!), I'll most likely take many more pictures because the camera is very good. There with 1 tall beer, Breckenridge Vanilla Porter, and 1 pint of Honey Weiss, along with about half an order of some homemade chips, I calculated it was about 753 calories. Not very healthy ones, but we had fun, and that's what's important!

Afterwards, we came home and watched The Social Network and shared an apple and some popcorn. Good movie - different than I expected, but it was entertaining. That snack was about 165 calories. 

I was kind of on the low side for net calories yesterday, but I wasn't that hungry. I'm sure I'll make it up somewhere along the line.

On a very happy note, my weight went from 155.8 on Thursday to 152.4 today :) I know weight fluctuates quite a bit, but I'm much happier with 152. I've never gotten any lower than that, so hopefully soon!

Time to get ready for work once again! I can't wait for tomorrow for the Superbowl! Go Packers :)

~Kasey

Recap

Today was a good day! I felt better after declaring my new focus, and now I have something to really keep me accountable :)

My food intake today was great! 1395 calories and no workout

I didn't feel very hungry at all as I had planned out my snacks in advance so I didn't feel deprived.

Here's what I ate today:


Breakfast - 285 calories
1 slice of Ezekiel bread
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 banana
cinnamon

Snack - 140 calories
12 raw almonds
1 small apple


Lunch - 240 calories
1 cup romaine
1 cup spinach
2 tbsp light zesty italian dressing
2 carrots
1/4 cup hummus


Snack - 140 calories
12 raw almonds
1 small apple




Dinner - 428 calories

Amy's All-American Veggie Burger

1 sweet potato - sprayed with a bit of olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and baked at 425° for about 25 minutes

organic ketchup

1 slice of Ezekiel bread, spinach, onion, and green pepper

medjool date (not pictured), for dessert :)

Evening Snack - 162 calories

1 packet of Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal

1/2 cup of un-sweetened soymilk

I like to eat a little bit every few hours, which I think really helps! 

All in all today I feel like I did well. I drank tea this morning instead of coffee, and also enjoyed some cups of hot water with lemon - which is surprisingly refreshing!

Well I'm off to continue reading Skinny Bitch. I just started it today, and I'm loving it so far!

Have a good night :)

~Kasey

P.S. I plan to have more pictures with these re-caps soon - things are still in transition!