J’adore le tour!

Blah.  It is hot and humid here.  And due to our anti-AC competition, we are sweltering in our house.  But those cheaper electric bills are motivation enough (and so is helping the environment!!)

At least I have more hours of Tour De France watching every night for the next few weeks than I can handle.  I loved studying abroad in France and was there during the tour.  I went to the finish that year (second year Lance won) and I have been hooked ever since.

Right before I left work today I had my cottage cheese/dried fruit snack.  It tasted just fine, actually maybe a little sweeter than normal because the cottage cheese had a very pineapple taste to it.

After having my snack, I headed home and decided to lay out on our screened in porch reading my book.  (This is Chloe Does Yale which I left at the beach a few weeks ago and just got back).  I ate some mini frosted wheats with trail mix along with a seltzer water.  I had more frosted mini wheats and trail mix than I probably needed.

and more

I ended up falling asleep for almost an hour and then woke up and motivated myself to start dinner.  (I ate about 4 cherries while I made dinner and didn’t take a photo.)  I wanted something easy to make that used fresh produce and didn’t require much effort or a stop by the store.  I was skeptical about this recipe that I made up while I was going along and warned Justin we may need a backup plan (i.e. takeout) if this didn’t turn out well.

Recipe 

Oeufs Lundi (Just trying to be creative )

• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 medium carrot
• 1/4 cup of frozen peas
• 2 four ounce chicken breast
• 4 florets of broccoli
• 1.5 T of low fat sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1.5T of light soy milk
• 1/4 cup of water
• 3 ounces dry No Yolks Egg Noodles
• 3T fresh parsley
• 1 ounce of cheese
• 2T of bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Chop zucchini, carrots, peas and broccoli into fairly small pieces and place them into a Pyrex dish with the parsley.

Chop the chicken breast into 1/2 by 1/2 inch cubes and add them along with the egg noodles to the dish.

Next mix up the sour cream, egg, soy milk and water in a separate dish.  Pour into Pyrex dish and stir. 

Thinly slice the cheese (I used Maytag) and lay on top. 

Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top.

Bake the dish covered for 40-45 minutes.

 

Dinner

Dinner turned out amazingly well.  I sprinkled oregano, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes on top.  I served mine along with some arugula, 5 grape tomatoes and about 1T of Ken’s Light Blue Cheese. 

It was so good that I actually went back for seconds

 

Now I am just watching some of the Tour and contemplating going to bed very soon.  Hope everyone had a great evening!!!

 

P.S.–I am LOVING Windows Live Writer!!

Unfortunately work doesn’t stop because I am tired

The morning has been a bit too busy for my bleary-eyed liking, but at least it is now 2PM so only a few more hours at the desk.  I probably could have skipped my AM snack because I wasn’t really hungry, but I ate it anyway because I knew I was going to the gym and I was hoping it would give me some energy to get through the workout.

Workout
I went to the gym over lunch. I don’t know if anyone else has ever had this thought, but I got down in to the locker room and was unloading my gym bag and I had the thought “I hope I forgot a sneaker or my shorts or something so I have an excuse not to work out”. Is that as sad and pathetic as I thought it was when it crossed my mind? Anyway, I told myself to suck it up and put on the sports bra and break a sweat.

I did 20 minutes on the elliptical at level 6. Then I did 10 minutes on the treadmill at incline 8.0 and speed 3.5, and then I did 10 minutes on the bike at level 11 (out of 20). As you can tell, I kept needing to switch equipment to get myself through the workout! But once I was done, I felt pleased with myself that I made it through. It is amazing how that always happens. You never leave the gym thinking “Damn, I wish I hadn’t wasted my time doing that!”

I got in my car from the gym and Pearl Jam’s Yellow Ledbetter was on. So I knew when I got back to my desk that I would just have to watch this to make me smile.

Got back to work and my day has continued on just as crazy. At least 5PM should be here quickly. I have already started thinking about what can be the least labor intensive dinner I can make with the produce I have at home. I am so pathetic. If I don’t get 8 hours of sleep, I turn into a zombie. And having about 5 nights with 7 or less hours of sleep has turned me into the waking dead.

Lunch
I made a whole wheat wrap with a smear (you know, in my book that is a legitimate measurement) of hummus, about 1/8 of a cucumber, a slice of red onion, about 2T of carrots, and 1/4 a celery stalk.

All rolled up. Don’t know how I rolled it so small today.

Then I brought in the rest of the gazpacho from the Fourth. I would say there was about 1 cup of it left.

And the standard Kozy Shack no-sugar added tapioca (no photo necessary).

Blah, I hate sitting on hold when I have things to do!!! Oh yeah, and today is a soda-free day. This week I am only allowed a diet soda on Tuesday and Thursday. (I admit to consuming a soda every day this weekend). I have no idea what my afternoon snack will be. I have left over cottage cheese and dried fruit from last Thursday in the fridge here that I never ate, but it is looking a little watery and not so tasty, so we will see.

Terrible case of the Mondays

I am what we would refer to as completely exhausted this morning. I would have given anything to turn my alarm off this morning at 6:30AM and slept for say another….6 hours.

But alas, I must work. And this morning isn’t going nearly as low key and slow as I was hoping. I am actually having to be an effective employee. This requires for more caffeine.

Okay, recap of yesterday through this morning. I am ready to get back to normal blogging. I don’t like doing the 24 hour recaps!!

Thought I’d throw in a little photo of mom and I that I took yesterday afternoon:

I took a picture of Justin washing his truck without a shirt on but I think he may kill me if I posted it (he does look good though!! )

Lunch
Mom and I went shopping and such yesterday and stopped at the Piazza di Giorgio for lunch. I think the best way to describe the Piazza is as an upscale food court.

I got half a veggie panini with fruit salad. I took off the top piece of bread and ate it almost as a really loaded piece of pizza. It had chopped up zucchini, squash, spinach and feta. The feta was incredible. The fruit salad was really good too. A nice light tangy yogurt sauce that mixed very well with the crisp apples.

Sorry about the teeny photos. I used my camera phone and I have no idea why they are this small or reddish hued.

I also had a piece of mom’s pizza. It was the Tuscan triple mushroom (white sauce, I really am not a fan of tomato sauce on pizza) with spinach. Also decent.

After shopping we headed to the grocery store and then home to get ready for Lion King.   I had this as a pick me up—cup of iced coffee with about 1/4 cup of light soy milk.

 

We had fairly early dinner reservations at Chef Geoff’s. None of us had eaten there and were a bit skeptical because we thought it was in Georgetown and it definitely was up near American University in NW. I would be surprised that the neighborhood is still considered Georgetown. Anyway, it was in a VERY nice neighborhood and was a small restaurant with a really cute outdoors section, where we decided to eat.

Dinner
I started with a Dirty martini, vodka of course! i love my dirty gentleman’s martinis but my body is not a fan of all that sodium/olive juice!

and had a slice of multigrain bread with a little butter.

I got a spinach, goat cheese and grapefruit salad. That is a salad plate and the grapefruit is hidden underneath the spinach. The salad was okay. Not amazing but all the ingredients were fresh.

For my entree, I had the Sea Scallops with plantain tostones under neither, with a black bean puree underneath that and then 2 salsas on either side: tomatillo and roasted tomato. It was divine. The scallops melted in your mouth like butter. It was just an interesting southwestern/mexican flavoring. I was pleasantly surprised because I was a bit skeptical when I first ordered.  I ate almost all of it.

For dessert, Justin and I split the lemon-blueberry trifle. It had pound cake, lemon cream, blueberries and vanilla ice cream. To die for. Simply perfect on a summer evening sitting outside.

I also had most of this cookie that came with the bill, which I obviously did not need!

I thought it looked like a baby’s bottle, Justin said a bottle of wine (?!).

Afterwards we headed to the Kennedy Center (in the worst rainstorm imaginable!) and watched the Lion King. The costumes were beyond words. Simply stunning. Our seats were also incredible–3rd row (Thanks mom!). I would love to see this production again. You couldn’t take in the costumes/animals/set all at once.

When we got home, my stomach was growling a bit (how is that possible???!) so I had a little trail mix–nuts, Annie’s chocolate chip bunnies, and dried fruits. I also had half a cup of light soy milk.

I slept like a rock last night and really would have liked a few more hours of zzzzs! Instead, I dragged myself out of bed and showered, said goodbye to mom and had breakfast.

Breakfast
I heated up 1/2 cup of oats, water, cinnamon, little under 1/4 cup of liquid egg whites and blueberries at only 40% for 5 minutes. I loved the new texture!!! It wasn’t as liquid, almost clumpier like slow cooked oats. I stirred in about 1-2T Swiss no-sugar Muesli I got at the store yesterday with 1T of flax seed.

I also had a cup of my GFI sugar-free french vanilla coffee. I brought some iced coffee mixed with light soy milk to work in-case I really hit the wall.

Morning snack
The typical kefir but I added some cherries that were leftover from the Fourth.

I must drag myself to the gym over lunch but what I would really like to do is sneak out to my car and lay down in the backseat and snooze. Sigh.