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

Seafood Smorgasboard

It's almost the weekend, hooray! It's hitting the low 90s in the Windy City and it's supposed to be just as hot this weekend. Gotta love summer, right?

Thursday started off with two slices of Fabulous Flats flatbread toasted with two tablespoons of Ghee with one egg. I am not the world's greatest egg cooker by any means. I'd love to master the sunny side up or over-easy versions. Anyhow, my egg sandwich was mighty tasty, but my white nectarine wasn't as good as your normal fresh nectarine. I think I'll stick to those from now on.


I've been staying in pretty much all week, taking care of various household duties and freelance jobs. After a fantastic 45-minute routine on the elliptical trainer plus my usual 10 sets of 10 dumbbell routines, I decided a needed a break from being inside. I decided to head up to Whole Foods for both lunch and a few groceries. Lunch consisted of my usual Whole Foods drink, 365's Club Soda, a cup of minestrone soup, field greens with veggies and balsamic vinegar, plus a third cup of grilled pineapple and some cucumber and feta salad.

In the late afternoon, I was definitely in the cooking mood. I prepped shrimp gazpacho for dinner. You guys, shrimp gazpacho is INCREDIBLE! It's one of my favorites from Ellie Krieger's So Easy cookbook and it's loaded with protein. Lots of tomatoes, too!


On the side, I had two pieces of whole-wheat baguette and something I like to call "one of my Mom's coolest dishes," both literally and figuratively. Crab dill salad is just store-bought crab-style legs, chopped up into small pieces and mixed with dill, olive oil, and white distilled vinegar. Serve a third cup over a piece of napa cabbage and you have a lovely addition to any cookout or lunch. Tonight, this was my seafood smorgasboard!



I also prepped some kale chips for the weekend. If you've not had kale chips, you haven't had the best potato chip of your entire life. These babies are so much healthier too. All you need is some kale, some cooking spray and some sea salt, pop 'em in the over for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees, and voila!



I discovered this beauty of a recipe via Carrots 'N' Cake, one of my favorite health blogs. I am still unsure how these should be stored, for storing them in a plastic ziploc bag for a period of time steals all of the crunch away. Right now, I have them sitting in a bowl on my kitchen counter.

Earlier this week I discovered a recipe for Blackberry Rhubarb Buttermilk Cake via Two Peas and Their Pod and I couldn't ignore it. Lucky for me I had all the ingredients in my pantry already. I opted to try it without the rhubarb this once just to see how it stands. Here's a snapshot of what it looks like prior to cooking.


We'll see how it tastes when Ryan comes back from New York City on Friday evening!

Siggi's Vanilla Yogurt and I ended the evening with this week's Time Out Chicago issue. My totals for Thursday are:

Calorie goal 1,210-1,560: 1,494
Fat goal 32-57: 44
Carbohydrates goal 164-237: 211
Protein goal 60-128: 74