Ringaling at the BELmont

This morning I woke up wanting to stay in bed ALL DAY LONG but since jobs frown on that kind of stuff, I made myself get in the shower and packed some 9 Grain Health for a pick-me-up. Really, I am OUT of most of my fruits, and a yogurt mess is just plain boring without 8 billion ingredients, so it was 2 slices of toast topped with 1 tbsp. Chocolate Dreams and 1 tbsp. cherry jelly for me!

Work went pretty quickly in the AM; lots to get done! For lunch, I did a last-second fridge grab and basically pulled out a few easy-to-assemble ingredients. My fridge is looking pretty bare, so I ended up with another Perfect 10 bagel topped with hummus and lemon peppered veggies on the side. At this point, I was sort of OVER the whole bread thing (can’t believe I am saying that!!) but when I debated going out and spending money on another meal and saving this one, I decided to just eat what I had, especially since the bagels are so filling.

Then I hit up cute boutiques for more sisterly birthday shopping. I didn’t find anything worth buying because I am the pickiest person ever and want to make sure her present makes her jump up and down screaming in happiness. I don’t think my expectations are too high, do you?! When I got back to the office, I dug into the second part of my lunch, a lemon Dannon Light & Fit yogurt topped with my remaining Farmers’ Market strawberries. Tomorrow is the FM again; perfect timing!! I’ve basically finished off most my fruits and roasted most my veggies.

I was still hungry in the afternoon so I had a Fiber One bar. I forget how low in calories those bagels are!! My whole bagel hummus combo was about 170 calories, so even with the veggies and yogurt…definitely not enough for me

This bar filled me up as usual! After work, I drove home through a sunshower; it hasn’t rained here in forever and the rain + sun combo was awesome and left a huge smile on my face!  Tonight I went to dinner with Katie Jo, Courtsie & Marissa for Courtney’s birthday. We hit up the Belmont, one of our favorite summer happy hour spots, for some drinks and good food. The four of us shared a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. Here’s my glass!

KJ & the Birthday Girl!

For dinner, I wanted to eat something super filling. Otherwise, I just go home and snack! I ended up getting a burger that I ate without the bun & cheese. It was delicious!! The four of us split the sweet potato fries on the side, but I hogged the pickles to myself

Happy Birthday Courtney!!! We love YOU!!!

girlfaces

Right now I am watching TV and contemplating sleep. I can’t believe it’s already almost Thursday! I have a very exciting weekend coming up…:)

Three Things for Wednesday

1. Skipped Ben & Jerry’s ice cream cake taste-testing at the office (I’ll just have a slice of the final pick tomorrow!!)
2. Ate my burger without cheese & without the bun and split my sweet potato fries with the table
3. No snacking at home after dinner

 

breadS

This morning I woke up on time, meaning I actually showered, YAY! I mixed it up for breakfast with a bowl of microwave low-sugar apple cinnamon oatmeal with 1/2 banana. I love how the ripe bananas get so sweet and fluffy!

After breakfast I did some work and discovered Google Reader. Yup, just jumping on that bandwagon!!  For lunch, I made a Perfect 10 bagel with 1 tbsp. Better ‘N Peanut Butter and 1 tbsp. Chocolate Dreams, with some frozen veggies on the side. I like the Better ‘N PB but when you are eating it at the same time as Chocolate Dreams, you just can’t compare!!!

I saved this yummy bite for last

After lunch I left the office for some errands and fresh air. The rest of the afternoon was taken up by a meeting with my favorite client! After they left, I ate the rest of my lunch, a salad topped with a lil Catalina Free.

I also taste tested a few Honey Wheat pretzels. My coworkers are HOOKED on these things!!

When I got home, my roommate surprised me with a big bag of leftover bread from her restaurant. YAY!! I immediately toasted a slice of 9 Grain Health and topped it with cherry jelly. AH-mazing!!

Then we walked to Target, which was a nice way to get my legs moving.  We got home around 9 and then I centered dinner around more bread, of course! I cooked up 1/2 portobello and some eggplant, pepper & carrot slices which I used to top one slice of bread and half a pretzel roll. The pretzel roll was topped with caraway seeds, which I haven’t tasted in so long. I forgot how much I love this flavor! Think I got enough carbs in this meal?!

For dessert, I am having my Skinny Cow with a side of Housewives. Dang Jersey girls!!! Danielle is not helping my state look good :/ Sketchball!!

Three Things for Tuesday

1. Added lots of veggies to my lunch
2. Saved part of lunch for an afternoon snack
3. Didn’t eat candy at our meeting (Swedish Fish & Sour Patch Kids everywhere!)

Almost hump day! I have a lot to get done tomorrow. Is anyone else having a busy week?? Hope it’s a good one

 

Bienvenue chez Laduree!!

Friday morning, I mixed up breakfast a bit with a Perfect 10 bagel topped with 1 tbsp. Chocolate Dreams and 1 tbsp. cherry jelly and 1/2 sliced banana. This breakfast held me over forever!! Must be all the protein in that bagel!

My boss just returned from a press tour in Europe, where he made sure to visit Laduree in Paris to get some famous, fresh macaroons to bring back for us! Here is a picture from the company’s site of the macaroons in all their glory…

Gorgeous, no?? The colorful box of sweets got quickly devoured and there were only a few left when I walked by at only 10:30 so I quickly snagged a coconut one and a piece of the pistachio before they all disappeared! My boss also gave me a bite of her caramel one, which was my favorite of the three. Sorry my photo is not nearly as pretty!

I worked through lunch and ended up making a Lean Cuisine veggie ravioli bowl and added a Green Giant Immunity Blend veggie mix to fill me up. It was awesome as always!

The day was a long one. I snacked on a cinnapple but I was too busy for a photo — I’m sure you can picture it by this point!! I worked at 110% capacity until the clock hit 5:15 and then I peaced out. I got home and met up with my sweet love Julia!!! She has been nannying in Laguna all week and I’ve been all on my lonesome

We settled down for some gossip and I had a little more than half this glass of my favorite white, Honey Moon.

Julia convinced me to get off my butt and we walked to Trader Joe’s to pick up some supplies for dinner — gorgeous, gourmet veggie pizzas!!  I brought a piece of red pepper for the walk to hold me over until our late meal.

Back at the apt., I made half white/half whole wheat dough and rolled out 2/3 to make one big pizza. My half had tomato sauce, cheese, eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms, red onions and fresh basil. Julia topped her crust-less half with tomato sauce, extra cheese, eggplant, zucchini, meatless meatball crumbles, red onions, basil and olives. Before and after!

We added lots of crushed red pepper, which totally made the pizza!! We ate our halves while watching the season finale of Gossip Girl. A lil behind, I know. I was dying when Chuck brought Blair her favorite treat from Paris at the end — the same macaroons from Laduree that I ate today!!!!!  I wish we didn’t have to wait for next season to see what happens

Last night I got the baking bug so I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies for Stephanie’s birthday. Best part about baking for someone else — you still get to taste test!  I had one of these cookies hot from the oven with a huge glass of milk, plus some raw cookie dough of course!!

Three Things for Friday

1. Added extra veggies to my Lean Cuisine
2. Measured out the cheese for my pizza
3. Walked to the grocery store instead of driving

 

Gucci Gams

I woke up late again and was racing to get out of the apt. I keep turning my alarm totally off instead of hitting snooze and then falling back asleep. Oops! I was only a few minutes late though, so no biggie. I was v. ready for my regular yogurt mess when I got to the office. Look at all that pretty pink!!

Today I wore my new (err old hand-me-down) Gucci heels I was telling you guys about!! Aren’t they sexaay?!

At lunch, I resurrected the Perfect 10 bagels. YUM!!!!! For anyone who doesn’t know, they are 140 calories (20 fat cals), 2g fat (no sat or trans fat), 9g fiber, and 18 GRAMS OF PROTEIN! If I can’t have a local NJ bagel, these are second best!!! I used 1 tbsp. Better ‘N Peanut Butter and 1 tbsp. PB Chocolate Dreams to top my toasty goodness.

I also had a mango on the side.

Thursday is Farmers’ Market day! I got some good fresh veggies with E. while we vented about work and grabbed iced coffees.

I couldn’t even drink half of this cause it gave me a weird caffine overload headache. I made everyone jealous instead with my piping hot cinnapple. Seriously jealous…I had to share!!

After work I hit the gym for a quick 30 minutes on the elliptical. I cut out early so I could get to the library and Fresh & Easy. I needed to go to Target too but I felt weak in the knees and just wanted to eat.  How could I not dig into my Farmers’ Market goodies for a yummy bake?? This bowl of roasted deliciousness included eggplant, zuccini, carrots, red onions, sweet potato, portobello mushrooms, and red peppers, topped with fresh basil, lemon pepper & salt. It was even better than it looks!

Dessert was a two part snack. Can you guess #1???

Yup, a little date with the cow. I was still feeling snacky so I had some fruit. MMMers.

Right now my tummy feels weird like I could be hungry but I think my stomach is just hating on me. Can you believe tomorrow is Friday?! My boss comes back tomorrow and I have a lot of work to get done. Then it’s the weekend again already!!I can’t wait til it gets hotter here so I can start beaching it up.

Three Things for Thursday

1. Skipped the chips side with lunch
2. Brought a Fiber One bar to eat before the gym but had my apple instead
3. Made my veggie dinner without any sauces or oils (au naturale baby!)

 

I Feel Home

Happy Friday everyone! Today I get to kick off my post with a lovely gift from the amazing Marisa at Trim The Fat — the Kreativ Blogger Award!!! Thanks Marisa for making my day, you rock

When receiving this award, you must list 7 things you love and pass the award on to 7 bloggers. Here is list of lovies!

1. my family
2. my girlfriends
3. my pets
4. the beach 
5. reading
6. breyer’s mint chocolate chip ice cream
7. hot showers

If only I could combine the last three, that would be really awesome.  Reading in the shower while eating ice cream, swoon!!! Thank you again Marisa! Everyone be sure to check out her awesome blog if you don’t read it regularly already

I am sending some blog love to a few of my faves. Sorry if you’ve already done this!

Balance is Best

The Chic Life

Foods That Fit

Daily Goods

The Long Weigh

Summer Slim

A Year of Healthy Eating

It’s funny, these awards are like a much more fun version of email chain letters LOL. Okay, on to Thursday’s eats! For breakfast I had the usual with cherry berry blend, 2 figs, 1/4 cup kashi, half cup puffins, half banana. Puffins and I are going to have to break up…more on that later, you will see!

We had catered meetings in the office again yesterday, so it was food overload. I decided to stick with my own lunch, but added this nice plate of fruit.

I also had a Perfect 10 bagel with 2 tbsp lemon cilantro hummus, half a green pepper, and the remaining crackers in my box of Kashi cheddar. I definitely could have used a few more of these, love ‘em!

For dessert, I had a bite of this chocolate bread my boss brought back from her business trip to NYC. It was good!!

A few more grapes made it into my mouth right before leaving the office! I skipped the gym in favor of cleaning. In between wiping counters, putting away junk, vacuuming & washing floors, I nibbled on some snacks and read a new girly book. I had some v. frozen edamame — check out that ice!

Plus a cup of diet hot chocolate & coffee. This was okay. I think for now I will stick to either one or the other!!

I also paused the cleaning for some dinner. Last night nothing sounded especially appealing but I wanted to make sure I had some veggies, so I went with a spinach, mushroom, red pepper, red onion egg beater omelet with a sweet potato on the side. I got impatient while microwaving the potato and pulled it out too early so some parts were a lil tougher but that didn’t stop me from chowing down, of course!

After dinner I treated myself to the one thing that had been on my mind all night…yes, pb puffins. I started out with a nice, normal 1 cup portion. The real trouble started when I grabbed the box and settled back onto the couch with the box & my book and started to mindlessly eat…

I CAN’T BUY THESE ANYMORE!!!! Seriously, I bought the box last night and it is almost gone. I am so annoyed at myself, and it’s such a stupid thing to be annoyed over. I know that a little part of it has to do with the time of the month — I tend to have one week of insatiable hunger and cravings. But still, all that aside, I just have no control whenever I eat this cereal! Maybe this seems like I am making a big deal out of nothing but it just feels very indicative toward my food attitude lately. What do you guys do when you need to curb back your free-for-all eating habits? Any advice is seriously appreciated!!

I brought the box of puffins to the airport so my mom could taste them and get them off my hands! Of course, she loved them too

I was SOOOOOO excited to see her! I got to show her my apartment and kittens and roommate, which is awesome. It’s nice knowing that now when I talk about all of these things, she will know exactly what I mean. She also brought me a box of the much coveted Dunkin Donuts MUNCHKINS!!! Some of my most perfect days have included long drives along the ocean in the summer early mornings with a DD iced coffee in one hand and a glazed donut in the other. HOWEVER, for some crazy unknown reason, there are NO Dunkin Donut locations in SoCal. Which means that these guys are a very rare treat!!

P.S. I love that the slogan is “America Runs on Dunkin.” UMMM California is in America too people!!! Okay, calming down now haha.

I made some nice homemade rooibos tea lattes for me & my mom and we cuddled on the couch and watched The Office & 30 Rock while munching away. Okay, much of the munching was by me, I must admit. And no, we didn’t eat all of these but I definitely had more than my fair share!

Tonight I am having a big dinner at my place so my mom can meet all my girls out here and vice versa! I have stocked up on wine, cheese, bread, hummus, crackers, chips, salsa, pasta, chicken sausage, eggplant cutlets…we will definitely be feasting tonight! I think there are going to be 8 of us all together. I’m so excited!!! Last time my mom was in LA, I had maybe 2 girlfriends? I’m so grateful to have met so many awesome people since then and I can’t wait for them to meet her!!!!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic FRIDAY

 

Crashed, then Smashed.

Thursday was quite possibly the most ridiculous day I’ve had in a long time. Started off with a dented bumper accident on the way to work — 100% my fault. The very first accident I’ve ever had or been in, so I had no clue what to do. At least I thought to get the other person’s insurance info!! On my car, the license plate got bended in a little and that’s it. CANNOT believe I did that; I felt so terribly!!

Breakfast sort of passed by in a daze…I had this Perfect 10 bagel with almond butter and a cinnamon apple without even noticing it.

Then I went to heat up a Lean Cuisine at work and found the fridge empty. YUP, someone ate mine by mistake. Really not my day. Luckily Thursday is Farmers’ Market, so I picked up a sweet corn tamale and ate that with a nice juicy red pepper half. These things are addictive, plus I love sweet corn times a million.

I also had some mushrooms that were supposed to top my LC pizza! Oops.

Then one phone call with my roommate turned my frown upside down when I found out that she could meet up for Mexican and Margaritas. THANK GOODNESS! Julia, Kate and I ordered 3 things to share — delish nachos, a steak quesadilla, and some chips w/pico de gallo.  Then we had one too many of these lovelies, house margaritas on the rocks with salt. Hello, heaven!

Since we were at a sports bar packed with guys, our waiter was a smitten kitten and brought over some shots. Two rounds actually. Which tasted good(ish, let’s be honest) at the time…but lead to froyo. Yes, packed with sweet treats.

Wait til you get a view of what’s under that fruit…

Hello, sugar overload!  I ate some of this before I was inexplicably (haha, yeah right!!) way too full and could not eat another bite. Thanks girls for saving me from my bad day yesterday and THANK YOU JULIA for being a saint

Happy Friday everyone!!

 

Fruitastic

Humpday already, YAY! For breakfast, I had another yogurt mess with blackberry yogurt, half banana, half cup kashi, and one cup mangolicious blend, plus coffee.

Since I had a dentist appointment at noon, I decided to have a coconut water and some grapes to tide me over until my late lunch. I missed my coconut water!

My tummy was growling though when I got back to the office around 2, so I toasted up a bagel with hummus and ate that with the other half of my tomato/motz/brussel sprout salad from the night before.

This salad definitely deserves a repeat!!

Later in the afternoon, I dug into my pre-workout fuel: a gala apple and pretzels dipped in 1 tbsp almond butter. I only had a flimsy plastic knife, so the apple “slices” are more like apple slivers!

I really, really wasn’t in the mood for the gym, but I sucked it up and pounded out 45 minutes on the elliptical before heading home.  I had a very crunchy pear while I was thinking of what to make for dinner…

I was craving some tortillas, so I decided to plan my dinner around them.  I mashed & heated up 1/2 cup black beans with some corn and salsa, then shredded 1/3 cup worth of extra sharp cheddar to top. I split all the ingredients between 2 La Tortilla Factory Tortillas.  I know I say this every time, but I love that these are 50 calories each so I can easily eat two!! It just makes my meal seem so much bigger. I popped the whole thing in the toaster for a few minutes.  Here’s the before and after

This was REALLY good, and healthy!! It’s amazing how a little cheese can really go a long way. For dessert, I had a repeat from last night: diet hot choc and a serving of pumpkin spice cookies.

Now I am just watching some TV before getting into bed. I am just having a BLAH night…hopefully some sleep will help. And it’s getting close to the weekend, whew!

One more thing, don’t forget to check out the granola giveaway @ Lucky Taste Buds!

AND Missy Maintains is offering an Erin Baker’s Wholesome Baked Goods giveaway!

 

Snacky Love

Ahh going to bed early was such a good idea! I felt 100 times better today. I decided to change up breakfast this once and had a Perfect 10 bagel with 1 tbsp almond butter, 1 tbsp cherry jelly and half a banana, plus coffee. Almond butter holds me over for so long, it’s crazy!

I have to read basically every magazine under the sun for work, and I keep coming across photos of yummy looking cupcakes. Don’t you just want to sink your teeth into one of these??  This issue of Family Circle has me thinking of hitting up Sprinkles or Crumbs this weekend for something extra indulgent

For lunch, I went to get my other 6 inch turkey Subway, and someone threw it out!! What?!? Luckily I had just gone to the grocery to get some fruit and pretzels to eat with my sub and had picked up a Lean Cuisine to keep in the freezer, so I had that instead.

My favorite 3 cheese veggie ravioli bowl!

So glad I got this pear and these pretzels to round out my meal

Then before heading to the gym, I fueled up with some grapes and popcorn.

At the gym, I did a strong 60 minutes on the elliptical. I made an awesome salad for dinner, with tomato, fresh motz, brussel sprouts, roasted red onion, basil & olive oil.  These mini motz balls are only 60 calories for 1 serving!!

I also made a Trader Joe’s chile lime chicken burger with sweet potato fries and a few kale chips. This whole meal was SOOO good!

For dessert, I was craving some ice cream but skipped the grocery store after work so I didn’t have any on hand. Probably a good thing because I can NEVER eat just one serving! Instead I dug into the pumpkin spice cookies that Diana sent me. NINE of these only have 150 calories!!! I had one serving with a mug of diet hot choc. The cookies dipped into my mug were oh so yummy.

Look at how cute the cookies are, shaped like lil pumpkins.

Right now I am watching the end of the Biggest Loser!!!!!!! I don’t want to spoil for anyone but whoa this is crazy!!!!!! Then I need to get to bed pronto…the lil extra bit really helps

*Edited to add!!

Check out this Pure Bar giveaway from An Apple A Day!

 

Rockstar

Sunday morning, I woke up LATE (for me, anyway) — 9:30! Then I realized it was spring forward time, and that I was actually getting up at my usual time, 8:30. Why oh why can’t I sleep in late?! I decided to make some pancakes, using whole wheat mix, unsweetened almond milk, egg white, and applesauce. Topped with extra applesauce, half banana, and 1 tbsp vanilla bean maple syrup. MMM, you just can’t go wrong with pancakes!! I love making them smaller and thinner so I can eat more of them too :)

This breakfast was just what I needed to fuel me through some errands.  Then I hit the gym for 45 minutes on the elliptical and a round of chin-ups, dips, and free weights. I was super hungry by the time I got home and made the most delicious lunch: an omelet made with 2 eggs worth of Egg Beaters, mushrooms, spinach, and red onion; a toasted Perfect 10 bagel with lemon cilantro hummus; and half a red pepper. Fresh & filling & EXACTLY what my body needed!

After my late lunch I headed over to Kate’s place for some primping and overall girly-ness before heading out to the main event. We sipped on this mixed white from Pancake Cellars that I bought for the label. Yes, if it has a fun label, I will buy

Luckily it was also really good! So good that the two of us polished off the bottle…We also had some of my favorite fairly healthy, 100% delicious crackers with extra sharp cheddar and hummus.

 

We did NOT go overboard on the cheese I am proud to say, despite the wine drinking. Our little munchies ended up being dinner, since we went right from Kate’s to a sweet loft in downtown LA with a great view of the city. Kate’s boyfriend’s band recently got signed to a label and they are in the process of self-filming/directing/editing a music video. For the party scenes, they got a bunch of us together to just hang out & dance, and then they filmed that! It was actually a lot of fun; we just chatted and listened to their songs and danced to them AND while we were there, we get a call that the song they are filming the video for was about to be played on the radio for the first time ever!!! How cool is that?! The band was so stoked; it was really cute to see. I can’t wait to see the final edit!

Man, I am TIRED though today. Happy Monday everybody! Hope this one flies by

 

Workin’ for the Weekend

It’s almost officially the weekend! Today for breakfast I made another yogurt mess with vanilla yogurt, half cup blueberries, half banana, half cup kashi and a handful of grapes. Plus my Fresh Market almond amaretto blend coffee. I am almost out of this stuff — boo!

By noon I was totally ravenous and toasted up a Perfect 10 bagel with lemon cilantro hummus. Plus a side of nice crunchy veggies!

After lunch, I treated myself to a tall skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte. Love that these are only 90 calories and sweet enough that I don’t have to add extra splenda!

I also snacked on one of my all-time favorite Larabars as a pre-workout treat. And to round out my lunch a bit, which was only 200 calories + veggies, I am now realizing! Good thing I added that latte too

Hopefully the latte and larabar will be enough to get me through til dinner. Not sure if I am going out to eat or cooking at home, but I wanted to stop in and wish everyone a happy happy weekend!!

I almost forgot! Today I got added to The Foodie BlogRoll and am listed under Most Recent Blogs!!!! Thanks to everyone who stopped by, welcome!!!