So Sorry! I'm back.

Warning: Killer long post ahead!

I apologize for not posting this weekend but my eating was rather erratic. I decided that Saturday was going to be a cheat day because a) I haven't had one in a bit, and b) I deserve it; I mean, I've lost like 10 pounds since the end of January.
So, for lunch on Saturday I had a giant bowl of cereal and it was wonderful! For dinner, Mikey and I decided to try out a new place! We went to Cactus, a Tex-Mex style restaurant where we were greeted with some salty tortilla chips and a pretty stellar salsa (I'm a chips and salsa connoisseur in case you didn't know). I ordered a glass of Sangria (I RARELY indulge in alcohol) and it was just alright. I would have liked it to have had other fruits besides just oranges and limes but I clearly just need to try my hand at making my own. Mikey and I shared a tiny cup of their Seafood Chowder which was loaded with rockfish, clams, corn, and more. It was creamy and delicious but pretty rich. For dinner I ordered the Butternut Squash Enchiladas because I had heard a lot of good things about them (Butternut Squash Enchilada- Crisp white corn tortillas with Jack and goat cheeses, sautéed spinach, roasted butternut squash, caramelized onions, manchamanteles mole and guacamole). They were quite good, but weren't at all what I expected. They were not in enchilada form, but rather a tower of layered fried tortillas, and the fillings. They were, however, super filling and I ate only half and had the rest boxed up. After our meal we were presented with a complimentary Caramel Flan by the manager since it was our first visit! It was so creamy and wonderful that I managed to choke down a few bites even though I felt like I was going to blow up from all of the food! After all that I still managed to finish off the rest of my meal in the wee hours of the morning before heading to bed.
Friday I certainly felt the effects of overindulging and woke up still feeling full. I didn't eat anything until dinner, but Mikey and I did go on a nice 5 mile walk around Greenlake in the afternoon where I took some pictures of the gorgeous cherry blossoms and tulips for my mom:

And a dorky looking photo of me in front of the lake with the mountains in the background:

For dinner we went to the Macaroni Grill where we were served a delicious rosemary bread with olive oil for dipping. I held off on the olive oil minus one taste, but could not hold back on the tasty bread! I ordered a soup and salad for dinner:

• Amalfi Chicken Soup- Slow-roasted chicken with garden vegetables and Parmesan-filled sacchetti pasta in a chicken broth with fresh lemon zest (420cal)
• Warm Spinach Salad- Fresh spinach wilted and tossed with prosciutto, roasted garlic, fresh lemon and extra virgin olive oil. Topped with toasted goat cheese (330cal)
• Bread (maybe 250cal?)

=1000ish calories for the day

Well today I decided to get back into the groove of things and started the day out with breakfast- SOUND THE ALARMS! Yes, *I* ate breakfast! A delicious, nutritious, and filling one at that! I had to get up SUPERRR early to finish up a paper and decided why not? By the way, the sunrise this morning was simply gorgeous:

My breakfast was a wonderful bowl of oatmeal:

• 1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (75cal)
• 55g banana (49cal)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (10cal)
• 1 tbsp Nuttzo (90cal)
• 1 tbsp Strawberry Freezerves (45cal)
• 2 tbsp Back to Nature Classic Granola (50cal)

=314 calories

After class, Mikey and I went to Specialty's Cafe for lunch. I got one of the featured soups which was Spicy Lentil Dahl. It was really tasty with great Indian flavors, but rather thick and I decided it would be better over some rice with a spoonful of greek yogurt. I ate only about a quarter of it, but took the rest home. I also bought a cup of fruit which ended up being less than stellar. I think the fruit was out of season :(. I ate the few pineapple pieces, strawberries, and grapes out of it and left the remaining 3/4 of the cup uneaten (the cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon). We stopped by Pasta & Co. on or way back to the car and I picked up some delicious pasta salad (Hazelnut Tortellini with Toasted Almond Slivers, Feta Cheese, Olives and Artichokes) to eat later. They had some samples out so I tried a chip with salsa, half a cracker with cheese and quince paste, and a bite of the pasta salad before I decided to purchase some.

• Lentil Soup (maybe 50cal?)
• Fruit (about 40cal)
• Samples (around 100cal)

=190 calories- I just wasn't that hungry; I guess it was the oatmeal from breakfast!

Dinner tonight was my leftover lentil dahl with chips for dipping, the pasta salad I bought earlier, a pickle (obviously Claussen- the best brand by a long shot), and a GoGo SqueeZ in appleapple flavor.

• Lentil Dahl (200ish cal)
• Pasta Salad (300 cal?)
• Apple sauce (60cal)
• 1 oz. Food Should Taste Good Multi-grain chips (140cal)

=700 calories

=1204 calories for the day

Cupcakes for dinner?

Last night Mikey and I went to see Shutter Island and it didn't get out until like 1am so I apologize for not posting. The movie was sooo good though! I totally did not see the ending coming at all! I highly recommend it.
Anyways, I had no pictures for my eats yesterday anyway, but here they are:


Lunch was my usual sandwich from Specialty's Cafe and Bakery sans the provolone cheese, mayo, and ranch, and Mikey and I ordered a cup of the Tomato Tortellini soup to taste. It came with a whole wheat roll that was delightfully sweet. We concurred that the soup tasted just like pasta with extra sauce! Yum!:

• "The Vegetarian"- Herb Bread with stone ground mustard, swiss cheese, sprouts, lettuce, avocado, tomato, red onion, cucumber, dill pickle, mushrooms, bell peppers, and pepperoncini (440cal)
• Few bites of soup with about 1/4 whole wheat roll (150cal?)

=590 calories

For dinner we went to Boom Noodle before our movie. I love Boom Noodle so much and get the exact same thing every time ha ha:

• Shiitake Soba- buckwheat noodles, shiitake mushrooms, inari, tofu, green onion, kaiware sprouts, tenkasu, dashi broth (I always guess about 700-800cal)

=750 calories?

=1340 calories for the day

Onto today!

My boyfriend Mikey and I have been following the Winter Olympics pretty closely this year and he fell in love with curling (LOL) so this afternoon, we actually went to Granite Curling Club of Seattle (which is apparent like the best in the country?) to try it out. It was nice because it's only about 5 minutes away and they were having an open house where you could go learn to curl for $10 apiece. I was SHOCKED to see how many people were there- I'm talking at least 100 and the classes were going on all day. It was especially incredible because they didn't have any sort of advertisement. It was just people, like Mikey and me, who saw curling on the Olympics and looked up a place to go do it.

Anyways, I found it far too cold and rather boring (I tend to like high-impact sports as I used to so crew), but Mikey really loved it and might actually join the Spring league! Hah!

It was really nice thought because they had snacks and drinks out and they even have a bar inside! I helped myself to a few snacks for pre-curl:

• a little sandwich pinwheel (maybe about an inch thick?) which included: turkey, white cheese, tomato, and mayo
• a small handful of Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips
• Some broccoli and carrots with veggie dip

=about 200 calories

Right after we finished we were both quite hungry and headed on over to the UVillage to find some foods! We found this great casual Italian place called Pallino Pastaria. We ordered an appetizer, which was actually an entree from the kid's menu (hah!), that was basically meatballs with honey mustard and BBQ for dipping. It also came with a little fruit skewer and some homemade chips:

I had two meatballs (which were so flavorful), most of the fruit skewer, and probably about half the chips.

For my "entree" I ordered a bowl of the Pappa di Pomodoro soup which was amazing! It was basically a really chunky tomato soup with some parmesan croutons. It also came with a nice hunk of bread which I happily used to mop up the soup. This is about half-eaten:

Thanks to my boyfriend for letting me use his iPhone for the pictures :)!

I'm not sure on the calorie count for this meal, but I would have to guess around 700?

=700 calories

On our way to the car we stopped in at Trophy Cupcakes and each grabbed a cupcake for later, which I ended up eating for dinner with a glass of milk because I am a glutton :p. I got the Chocolate Hazelnut- Valrhona Chocolate Cake with Nutella Buttercream Edged in Candied Hazelnuts. Oh my lord this was SO INCREDIBLE! I love Nutella so this was a real treat for me- so moist and chocolatey! The candied hazelnuts really put it over-the-top- easily one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth.

I would guess about 400 calories (sooo worth it!)

• Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcake (400cal)
• 1 cup skim milk (80cal)

=480 calories

=1180 calories for the day

Recovery

After all that rich food yesterday (see my Valentine's dinner HERE), today was definitely a day of recovery (and there were no classes today in honor of President's Day!). I got up late so I didn't eat breakfast, but for lunch Mikey and I went to The Ram because he really wanted their BBQ chicken sandwich. I opted for a Veggie Burger, which was really quite delicious, though I only ate half of it.

• 1/2 veggie burger on whole wheat bun with Tabasco, lettuce, tomato, and pickles (228cal)
• 1/2 side of Fireside Beans (130cal)

=358 calories

A bit later I was ready for a snack and decided to have the other half of my tofu/almond butter sandwich from yesterday.

• 1/2 sandwich with firm tofu sauteed in shoyu soy sauce, almond butter, cucumber slices, and baby romaine on toasted Trader Joe's Honey and Oat bread (220cal?)

=220 calories

I didn't get hungry for dinner until pretty late, and decided I wanted some sort of stir-fry. I've really been in an Asian food mood as of late. I remembered the Shirataki noodles that I bought at Whole Foods a couple of days ago and thought those would make a great base (these noodles are awesome; they are made from tofu and are only 40 calories for an entire package!). I sauteed some green onions, ginger, and garlic in some sesame oil and added in some veggies, tofu and in just a bit I had a great (SUPER filling) meal. The dressing I made for it was soy sauce, mirin, sriracha, and oyster sauce.

• 1 package shirataki noodles (40cal)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil (130cal)
• 135 g yellow bell pepper, sliced (36cal)
• 1.3 oz enoki mushrooms (13cal)
• 42 g carrots, sliced (18cal)
• 93 g firm tofu, chopped (65cal)
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce (35cal)
• napa cabbage, chopped (negligible)
• 1 tsp shoyu soy sauce (negligible)
• 1 tsp mirin (negligible)
• 1 tsp sriracha (negligible)

=337 calories

Despite how incredibly filling my dinner was, it was actually really low-cal and I knew I still needed a bunch of calories for the day (seriously, wtf? How is it that I have been having trouble getting enough calories?!). So, later I had some milk (a cute little bowl just for dipping) and cookies. Yeah, I gave in and calculated the calories for my cookies :(.

• 1/2 cup fat free milk (40cal)
• 2 TKO's (220cal- about 110 calories/cookie)

=260 calories

=1175 calories

Ah that's as high as I can go today! That's okay, it is a day of recovery after all.

Valentine's Prep and the Weekend!!!

God I love the weekends! It's so nice to not have to write a paper for one or two days :).
Well, I finished up my cookies today and can't wait to send them out tomorrow! Here's a sneak peak before I post them over on Spache the Spatula tomorrow:

Aren't they cute?


Anyways, my eats for the day all consisted of eating out, ha ha. But it's okay because they were super healthy.


Breakfast:
Munched on this bar in class:

• Clif Nectar Cocoa Dark Chocolate Walnut Bar (160cal)

=160 calories

Lunch:

We went to Specialty's Cafe and Bakery again today (this and Panera are our typical lunch spots) and I got my usual sandwich sans the ranch and mayo but today I also asked for no provolone cheese since it already has swiss on it too and I really can't even taste it that much. Next time I may even get no cheese at all.

• "The Vegetarian"- herb bread with avocado, sprouts, swiss, cucumber, mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, red onion, dill pickle, pepperoncini, and stone ground mustard (440cal)

=440 calories

Dinner:

After going shopping for the ingredients for the delectable (unhealthy) dinner I will be making for Valentine's Day at Whole Foods, Mikey and I went to Chipotle to grab din! I got my usual salad and it was AH-MAZING. I had some Food Should Taste Good Muti-grain chips on the side to dip in my guac and it was the absolute perfect dinner.

• My typical salad (570 calories)
• 28g multigrain chips (140cal)

=710 calories

=1310 calories for the day

A day full of baking

Well, I can say that I ate horribly today. But not because I ate a ton of shit, no. Because I ate nothing until 8pm. Buuuut! I have an excuse. It may not be great but it's because I was baking all day. See:


More on these tomorrow (they're still only half done).


Sooo, when I did finally get around to finding time to eat, I decided I wanted to go somewhere and get a humong-o meal. Mikey and I decided to go to Boom Noodle where I ordered a Small Mizuna Salad and the Shiitake Soba Noodle Bowl. It was sooooo delicious! I get the Shiitake Soba every time I go. This is the description from the site: buckwheat noodles, shiitake mushrooms, inari, tofu, green onion, kaiware sprouts, tenkasu, dashi broth. Yum! And the Mizuna Salad: fresh baby mizuna, bell peppers, cucumbers, baby lima beans, sweet potato chips, with black sesame vinaigrette.
I would say it was all about 1000 calories or so? I couldn't finish all of the Shiitake Soba (these come in humongous bowls) so I took the rest home and had it later while watching NBC Comedy Night!

So, only 1000ish calories for the day :/

Cheat Meal!

Alright, well I decided toady it was about time for a cheat meal :), so after class (around 10:15am) Mikey and I went to Brunch at the Portage Bay Cafe. I went all out for this meal and got the Dungeness Crab Cake Benedict. It was sooo good and rich. It was two crab cakes topped with sauteed spinach, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. I also ordered some whole wheat toast on the side. I did make one healthy choice and subbed the herb-roasted red potatoes with fresh fruit. This meal kept me full for the entire day until quite late when I decided I should eat some dinner.


Brunch:
I managed to eat everything except one slice of toast and half a crab cake, hah!

• Dungeness Crab Cake Benedict (800-900cal?)

=900 calories (worth every single calorie)

Dinner:

A delicious hummus, avocado, and cucumber sandwich and a bowl of fruit!

• 1 Arnold Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin (100cal)
• 25g avocado (48cal)
• 2tbsp TJ's Tomato Basil Hummus (45cal)
• 32g cucumber slices (5cal)
• A few leaves of baby romaine
• 207g peaches (76cal)
• 115g blueberries (60cal)

=334 calories

=1234 calories for the day

Well geeze, that didn't turn out to be much of a cheat meal in terms of calories. I really have a problem with allowing my self honest-to-goodness cheat meals and always end up compensating for them in other meals. I know this defeats the purpose of a cheat meal and I honestly want to be okay with "cheating" every now and again, but I think it goes back to my food/body issues of the past. It's certainly something I need to work harder at overcoming.

It's Superbowl Time!... well it was...earlier...

Mikey and I went to The Ram for the first half of the Superbowl to grab some grub and watch the game, and then just went home to catch the second half. There were some pretty hilarious commercials tonight! Also, AWESOME half-time show I love The Who and Pinball Wizard is one of my all-time favorite songs so it was pretty cool that they started their mashup with that one- ridiculously cool stage as well.


Breakfast:

Okay, I know vitamins don't exactly count as a meal, buuut as it was the Superbowl today I knew I would be gorging myself later on so I knew there had to be cutbacks somewhere.
My daily vitamin consumption includes:

• 2 Multivitamins
• 2 Fish Oil capsules (loaded with Omega-3 and is proven to expedite weight loss)
• 1 Vitamin D capsule (because I live in the very UN-sunny Seattle)
• 1 CoQ10 capsule (This enzyme is said to help aid in the treatment of migraines, heart failure, mitochondrial disorders, cancer, cardiac arrest, lowering blood pressure, and even prolonging lifespan. It's also naturally present in the body and aids in production of ATP.)

Lunch:

As I said, Mikey and I went to The Ram to catch the first half of the game, and while most of the food there is absolutely horrible for you, at least they have a nutritional menu. I started with a side salad sans the cheese and croutons (I really dislike processed cheese, especially on salads; it tastes like rubber). I got the "low-cal, low-fat" Serrano Grape dressing that I absolutely love because it has a really nice kick to it while still having a fruity edge- plus, it's only 60 calories. For my "entree" I got the hummus appetizer that comes with veggies (cucumber, green onion, carrot, zucchini, and celery) and some garlic flatbread which is unnecessarily, yet oh-so-deliciously drenched in garlicky butter. This happens to be the healthiest and lowest-cal thing on the entire menu as most items range from about 900-2000 calories (blegh!). It's actually pretty filling and I only ate about half of it (mostly the veggies) and had the rest packaged-up to munch on later!

• Side salad (90cal)
• Hummus Platter (378cal)

=468 calories

This is the leftovers from my hummus platter that I finished off while typing up my lab report this evening:

Snack:

Well, I finally gave into my chocolate cravings and made some cupcakes today! I tried to make them a bit healthy by using white whole wheat flour and skim milk in the recipe. Without the frosting they are actually fairly reasonable in terms of calories (130). They turned out excellent and you can find the recipe for these Decadent Chocolate Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting on my other blog!

• 1 cupcake sans frosting (130cal)
• a few tastes of frosting (50cal?)

=180 calories

Dinner:

I had my favorite sandwich ever for dinner. See this is what it looks like:

It's sooo yummy! I also had half a Claussen and some Greek yogurt with Pomegranate and granola crumbles. It looks pretty at first:

And then I mix it all up and it looks not-so-pretty hah (there I am in the spoon!):

• 1 Arnold Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin (100cal)
• 39g Cucumber (6cal)
• 1 Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese Wedge (35cal)
• Dill, dill, dill!
• Half a Claussen pickle (5cal)
• 3oz. Fat free Greek yogurt (45cal)
• Crumbled Homemade Granola Bar (195cal)
• 40g Pomegranate Arilis (27cal)

=413cal

=1061 calories for the day 

(not very much, but it's late and I'm tired; I guess I overestimated how much I would eat for the Superbowl today!)

Why can't all restaurants have nutritional information?

Really though... if the restaurant is a chain, I expect them to have a nutritional menu.
Tonight Mikey and I went out to dinner with his parents to Z'Tejas- a Tex-Mex restaurant. While the food there is nearly always excellent, I'm certain that it's horrible for me. I tried to cut back by counting the tortilla chips I ate and ordering a salad. All in all it was a lot of fun, and a few not-so-calorie-light meals aren't going to kill me.


Now onto the food!


Lunch: (No, I didn't eat breakfast today, so what it's a Saturday- that's my excuse anyway.)

I made my all-time favorite sandwich- Peanut Butter and Jelly! Only, I used Nutzo instead of plain, old peanut butter. Normally I only make half PB&Js with just one slice of bread and one tbsp of peanut butter buuutt I wanted a full sized sandwich today :D. I like to toast the bread to add another layer of crunch; plus, it kind of makes the nut butter all melty. My jam of choice lately is Strawberry Freezerves. I love it because the fruit in it has never been cooked or boiled; it's just really fresh fruit. You just store the jam in your freezer or fridge.
I also had a bowl of cottage cheese and peaches on the side. I love the combo of fruit and cottage cheese!

• 2 slices Trader Joe's Oat & Honey Bread (180cal)
• 2tbsp Nutzo (180cal)
• 1tbsp Strawberry Freezerves (45cal)
• 1/2 cup Fat Free Cottage Cheese (80cal)
• 95g Peach Slices (35cal)

=520 calories

Dinner:

Our original plan this evening was to go to Boom Noodle which I LOVE and feel comfortable ordering at because I know that the dish I always get (the Shiitake Soba Noodle Bowl) is healthy and low-cal, but a last minute change of plans led to Z'Tejas. Don't get me wrong, I love Z'Tejas and have eaten there countless times, I just know the food is calorie-dense and they don't provide a nutritional menu.

We started out with an appetizer of tortilla chips with salsa, guacamole, and a cheese dip. It was very good and I was sure to count the chips that I ate. For my entree I chose a mixed greens salad with a salmon fillet, walnuts, goat cheese, and a sundried tomato vinaigrette. The salad was quite delicious and, I thought, a very nice healthy option. Obviously these calorie counts are just guesses.

• 15 tortilla chips (200cal)
• 1tbsp Guacamole (25cal)
• 2tbsp Cheese Dip (50cal)
• Salmon Salad (550cal)

=825 calories

=1345 calories for the day