Do you know the muffin(wo)man?

It is hot here.  Humid and hot.  Glad we are escaping to Justin’s parent’s beach house for the weekend where we can enjoy AC without losing our competition.  Our poor kitty will toast back at home.

My hunger was off this afternoon.  I had my adora chocolate and still wasn’t too hungry.  Then I got slightly hungry, so I decided to have some of my Tribe hummus (about 1.5T)  and veggies (broccoli, cucs and a few slices of zucchini). 

Well, all this did was some how ignite my hunger.  I was hungry for hours (and unfortunately snacked too much.)  I had this on the drive home–half of a chocolate chip clif bar.

Then Justin and I ran around doing some errands and we stopped by 7-11.  I decided to get a small (12 ounces) crystal light slurpee.   Ugh!!!  I did not need to eat the Clif Bar or the slurpee.  But alas, I did….time to move on.  I just wish I knew if when I feel hungry, is it true hunger or am I just bored or what ever….does my body actually need those nutrients?

Dinner

Tonight I made Trader Joe’s Chicken Sausages with feta and spinach.  I simply wrapped this in a piece of whole wheat bread and topped with some dijon mustard and ketchup.  I cooked the sausages in the oven for about 12 minutes.

I also cooked an ear of corn.  I just kept the husk on (peeled off the silks) and soaked this in water.  Then I pulled back up the husk and put the corn in the oven for about 20 minutes. 

Lastly, I knew I needed to use the remaining polenta I had in the fridge, so I decided to make polenta fries.  I simply sliced up the polenta and covered it with salt, pepper and old bay (I think I used a little too much old bay.)  I then baked these for 17 minutes a side.  After they came out of the oven, we put vinegar on top of them to get the true boardwalk taste.

After dinner, I decided I wanted to make muffins to take with us to the beach.  And it also was a way to use some of the multigrain oats.  I basically just used the recipe on the back of the container except that I eliminated all of the oil.  The recipe called for applesauce, so I wondered why I also needed oil.  They seemed to turn out fine.  One batch I kept plain (okay, this actually was just the little bit of batter left.):

  

Then blueberries:

And lastly, I put a crumb topping on some.  This was just some more oats, some brown sugar, some cinnamon and some butter put on top.

I had a bite of a plain one

 

Time to get down to business.  I have quite a few things I need to do this morning if I want to be at PT at 7AM and then leave work around noon.  Pack my food for tomorrow, pack for the beach, finish laundry, do abs and shower.

 

CHARGE!

Satisfied

Do you ever have one of those meals that afterwards you think to yourself (as you lean back in your office swivel chair, take your hands off the key board and rest them on your enlarged belly), “Wow that was an amazing meal.  I should open a restaurant.”

I had one of those moments today after lunch.  Maybe it was just that everything perfectly hit the spot.  I started with not quite a 1/4 cup of quinoa (left over from Asian night) and mixed in about 6 pods of edamame, some spinach leaves, 1/2 of that TEENY TINY sweet potato and some cucumber.  I simply put some salt and pepper on top and this little ’salad’ was simply delicious.  I think the sweet potato made it.

(that is a 1 cup container)

Then I made myself a sandwich.  I used 2 pieces of whole wheat bread, about 1T of reduced fat olive oil mayo, 1 hard boiled egg white, some spinach, some sprouts and a few left over cucumbers. 

I had to use force to get this one all squished together

MMMMMM. 

Then this morning I realized that I forgot my pudding/yogurt.  Oh the horrors!!!  So I took a no-sugar added packet of hot chocolate (Swiss-Miss brand) that they have in the kitchen here at work.  I mixed it together with about 2T of hot water.  Then I added about a cup of cold water.  I put this into the freezer to chill.  It was amazing.  The water froze enough that it was like shaved chocolate milk.  That may sound gross to some of you, but I thought it totally hit the spot.  I forgot to take a picture, but I am sure there will be more of this to come (and it just looks like hot chocolate in mug)

Workout
I got to go to the gym over lunch!!  It was nice to be back.  My knee is very sore still from PT yesterday and I go again tomorrow.  *groan*.  I decided to do intervals on the elliptical (all these are set at an incline of 3.0).

Interval	Level	Time
Warmup	5	5 minutes
Hard	8	30 seconds
Easy	4	2 minutes
I repeated the above intervals for 20 minutes
Steady	6	10 minutes
Cooldown	4	5 minutes

Then this afternoon has just been filled with BIZARRE work request that I do not know the answer to.  And the problem is that no one seems to know the answer, so I have a ton of unfinished things sitting on my plate and I don’t know where to go with them.

And I saw this video while I was at the gym today and I could not take my eyes off the screen.  I hate watching tv when I am on the elliptical (no clue why) but this thing was so unique and just drew me in.

It is Royksopp – Remind Me

Have a good afternoon everyone.  I am not sure on my afternoon snack or if I will even have one.  I need to get a lot more fluids in me before I can eat more.  I have been really bad about re-hydrating lately.  Happy hour was canceled tonight (which I am both happy and disappointed about) so I am planning on packing, cleaning, maybe make some muffins, pack my food for tomorrow, and so on.  I have PT tomorrow at 7AM and now I am leaving again tomorrow at 12:30 and just calling into this meeting.  BUSYBUSY.

Successful Oats!

I finally got those multi grain oats from TJ to work right this morning.  *stands with chest pumped out gleaming with pride* They turned out wonderful and I think re-ignited my love of steaming hot oats, even on a humid morning.  I took 1/2 cup of the grains, mixed them with 3/4cup of water and 1/4 cup of liquid egg whites.  I threw in a handful of blueberries and 1/4 of a cut up peach.  Then I added almost 1T of cinnamon.  I microwaved them on 100% power for 2 1/2 minutes, until they almost bubbled over the top of the bowl.  Here is what they looked like when they came out of the microwave.  Almost looks like baked bread or something.

Then I let them cool off while I was getting ready.  Then I added 1T of flax seed and a splash of soy milk.  Then I gave them a good stir (and they turned nice and blue)

I was in oats heaven this morning.  Maybe it was the blueberries that made these grains finally work.

And I had my normal mug of GFI sugar-free french vanilla coffee.

AM Snack
For my morning snack, I decided to make a semi-trail mix.  I put in about 2T of kashi go lean crunch with about 1/2T of mixed nuts into a container.  Then I added some fresh blueberries and 1/4 of a peach.  Who knows if everything will get all soggy and gross by the time I eat this.  I guess I will see (and I am sure I will eat it anyway).

Then I poured out some plain Kefir to enjoy on the side.

The gym is definitely a requirement over lunch today.  Oh and I just found out that I cannot leave early tomorrow to go to the beach. GRRRR.  My boss is taking the day off so I must go play him and attend meetings that I normally don’t go to.  Who has late Friday afternoon meetings in the summer anyway??  You know no one can focus by that point!

And I think all runners would agree with this cartoon: