Camping Recap

Apologies for the delayed posts, but it's been a bit of a task reorganizing from our camping trip in Sawyer, Michigan last weekend. Lots of laundry and other necessary upkeep. But here we are! Happy August everyone!

I've been camping since I was a kid, doing a many girl scout trips in upper Michigan, so mine and Ryan's mini vacation was a piece of cake and a lot of fun. But it didn't start out that way. When we arrived on Friday, it was raining, and that rain continued on through early Saturday morning. We thought we'd be spending the remainder of the day reading and snoozing in the tent. Luckily, the sun arrived later in the morning and stuck around for the rest of the trip. We got in some biking and some quality beach time. We also saw the most incredible sunset on Saturday night. 

Meals were mostly on the healthy front with Smart Dogs, Overnight Oats in a Jar, Cranberry and Almond Granola, and some Roasted Red Pepper Hummus from Athenos. But I did indulge in a couple of smores and two Ball Park franks on Saturday. Our hobo packs with ground sirloin burgers, carrots and potatoes were almost a hit. We cooked 'em a little too long. But the corn on the cob turned out perfectly. All in all, an awesome trip! I could have stayed another day. We hope we can camp again sometime this fall.

Heading out ... It's the Weekend!

Well, no yoga for me this morning. I just couldn't get up at 6:30AM. But I didn't slack off, for I completed 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer. Operation Sweating Buckets was in full effect.

But prior to my workout, I had some Overnight Oats in a Jar for breakfast with some watermelon and blueberries. I also prepped a small version for one of my camping breakfasts this weekend.

In between some extra camping prep and blogging, I switched up my lunch for a light tuna sandwich with tomato on some Cybros multi-grain flatbread. For the tuna, I used one small can of Bumble Bee's albacore light in water and mixed it with two teaspoons of 365's light mayonnaise. Top with some mustard and you have a pretty nice sandwich.

I also added two cups of herby greens with three chopped slices of english cucumber and some chopped hard-boiled egg. Top with a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.

I can't forget about my cool iced coffee. I won't be having these during my camping excursion this weekend.

So I must bring this post to an end, for I'll be dining by the campfire tonight with some veggie dogs from Smart Dogs on multi-grain hot dog buns. Add a nectarine and maybe some cherry tomatoes with hummus, and it's a healthy dinner, camping-style. I'll be sure to document our trip come our return on Sunday.

The car is pretty much packed. Ryan is anxious to go, like right now, but work duties call for a few more hours.

You'll see we packed the important stuff. HAHA! I am a graduate of Michigan State University and absolutely adore my Spartans. Ryan graduated from the University of Michigan. It's a divided household for sure, come football season. I'm sure my love for MSU and Big 10 sports will be all over this blog come fall.

Thanks for reading. May all of you have an awesome weekend!

Overnight Oats In a Jar

My sister has requested me to post my version of Overnight Oats in a Jar. But before I get started, I must give a shout out to Carrots 'N' Cake, my most very favorite food and health blog, for sharing the recipe in the first place.

I've seen other recipes hosted across the blogosphere, but I've mostly stuck with Carrots 'N' Cake's, but making alterations as I go. Many use an almost empty peanut butter jar as a bowl so that the oatmeal can soak up the remaining peanut buttery yummyness. I sometimes include a tablespoon of reduced fat Jif.

The recipe as it stands now is at 393 calories. I'm still experimenting for other combinations, so I'll keep you posted.

Here's what I had this morning:



Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup multi-grain or old-fashioned oats
- 1/4 cup Red Mill High Fiber Oat Bran Hot Cereal
- 0.5 Tsp of cinnamon
- 1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- >1 Tbsp chopped almonds

Nutritional data: Calories 392.7, Protein: 14g, Fat: 10.6g, Carbs 80.8g.

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and refrigerate over night. In the morning, you'll have a hearty, cold mixture of yummy goodness. High in protein. A different spin to your usual oatmeal. Serves 1.

I am still thinking of other grains or dried fruits that might be good to use. I tried wheatberries a couple of weeks ago and those weren't so great.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Try SparkPeople's recipe calculator. It's the best!

Back at It

Arrrgh! Weekends are rough sometimes. Keeping up with my efforts in logging my calories doesn't always seem to happen. And having family in town and doing the various things families do when visiting a big city always takes over.

So yeah, I didn't count my calories or work out this weekend, however I did make my 5-day schedule, so I think two days off is a-ok. But food-wise I didn't go overboard and kept things lite as possible when eating out, like thai basil chicken on Saturday night dinner. I had a grilled chicken and mixed greens salad with apples, pecans and goat cheese with balsamic vinegarette on the side for Sunday lunch. Sunday dinner also saw some quality lean round burgers on the grill with some grilled corn on the cob as well.

But manic Monday got off to a rough start. I could not get out of bed to save my life. I just felt like meh all day. My meals also saw a lot of repeats, as I'm trying to use up some of my food before it gets bad. Breakfast featured my recent fave, Overnight Oats in a Jar.


Lunch also saw the last of my shrimp gazpacho, plus I added a herby-green salad with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar. Sweet cherries, too!


Ryan ruled the grill for dinnertime, whipping up some awesome catfish surfburgers, which we found on sale at Whole Foods last week. We served these burgers on some AWESOME sprouted seven-grain hamburger buns from Cybros and man are they tasty! They only have 130 calories and contain 10 grams of protein. YAY! I had two dill pickles and some mixed greens and mustard with my burger as well. I had to round things out with my dill crab salad on a napa cabbage leaf.


Our exercise of the day was a nice, three-mile trek (45 minutes) along the Lake Shore Running and Bike Path. What a perfect way to end the day, watching the sun set on Lake Michigan. I definitely missed this while living in New York City. Here are some snapshots from our ride.





Ryan, along with my best pal Siggi (Orange & Ginger), and I closed out the evening with some Criminal Minds episodes. My parents are *super* into this show and got me into it, thus I tivoed some reruns so Ryan could get acquainted.

I also went ten calories over my required count. Yikes. Oh well. Better than Friday's totals and better luck on Tuesday.

Calorie goal 1,210-1,560: 1,570
Fat goal 32-57: 48
Carbohydrates goal 164-237: 218
Protein goal 60-128: 92

Friday!

It's finally the end of the week! Friday morning kicked off with an awesome 90-minute Yoga session at Nature Yoga. I'd been away from my weekly class for two weeks and oh how I missed it. I'm sorta in love with Yoga. I also completed my first five-day exercise week! YAY!

I got back to my Overnight Oats in a Jar recipe (this one is with cranberries and almonds) for breakfast. It's the perfect dish in the morning, for it doesn't leave me too full or weighed down prior to working out. I did add just under a tablespoon of reduced fat Jif peanut butter to the mix, as many of the traditional Overnight Oats in a Jar recipes across the Web suggest storing your mixture in an almost empty peanut butter jar. It does make for a total of 488 calories. Still trying gage if that is an appropriate amount to eat first thing in the morning. Anyhow, upon my return home I grabbed a snack-size Breakstone's cottage cheese and had a nectarine for a snack.





I had a deadline for a press bio due that afternoon, so lunchtime came around 1:30pm. I decided to keep with my shrimp gazpacho leftovers and add some quinoa tabbouleh.




Come dinner, I headed downtown to meet some family for a lovely Italian dinner at Trattoria No. 10. I wish I had taken some photos of the meal I had, for it was presented in such a lovely manner and the taste was equally matched. I snacked on some whole-grain crackers and shared some grilled calamari with fava beans. I also split an arugula and granny smith apple salad with my aunt. My main entree was just as great, ravioli with asparagus and a sun-dried tomato sauce. You could also get your entree in an appetizer size, woo hoo! I wish more restaurants did this.

I ended up going over my totals for today, but not too terribly much.
Calorie goal 1,210-1,560: 1,632
Fat goal 32-57: 52
Carbohydrates goal 164-237: 242
Protein goal 60-128: 85

A new day and a new dish

A night's rain really makes it hard to wake up the next morning. I was quite comfy in bed when the alarm went off at 7am this morning. But breakfast was going to be good, for I was excited to try my first "Overnight Oats in a Jar" concoction. Here's the scoop:

Overnight Oats in a Jar
- 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1/4 cup Red Mill high fiber oat bran hot cereal
- 1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 1 tbsp of reduced fat peanut butter


I prepared it the night before, so the oats would soak up the milk and water. In the A.M., I had a cold, hearty oatmeal-like mix and it was mighty good. I also had a mug of Revolution Pear White Tea prior to diving into the Internet.

As I've mentioned before, I log my calories and meals via SparkPeople. Well today was my first day analyzing the nutritional data that went into my Overnight Oats in a Jar. After a bunch of fiddling around with measurements, various programs and other web research, I settled on SparkPeople's recipe creator. I was suprised to learn that my newfound breakfast dish was 528 calories and seemed high in fat at 16g. Protein nearly matched that at 15g, but I was a little bummed. But at the same, this was my first time figuring this kind of stuff out, and I decided I had the rest of the day to keep things healthy.

I had a job interview in the West Loop this afternoon, so lunchtime came very late. I kept with my curried butternut squash soup and quinoa tabbouleh. A glass of Rishi's Mint Rooibos gave me a bit of a break from water.


Come dinnertime, I also dove back into last night's leftovers of jerk chicken and cool cucumber salsa. Add a two cups of mixed herb greens, a few cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, scallions and basil, and voila!


I kept myself busy much of the evening with some well-needed kitchen cleaning. I think I'll close things out with a square of 72% cacao Ghiradelli chocolate and a stack of magazines.

I did skip my workout this morning ... but Friday is my day of intense Yoga. Back at it again.