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

Plugging Along

Today was a pretty productive days with various odds and ends to complete. Only 48 hours until Steph Dogg and Mom descend upon the Windy City!

Breakfast was a refreshing bowl of Organic Flax Plus Multibran from Nature's Path, with strawberries and organic skim milk.


I made up for yesterday's laziness with a super-kickass performance on the elliptical trainer upstairs. I had various things to take care of this morning, thus my usual morning bike ride disappeared. But man, today's work out truly pushed me to the limit. I was screaming during those last few minutes. I think I sweated more buckets in those 45 minutes than I have in days. The velcroed stomach band also showed results, for I'm gonna get my tummy back in tip-top shape. I concluded today's work out with various dumbbells routines, completing 10 sets of 10 for a total of 100.

With my noon workout, lunch was also pushed back. The hubs and I headed to Whole Foods for a change. There, I had a cup of turkey chili, which was absolutely yummy! I added plenty of color from the salad bar too: edamame succotash, kale and cranberry salad, and a spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, red cabbage, and two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. I couldn't resist the lemon-dill tuna. It's definitely one of my Whole Foods faves, so I added a small portion to my salad. And a can of Club Soda completed the menu.



My hubs rocked the grill a second time this week for dinner and it was another scrumptious meal! Ryan prepped catfish surfburgers with corn on the cob. The corn on the cob was, again, to die for with it's parsley (from my herb garden) and butter and garlic mix. Add a herb-green salad and fresh basil (also from my garden) with balsamic vinegar and YUM!


Dessert came before bed, as I ended the evening with some of Siggi's Pomegranate & Passion Fruit yogurt with four strawberries. More on Siggi's tomorrow.

While my calorie count was above Tuesday's total, I still stayed within my required means for Wednesday:

Calorie goal 1,210-1,560: 1,503
Fat goal 32-57: 49
Carbohydrates goal 164-237: 178
Protein goal 60-128: 108

See you Thursday!